a little taste of mexico
so mexico was one of the most impacting / life changing experiences i have ever had.
i went down there thinking that we were going to go and help people and we are so great for going down there and helping those people. but what happened was completely different. i think that i benefitted more from those people, from the smiles on their faces when we gave the orphans a simple toy, when we gave the families a bag of rice and a bag of beans, when we prayed for them, than how much we did for them. yes, we helped them and prayed for them which is wonderful, but they taught me so much more. They showed me Christ. To us it looks like they have nothing, but they have so much more. they have nothing else to rely on except the Lord, there is no materialistic boundaries between them, so they are in a way more blessed than us. But as i was there in Mexico i was just wondering, kind of asking God why, why i deserve to be born into a country with such wealth and why i have so many blessings in my life that these people are deprived of. And the reason is because i have a calling on my life. God didnt give me these blessings to sit here and say awww look i have stuff, look how good hes been to me, let me sit here in revel in it! No, i believe that the reason is so that i may take what he has given me, and turn it back to praise him. Like the song says, "every blessing You pour out, I turn back to praise." I dont want to shortcome that calling. i dont want to be selfish, i dont want to forget what ive learned in mexico. I want to ALWAYS remember what i saw and the faces on the people i saw, as they went up and gave their offering at church with the little money they had. Those people, with barely any money gave, and we with so much sit and have such a hard time letting go and giving of our money. it just really opened my eyes and changed the way i see everything.
just thought id share some of that with you and hope you read it, and maybe itll impact you in some way too.
two brothers in the first orphanage. the older one stole my fully committed bracelet :(
jessie talking to some little kids
one of the churches we went to
doing our drama at the church made of cardboard
mandi and i at the blue church
lakin face painting a little boy
the cardboard church and all the kids that showed up
i love this picture. some little boy when we were talking to people at houses. his mom was holding his face. we gave him bubbles
some house. wow. makes me so grateful, and thats not even THAT bad compared to some
this church was made of CARDBOARD. seriously, just wow.
ahhhhh. WAY too cute. this was the perfect pose. at the widows night we went to. she was holding that cute little girl
another house
OH MY GOSH. how gorgeous. muy muy bonita
this little girl is be-a-utiful. her name is elizabeth. everybody LOVED her. she wasnt an orphan and she actually spoke some english
this little hombre got mad cause he got fussed at cause he was hitting somebody
me and bryan. I LOVE him. we played a game where i tried to get him with that light saber thing. <3
bryan. looooooooooveeeeeee
those are just some of my pictures. so much more happened in mexico.
- crazy burning from mexican bell peppers. some kind of acid 10Xs as strong as icy hott and bengay on my skin. crazzzyyy
- praying for this mexican girl and then another one of the mexican girls came and prayed with me , and thats when i realized how much they had touched me. it was awesome, it was like there was no language barrier.
- clogging a toilet with girl products. plunger. : D
- bonding with kelli again, which was awesome.
- mr.paul aka pablo loco giving me the name le le go poot poot
- you my people
- showering with shoes
- not being able to flush toilet paper
- tons of mexican food
- MMMM DELICIOUS MANGOS
- people dying their hair red and blue
- the orphans
- a family lived in a school bus
- 107 degrees
- mmmmm sweat
- the mexican water park that costs $4 to get into. had 1 working slide. at one point we all went down at once, one right after the other. and the girls that went first got stuck cause they were like on top of one another. so EVERYBODY was clogged up on the slide. it was HILARIOUS, and we have it on video tape : D. one poor guy jaret busted his chin open on the slide and had to get stitches though. you know hes not gonna forget mexico.
- my camera died on the second day : (. and i FORGOT my charger at home, which is so unlike me. and im such a huge picture person. i was so upset. so im gonna have to get some other peoples' pictures too.
many more. this is mostly for my own memories, i dont like to write things so i figure ill type them in here. its like a diary minus my hand hurting from writing everything down
it was amazing. check out the other pictures on yahoo.
p.s. my challege to all of YOU. take these pictures to heart. take time out of your day to think about people less fortunate when you go to complain about something, and you may just notice how petty some of our problems see. i would encourage everybody to do something like this as well, you realize just how spoiled and selfish we all are/can be. think about it.