Extreme Mission Testimony

This testimony comes from a teen who had the opportunity to watch God's miracles, many acts of kindness & and salvation......awesome!!

After I decided I would go on this mission trip to Mexico, I didn't know what to expect.

This had been my first mission trip to another country since I was 2... When we first arrived in Mexico it was hot; though not as hot as our church has previously experienced in Mexico (over 120 degrees!!!).

Our team met up with several other churches across the U.S. during the first few days of our trip at a hotel where we were to receive from God before we were to go out and evangelize to the people of Mexico...

I met several amazing people those first few days and made many new friends. After that, each team was sent out to different locations across Mexico. The rest of our trip involved two large vans, hours of driving and priceless acts of love.

Our team's location was Nuevo Casas Grandes. For most of the 15 hour drive to Nuevo I had one cheek on the seat and the other on a guitar case - uncomfortable.

Our first acts of the love were seen at the different stops we made on the long drive. We prayed for several people at various gas stations and border checkpoints. We even gave one man, who hadn't eaten all day, extra burgers we amusingly received at a restaurant we previously stopped at - we thought they messed up our order, but they didn't, God did.

As we drove deeper into Mexico we started to find ourselves placed in more and more situations in which God wanted to use us. While we were driving that afternoon, one of the girls in our van started to get a migraine. The pain was so bad she started to cry and we had to stop because she needed to vomit. We prayed for her while we were in the van and right there in the van she was healed. She didn't get anymore migraines during that trip. Ever since then, I actually haven't had a migraine either. I used to get these headaches frequently, but I haven't had one in more than a year now.

We arrived at our destination in the middle of the night. The camp was amazing. I got to sleep out on the porch of a cabin and there were NO mosquitoes. . .  imagine that! I could sleep outside and not be removed of my flesh.

As I slept I could look out over the hills and watch the heat lightning strike. The wildlife was fascinating. We saw roadrunners, giant turtle-like frogs (we called them “turtle frogs''), massive beetles, fire ants, and these flying grasshoppers that were so big we thought they were birds.

For the next week we were to minister by handing out food supplies, hosting a Vacation Bible School, painting desks at a local school, washing the feet of the elderly, and hosting a sports tournament.

My greatest experience during the trip occurred during the Vacation Bible School that we held in Nuevo Casas Grandes:

As we just finished setting up and got ready to start the VBS one of the leaders (whom I had only known since the night before) walked up to me and mentioned a man outside to whom I could share the Gospel with. It wasn't a command he gave me, it was a choice...

I did my best not to give myself a chance to think about it and said "OK" nervously. I walked outside with him and he pointed out the man. I walked up to him with my leader following along next to me. So I began to share with him the message of Jesus Christ. I had no idea what to say and was very tense in the beginning. When I was finished I asked him if he'd like to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior. He accepted gladly with a big smile; it's amazing how much the poor are open to Jesus and the hope that He brings. We said a prayer together and his name was written in the Book of the Life right there in that moment: Oscar. He looked at me with a huge smile and pointed down at his arms. The hair on his arms was standing straight up and he smiled saying he felt something that he had never felt before (hint, hint, Holy Spirit).

It wasn't until about an hour later that I realized what I had done. I was sitting in the van outside making some PBJ'S when my group's leader, from our church, walked up to the van and looked at me with noticeable tears in his eyes; I have never seen him cry before. He repeatedly said to me "I am proud of you." That's when I realized how much God had just worked through me. All I really had to do was allow God to work through me.

I had to sort of ''step out of the boat'' and then let God do the miracles. Right then in that van, I felt the ultimate peace come over me. This peace came in knowing that what I had just done was the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Through all of this we have to remember why we love others and why we choose to lay down our lives for others. What is it that compels us to have compassion for other people? We love others because we realize that God loves us far more than our finite minds can comprehend.

"We love because He first loved us. '' 1 John 4:19