Avery King
02/12/15-02/18/15
Menlo Church Mexicali Mission Trip
On the night of the 12th, I brought my bags and pillow to the Menlo Church and piled into the bus with my church friends. We braced ourselves for a long 18 hour trip down to Mexico. Some of my friends who had gone on the trip before reminisced and enthusiastically anticipated reuniting with their Mexican friends whom they had served in the past. We made friendship bracelets to pass the time. The next morning we arrived in Mexico. Our day started out with breakfast and worship (as this was a Christian mission trip), next we piled into small vans in which we drove to small villages. My village was called Echeverria. It was small, run down, and clearly in need of donations. The houses were not real houses, the basketball hoop was netless, and it was hot! However, the locals did not see these flaws; they were only grateful for what they did have. They welcomed us with open arms and offered us homemade food. In particular, I bonded with two girls- Genesis and Jariza. These girls will always hold a special place in my heart. I take French so I do not know any Spanish (there were translators among us, but I did not use them much). Even with the tall barrier of language, I was still able to make strong, lasting friendships with these two girls. In terms of service, we brought loads of donations to these people (such as sports equipment, toys, food, etc.); we also built them a sidewalk and helped them clean up their church area. Even though we donated things and time, the Mexicans gave more to me than I gave to them. I learned so much about faith and gratefulness from these people and I am so blessed to call the people in Echeverria my second family.
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