ENTRY 3: MEXICO

Tomorrow we head into the slums. For the past week we’ve always had the reassurance that comes from the comfort of knowing that at the end of each day we can return to our well-to-do hotel room on the ninth floor of the Rosarito Inn. A few hours from now that all changes as our life becomes a little more similar to those we came to serve. I’m incredibly excited about the experience. While the last week has been amazing, it has felt largely like preparation for what is to come. So many things have fallen into place to make this next week happen that convince me it is anything but coincidence. Incredible connections with local pastors have meant we have accommodation and projects that will carry us through to Thursday when we head back over the border into San Diego.

Tonight we fare-welled the rest of the Global Tribe team who will head back to New Zealand tomorrow. What an amazing crew of people! They came from Miramar Baptist, The Rock, Blueprint, New Plymouth, and from the various states all across the USA. They have been an incredible support. To see them off we went out to dinner. Good times.

Yesterday saw us finish the school classroom we’ve been working on. By the time I arrived the room was largely finished, just a little plastering to do. We celebrated the event with many students and teachers during a fiesta held early in the evening. Hundreds of kids lined up for yet another meal of tacos, a piñata competition, and various shenanigans involving water balloons. The kids have without a doubt been one of the most moving things about this trip. They have a child-like faith which is infectious to their whole community, and are some of the most photogenic people on the planet as demonstrated by the image nearby.

I was incredibly honoured to be asked to lead the dedication of one of the new houses on Wednesday evening. James (a zeal kid and one of my closest mates) got the privilege of handing over the keys to their new owners. Awesome!

Something key for me on this trip has been re-embracing a child-like understanding of who God is. I so often become bound up in the complexities of church doctrine and theology only to find I’ve missed the point entirely. Anthony Walton (Global Tribe CEO) put it perfectly on our first night here in Baja when saying (paraphrased),

“Come here simply to serve, if you come to serve your pride can’t be bruised and your ego can’t be damaged. Humbly lay yourselves down for these people and consider them more significant than yourselves.”

On our first day here I took a photo of a piece of street art. I never realised the significance of what God was doing until a couple of days later. The verse at the bottom of the painting reads this:

Mark 10:13-15
“Some people brought their children to Jesus so that he could bless them by placing his hands on them. But his disciples told the people to stop bothering him. When Jesus saw this, he became angry and said, "Let the children come to me! Don't try to stop them. People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God. I promise you that you cannot get into God's kingdom, unless you accept it the way a child does."

Bless you all. I may well be away from any contact for a few days.

Will post again as soon as possible.