Having been on two previous mission trips outside the US, I had some expectations about what this trip would entail. I was expecting the typical cookie cutter trip of building a house and running a VBS. This trip has turned out to be about much more. It´s been about building relationships, be it eating breakfast with the neighbors every morning, packing 10+ people in the trunk of a van, or eating a late meal with the missionaries and laughing so hard we cry. Over these last few days I have truly lived the day to day life of a missionary.

Already I have learned so much from our neighbors. Our host works night shifts at a restaurant in downtown Mexico City, so Brian, Alex, and I often find outselves next door at his neighbors. The family is also from the church and they are beyond hospitable, bending over backwards to make us meals, letting us use their computer, and doing our laundry. They have a son named Alex, who is about our age. He has truly been a blessing and encouragment to us all week. He spends almost every moment walking around with us, helping us translate, and always lending a hand. I have really learned alot from his willingness to help us in whatever situation.

The Mexican people as a whole have just been extremely hospitable and loving to us. This trip was not neccesarily about just our group ministering and having an impact on the people here, but more about learning and growning together as we build relationships and encourage each other in the faith. We have learned alot and been blessed by these people. I pray that God will continue to use us to encourage them as much as they have encouraged us.

Hello everyone! We are all having a great time here in Ixtapaluca, Mexico! We´ve been staying busy with music lessons and ESL lessons everyday. Another huge part of this missions trip is relationship building, and we have had alot of time set aside to spend with familes down here.

Friday night was the biggest event of our trip. The church here, Sendero de Vida, put on a huge block party. The streets were blocked off and people were dancing in the streets to the music. The show started off with 2 bands, each of which shared the Gospel in between songs. Our Lighthouse band was up last, and we didnt get up till around 11:00 pm. The show was a blast. Me and Drew Bagwell would run off stage to dance with the niños during a few songs. Cliff convinced me to wear my newly purchased Nacho Libre-esque wrestling mask on a few songs. Needless to say, it was a big hit with the niños. We also made friends with a local stay dog, whom we aptly named Chuck. The night was a success and a ton of fun. Testimonies were given, tracks were handed out, and God´s love was shown to that city. One man came to know Christ that night too!

God is doing great things here through the ministry of Rod Fry and the Church of Sendero de Vida. I will be sad to leave this place and the relationships I´ve formed with these people here, but I am excited to bring back all of these things I´ve learned over the past week. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Bienvenido from Mexico! These past few days have been filled with new friends, new experiences (Nikki Smith and I ate cactus for breakfast the other day), and God´s presence. His Spirit is moving here in Mexico City and I´m so excited to be here to witness it all, to see Him alive in the hearts of these people. To recognize that we serve the God of all languages.

For the past few days, I´ve been part of a team teaching English classes to some of the people in the community. Many of the participants are children. They are full of energy and laughter. Joy. It´s been a lot of fun learning how to connect in ways that might not always involve language. It´s interesting how much you can say when two people speak very little of the same language.

There´s one gentleman named Rene that has been coming to English classes all week. Since travelling to Texas regularly for work, he can speak a good amount of English and just wanted practice his pronunciation and conversational abilities. On Monday, our conversation was a conglomeration of US pop culture and knowledge. He began by asking us questions based on what he knew of America- John Calvin, Lee Iococa, blue cheese, the Ford Mustang, the Presidential election, and greenhouse farming. As Jaime and I continued talking to him throughout the hour, we learned that the language lesson was so much more than an instructional- through conversation, we were able to share our lives with him as well.

Right before he left, Rene asked us if we “could feel the joy”. After a minute or two, Jaime and I both realized that he was referencing an old Coke commercial, and actually meant to ask if we were happy and having a good time here in Mexico. But the question stuck with me. Am I making a conscious effort each day to feel and harness the joy that I know because of Christ? So often we all get so caught up with what we’re lacking in life, that we forget to recognize that Christ is more than enough to satisfy. Despite disappointments, discomfort or even boredom, Christ lives in me. And that should be all that I need to give me the joy that Rene was talking about.I know this. You probably do as well. But I want to live it. I want my joy to be contagious in every circumstance, here in Mexico and as I continue walking through life. One could do worse than asking this question every morning.

English. Because of my birthplace, I was bestowed upon the richest, strongest language in the world! Monday afternoon in Mexico we started our first English (as a Second Language, ESL) Class. We had no idea what to expect. During our Sunday night concert we’d advertised by passing out 900+ flyers. Rod had said he’d expect somewhere around 20 people the first day, and possibly 100+ by the end of the week! But as our time progressed that first day, with ten of us hablantes ingleses anxiously awaiting, only 5 people showed up to our first class. At first I know I was discouraged by the turnout, but as I was able to talk and work with each student (as many questions from the other workers were filtered to me to translate) I realized that God gives us only what we can bear, and that there are no coincidences. Each of our students thus far is amazing and we have enough so that we can each invest and get to know them on a level more than just teacher-student.

In addition to the blessing of the ESL, the family that Stef and I are staying with doesn’t speak a lick of English! In fact our first night here I went to bed with a sort of headache because I had been spending all my energies that day translating from one language to the other! It’s great how God picks up and fills in; in some of my conversations, I don’t even remember learning some of the Spanish words/tenses I’m speaking and hearing! Our family is great, when we get back, you’ll have to ask Stef and I about Jose, Adriana y Axel - our host family. They’re great and have been spoiling us so much with their amazing hospitality. I’ll also have to tell you about Laura, my new friend from Colombia who has killer hair! The issue now is that I could write a book, just about the first 3 days!

Basically, from my experiences here thus far, I guess I am just seeing more and more how much God himself has spoiled me! I was born in the richest country, live with some of the best comforts, but more than anything, am native to the most powerful language that others would give their right arm to learn! Ademas, here in Mexico, the God of all nations who speaks every language and is the sovereign over all has been able to take care of me too! God is great and God is good - no matter what country you might be in!

There is so much worth mentioning from this trip to Mexico! One of the first things that I realized in Mexico City is how truly hospitable people tend to be. This is something that everyone in our group has been noticing. Drew, Brian, and I are staying with a David, a member of the local church. He normally works at a restaurant for most of the day and he has given us nearly free reign of his home. He even invited us to ¨have a party¨ here…so long as we invite him! David´s neighbors are also members of the church, and they have been very open to us as well. They actually invited us over for breakfast almost as soon as we met them our first night here!

Another thing…the food here is amazing. I had no idea how fantastic the food here is…it´s unreal! I am slightly bummed out because I don´t think I will ever be able to enjoy Taco Bell again! There is a taco stand that we found on the street and I am pretty sure I want to eat there every day!

One of the biggest outlets for the ministry this week is through music. We are playing a couple of concerts over the week, and giving free music lessons to people that would like them. This has been going great… On Friday we are going to be playing a concert in the city. There are posters everywhere advertising for it and a huge crowd is expected to attend.

Please pray that the rest of this week goes smoothly and that God might use the concert and anything else we do to impact the hearts of the people here!

For never having been outside of the United States in my 25 years, Mexico City has been a great start to a future, hopefully full of traveling and serving the Lord in as many ways as I can. When I thought of going on a missions trip to Mexico, I thought it would be a great opportunity to be able to serve others and to show the love of Christ to a world beyond our own. However, my eyes have been opened greatly. The service I have received from my host family and the community itself has been overwhelming. They have bent over backwards to make sure we are all comfortable in every aspect of our daily living from eating, sleeping, speaking Spanish (or lack thereof), and more.

On Sunday, during a late night conversation, I learned that my host mother (Claudia) has been recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She has already had a mastectomy and completed a series of radiation therapy treatments. In January, she will continue to fight the fight while undergoing chemotherapy and dealing with the effects of the drugs traveling through her body. While dealing with the diagnosis of breast cancer, she also takes care of her husband and four daughters (2 biological and 2 temporarily adopted missions daughters, Jaime and me). God is amazing in the way his power and majesty works. I am presently in the field of radiation therapy and am thankfully able to relate to what she is going through. Lord willing, God can give me insight on how to serve her and her family as she continues to live life as normal as possible. With all of the Lighthouse members being ‘randomly’ placed in different homes, God has made no mistakes in pairing us with our host families. Even though we may not see the work we are doing at the moment, God’s will surpasses all our understanding. Please pray for our team and my host mother (Claudia).

Jaime Davis:

We’ve officially arrived in the heart of Mexico. From the very beginning the differences were very noticeable. The ride to our host home we saw first hand the poverty of the country. From stray dogs to make shift walls for homes, we saw it all. We took a random turn off the highway to a bumpy dirt road, under a short overpass, and into a small town of Santa Barbara. The town itself is full of close knit homes and buildings full of speed bumps do to the lack of a speed limit. Small tents full of fruits, meats and clothing is not an unusual site on the side of the road.

The first couple of days were rough. The language barrier is much harder to get over than I expected. Our group and the natives fumble as best we can through the little Spanglish we know. Sunday morning was an amazing experience for me. We worshiped with Rod’s church family. Although the songs were in Spanish, there was something powerful about the whole experience. I could really feel God’s presence in the church. For most of the songs, I had a general idea of what the song was about, but singing in a different language opened up a new way of worship to me. We are usually limited to a single language, but God understands all. The song that touched me the most said, “Tu Palabra viva, hablado a mi.” Your Word lives, and speaks to me. He heard all of us worshipping even though we didn’t necessarily understand it ourselves. After church, we had an amazing pot-luck lunch with the church. The food is an experience in itself and we’ll leave it at that. Muy delicioso.

After Sunday, I feel that Nicole and I had a major breath through with our host family. We are staying with Alberto and Claudia and their daughters Karla and Naomi. Alberto and Claudia know some English, so it’s been difficult and awkward trying to have conversation that moves past the surface level. Last night, God really opened my eyes to why we are staying with our host families. Claudia, Nicole and I all started talking and amazingly it went further than, “Hello, How are you?” We found out that our Mom is sick and ended up having a conversation in Spanish about Cancer. Claudia would talk to me, I would talk to Nicole, Nicole would talk to me and I would translate as best I could back to Claudia. It was amazing. I love how God works in situations like this. Right about the time that we are getting frustrated with the language, God knocks that wall down and we just connected.

It’s exciting to see how God is going to work through this group. We’ve got much more to see and do and I’m sure the stories will be great.