By Michael Chase, High School Student
Being a Christian doesn’t simply mean sitting in the sanctuary, worshipping Christ, and listening to Pastor Ben give another uplifting message. Actually, being a child of God means serving Him in all aspects of our lives at all times. There are many ways to serve God, and one of the biggest ways we can do this is by serving others and expressing the love of God through our words and actions.
When opportunities come up to serve others, God calls us to jump on them. In September, the youth group was presented with the opportunity to serve our friends in the Mexicali Valley. It was a no-brainer; God had called us to serve Him by serving the incredible and loving people of Mexico. As a senior, I knew this would be my last chance to join the youth group and connect with the amazing families and various people of Mexico. My previous experience had been unforgettable. The faces of the kids were etched into my heart forever, and there was no greater gift than knowing that all the hard work the team had done was paying dividends throughout the communities.
Perhaps the most obvious outcome of mission trips I’ve observed is that the whole group works together during all tasks and accepts input from all group members to make the biggest impact. This is crucial in making fellowship the most effective. This was evident to team members many times throughout the trip. I was given the assignment to create a short message to share to the people of Oaxaca, and I immediately knew what I wanted to share. I knew a huge struggle in many individual lives was finding purpose: what they are meant to do and how they are meant to do it. It was exciting for me to hear that 4 people in the congregation came to Christ as a result of my testimony. There’s no better compliment than that. I know I couldn’t have done it without the supportive people around me and the help of our team.
Another big aspect of our team’s ministry in Mexico was a 6-minute skit, performed mainly at the basketball games. “Everything” is a mime showing how the world’s temptations get the best of us and pull us away from Christ, but He is always there for us and will never let us go. The skit is extremely powerful, and it was a blessing every time we were able to perform it for the Mexican people. Some nights we would have as many as 5 people give their lives to Christ, and some nights there would be nobody informing us of a change. But what we can be certain of is that God planted His seed in each and every person who witnessed our performances. Once the seed is planted, all it needs is love and nourishment to grow into something extremely beautiful.
Because of the work we were doing in God’s name, it gave Satan the prime opportunity to fight against us. He seemingly did anything possible to make our projects unsuccessful, but by the sheer grace of God, we were able to pull through. One example of this was on the morning of my sermon, I woke up with no voice at all. I had to do whatever it took to get my voice back in time to speak, and all I could do was rest and pray. When the time came to speak, I showed signs of weakness, but God pulled me through and the message went great. Also, one of our leaders, Tom Mock, was driving to another town. Suddenly, a huge bird smashed into his van’s windshield completely shattering it. He and another passenger came out unscathed and were able to continue on with the day—once again showing how God is in control in spite of Satan’s work to knock us off our path in serving our Mexican friends.
The mission trip couldn’t have been a better experience for us, and our hope is that the people of Mexico were deeply affected as well. I was personally impacted by the fellowship and community portrayed along with the amazing grace God showed in bringing souls to Him despite Satan’s ploys. Our purpose was to serve our friends in the Mexicali Valley, but I can speak for all of the missionaries when I say that while we served our friends, they served us in more ways than we can imagine.