Alabare a mi Senior (Part 1)

Bienvenido a Mexico!! We arrived in Mexico on a cold and rainy day.  Driving 12 hours during the night to the US border, navigating through customs, and then driving another 5 hours south, we arrived at the Mission House in General Cepeda in the state of Coahuila.  Two 15-passenger vans and two suburbans unloaded their missionaries as the rain blessed this dry and parched desert land.

The desert of Mexico is beautiful with it's bright blue sky
not a cloud in sight for days

The first few days were a blur of new customs, new language and new trials.  The bathrooms in this part of Mexico are customarily outside of the houses and the sewers cannot handle much more than what the body naturally excretes so toilet paper is disposed in a separate bin...needless to say middle of the night bathroom runs are dark, cold, and quickly became one of the more undesirable changes about missionary life!

Outdoor bathroom, there were 4 others just like this one

The city here is quaint, simple and quite colorful.  There are over 3,000 people in the main city where we are and surrounding the city within 30 minutes to 1 hour are 42 ejidos or ranchos (ranches) with another 8,000+ inhabitants.

The map of all the ejidos/ranchos surrounding
General Cepeda (it's the big black cross in the middle)

Part of the mission here is the spiritual and sacramental needs of the people in the ranchos.  Because of their distance from the main city and lack of transportation many of them are unable to come into town for Mass on Sundays.  The two priests have their work cut out for them as they try to get to each of the 42 ejidos every month for communion services, Mass or sacraments.  There is a great need for the missionaries here for praise & worship, prayer, teachings, catechisis for their sacraments and communion services.

The full time missionaries led a 3-day teaching series in the main city, at St. Francesco de Asis church (St. Francis of Assisi - who also happens to be the patron of the small bedroom that we are staying in here at the Mission House).  Those of us in formation got a chance to participate and on the third day pray over people.  After having been prepared by the format of the nights we were divided into groups and sent out to share our own 3-day series at a dedicated ejido.  Our group (Ben, Thomas, Ronny, Matthew and myself) were assigned a large rancho off the highway named Larosa.  When we showed up the first night I was surprised at the size and beauty of the chapel.

Natalia sharing her testimony in the chapel in La Rosa

 We began our evening by walking around the town, door-to-door and inviting all to come to la capilla (the chapel) for prayer and talks.  There were tons of kids that showed up and about 5 or so adults, even a few men, which is very uncommon because it is common in the Mexican culture to leave praying and religion to the women.  We were thrilled with the turn out and continued to pray for these and more people to come the following nights.  Each one of us shared a talk and our testimony, through a translator.

Ben sharing his testimony in La Rosa

The first night I shared about God's love and my experience of being loved by the Father.  We asked for the people who had come to share a testimony, big or small, about how they have experienced the love of God.  One woman was so touched by our openness that she shared the story of her mother and father both passing within a few months of each other.  Though hurt in the midst of the tragedy she saw God loving her.  She was upset with him for taking her parents, but sees know Gods hand guiding her painful journey.  It was beautiful to hear how God worked in her life!

to be continued...