Mexico Mission Trip...Day 2 traveling to Playa del Carmen

Considering our drive to Chicago was longer than our flight will be to Cancun this should be a piece of cake right? We had a short drive to the airport then it was the all important question....who was going to remember where we parked and then after checking if I had my passport for the 10th time I finally stopped worrying about it.

Chicago skyline from the plane 

Luckily we got to watch a movie on the flight I wanted to see so I can cross Wrath of the Titans of my list. Beyond that it was an uneventful flight which is always a good thing.

Coming into Cancun

Well after a slight delay in finding the other groups we were meeting up with we did finally find our Praying Pelican Missions leaders and we headed out to get some food. So where else do you go when you are in a foreign country for the 1st time? McDonalds that's where. I at least got something called a McTasty (not) that you can't get here in the US. After that it was a 45 minute drive south of Cancun to Playa del Carmen. We went past megaresort after megaresort all with high walls and trees to block the view across the street of the shanties and abandoned buildings.

Never be the 1st to fall asleep 

We stayed just a few blocks off of Mexico hwy 307 at the north end of 30th Ave North about 10 blocks west of the ocean at the Filadelfia Baptist Church. But in order to get to the public beach you'd have to hop the bus for about a 1/2 hour and go south and then walk the rest of the way. But on the way to where we were staying we began to realize the neighborhood we were going to was not necessarily one we'd ever considering going to back home.....if we even have anything remotely like it.

The open courtyard at Filadelfia.

Rooftop view from the church 

We didn't have time to settle in after the long day of travels because we had to get ready for an evening church service at a different church after we had an authentic meal.

After our meal we changed (we'd already sweat through our 1st set of clothes) and began the trek to the church we would be attending. Walking down the sidewalk, many times single file because the sidewalk was barely wide enough for 1 1/2 people, we had our 1st chance to experience life and culture of this community. You can see in the picture above how there were usually 5-6 shops on each block which we would be about the size of a single car garage which was pretty much what these were and then converted to some type of shop. There were various food places, Internet cafes, hair dressers, convenience stores and shops selling backpacks, clothes, sandals and then they'd repeat on the next block. The real treat though was the homemade ice cream shop several blocks south of the church. The real eye opener started when we walked along the park that was packed with food carts, men playing soccer, kids playing on the playground and people selling things on the curb. But it didn't stop there once we got a block or so past you could begin to notice the extreme poverty this area is stricken with. From the dead rats in the gutters, the smells to the tiny houses with garbage spilling out into the street we weren't in Iowa any more Toto. A boy we met, Emanuel, told us he only made 15 pesos a day working 8 hours at the laundry mat....that's barely more than 1 US dollar.  

But we soon forgot all that as we shook some hands and entered the open air church that was filled with mariachi type music. We got to partake in the service and clapped along even though not all of us understood the words but we did have a translator along who helped us during the sermon parts. The highlight of the night was that our Praying Pelicans leader brought a couple of his old band members up from Belize and played a bunch of songs for everyone in attendance alternating between English and Spanish songs. After the service I tracked down the guitar player for the church's band and told him in my broken Spanish how much I enjoyed his playing.

The walk back to our church after the 3 hour service made me realize how much of a night time culture this part of the world has. We didn't make it in time to notice how everything shuts down during siesta but the streets were even busier now than before. We still had to set up our sleeping area on the floor of the sanctuary in the church but man it was still hot out. Some of the guys opted to sleep on the roof of the church for the extra air flow....little did they know we'd get a bit of rain in the night and even those of us sleeping close to the courtyard side of the church would get a bit wet too. I am thankful my wife packed some earplugs considering we were sleeping a mere 20 feet from what felt like the busiest road in the world every night while we were trying to sleep. I'm not going to lie that 1st night was rough sleeping with all the cars, buses, police lights flashing every few minutes, people walking by and food smells coming from all the shops on top of worrying about my son next too me that he was doing ok and and that he was safe.

Night time from the roof 

Mexico Mission Trip Day 1. Trip before the trip

I would have liked to do some blog post updates while we were in Playa del Carmen but data roaming charges did not permit me to do so plus the Blogger ap is junk. So I thought I'd share some pictures, thoughts and memories from each day of this amazing week.

Our 1st day involved last minute packing and a 6 hour drive to Chicago. Luckily I was driving so I got to control the Pandora station. But we 1st had to figure out how 14 of us plus all our luggage was all going to fit in 2 vans.

The car topper was a huge help though it became noisy from the wind. Turns out there was tons of room in the other van because we had 2 less bags in ours on the drive home. 

Here is our group

Not a lot of excitement or things to see between Des Moines and Chicago other than the world's largest truck stop so we made it a point to eat and gas up there. After that it was straight to Harvest Bible Chapel in Elgin to meet up with our Worship Leader's parents to church it up with them before spending the night at their house before heading to the airport the next day. 

We got to enjoy some pretty good worship music and hear a great message on forgiveness from Bryan Loritts an author and pastor from Memphis and is a brother to one of the church's members. 

After church we made our way to the Dahm's and had pizza for what we thought would be the last time for at least a week. Then we relaxed, stretched our legs and gathered black mail to use on Josh (our worship leader) when we got back. 

thankfully no one was injured in the tree house or on the swing

After that it was pretty much time to crash since we had a little drive to O'Hare to catch our flight in the  morning.

Wednesdays Word....Follow-through

Have you ever taken the time and looked back on certain situations and realized how things "just happen" when you listen to God and follow-through with something He is asking to do. Sometimes they are simple things like praying for someone or just picking up the phone and calling someone even if you don't know what to say or why you should. Or they could be out of your comfort zone things like joining choir, teaching Sunday school or giving your testimony. You never know you may even end up going on a mission trip. There are countless other things you could list here but these are just some of things I have done because I was finally paying attention.

The one I want to focus on today is the last one...the mission trip. You see back on February 1st I published this blog post Wednesday's Word - Available . The focus of it was making yourself physically, mentally and spiritually available to God's call. For weeks I had this message running around in my head and I couldn't shake it so I knew it wasn't my own made up thoughts and that I needed to get it out and so I figured blogging about it would get the job done and I could go on to the next thing...but it didn't exactly work the way I planned and a lot of crazy things started happening moments after I hit the publish button.

First off I got a forwarded email from my wife that said our youth from church had an opportunity to go to Mexico on a mission trip. I replied it would be a great opportunity for our oldest son. The reply I got back wasn't exactly what I was expecting; my wife said they'll be getting the chance to play soccer with the kids down there. Now some of you may know that this is what I do on the side......I coach youth soccer; from running the 3-5 yr old introductory clinics in the wintertime and our city's park & rec summertime programs to coaching a couple of my son's teams in our soccer club's league in the spring and fall for the last 8 years along with various tournaments. So without hesitation I said I was in. But this goes back even further than this email....about 6 years ago I had just gotten a promotion which brought me up to 6 weeks of vacation and a person can only fish so much; well without getting trouble with their spouse so I told the youth pastor of our church that I was available to go on any trips that may need adult chaperons. I had also just begun teaching Sunday school. But as things would have it I was laid off later that year after 10 + years with the company. So I put any mission trips out of mind and had never told anyone that I really had wanted to distribute soccer balls to kids while on a mission trip. So I asked our soccer club if they had any balls they could donate and they did so I will be getting to cross that off my list of things to do. Funny thing is several of the youth going on this trip are from that same class of kids I had when I first started teaching Sunday school along with the guy I taught with.

I thought this would have been enough to "get God off my case" for a while but I couldn't shake it so I sent an email to some of the staff at church asking if I could talk on a few points and encourage people to come to our up coming revival with Rick Bonfim. So I asked if I could touch on these 4 things.
1. Make yourself physically available...show up and don't go through the motions.
2. Make yourself spiritually available. Saying that simple prayer that you're ready to go where ever God leads and needs you.
3. Listen to that still small voice regardless of where or how you receive it. If you're not sure it's God it'll be confirmed through those around you; just pay attention.
4. Once you know what you're supposed to do...Just Do It...act on what you've been told. If you don't God will do 2 things....either stop talking to you or get out the 2X4 to get your attention and in both cases it's generally not a pleasant experience.
Well as it turned out one of our friends was already giving her testimony that weekend so they couldn't fit me in but she touched on every single one of the points I had going through my mind for weeks almost to the word....well other than the 2X4 part which I think God only uses on guys when they don't listen. I talked with her between services and showed her the email I had sent and we both knew what we were saying was directly from God. Then between our interim pastor & Rick they touched on these 4 points as well. With all of this confirmation I think it was just a matter of God checking if I would follow-through on something he had put upon my heart because I am not exactly fond of speaking in front of people and do just about anything to avoid it.

These things all come together this weekend as our group travels to Mexico to work on some service projects, lead VBS, attend church services and play some futbol with the local kids. So if you could please keep our group in your thoughts and prayers throughout our travels and endeavors this next week it would be greatly appreciated.