Wow! I’m learning so much. The last day has been huge in terms of God working, building relationships, seeing more of the church in Mexico and opening my eyes to real poverty.
Yesterday, Martin, Sara and I left Queretaro at 4am to drive to Leon and take a flight from Leon to Tijuana. When we arrived, we met Pastor Chris Martinez and various others from the church here in Tijuana. We left directly from the airport with Jaime and Chris to meet some visitors from the US. When Korean Ken and his team arrived, we went to the first rehabilitation centre to see what God was doing.
In this rehabilitation centre, somewhere in the suburbs of Tijuana, 50 guys have taken the step to get free from addictions to drugs, alcohol and other destructive things. In the centre, they experience the love and message of Jesus Christ as the one who can help them out of the hole and lift them up into a new transformed life. That’s exactly what we saw – transformed lives by the power of the Spirit of God. After praying with the team and the guys at the centre, we proceeded to our next stop.
We arrived at a building in another part of Tijuana called Rosarito with all the crew. We were met with smiles by Victor and his wife and had the privilege of seeing a great facility dedicated to the glory of God. This guesthouse is used to facilitate short-term mission teams who want to serve the people of Baja California and share the message of Jesus Christ. It provides a safe, comfortable place for the teams to rest, debrief and get recharged. The ministry also assists short-term teams to serve in areas where there is genuine need so that they can be most effective for the kingdom of God.
Next stop was Tacos Manuel. These tacos were big, man! We ate two big quesadillas each and enjoyed the big flavour of the rich barbeque meat.
We proceeded, feeling fairly tired, down to Ensenada to The Ranch. This ministry only started up last September, but it was the most impacting stop of the day. The Ranch is a rehabilitation centre run by the Calvary Chapel here in Tijuana. After meeting the crew and the donkey called Dulce, I went down to the paddock to see the other animals with three of the guys there. There were rabbits, chickens, goats and pigs hanging out in their pens. The goats decided to give us a bit of entertainment when one of them did a pee and another decided it might be tasty to drink. When we started yelling out that it was gross, the goat started laughing at us which was hilarious! One of the guys started to share his story with us, a story that demonstrated to me just how much God longs to transform lives.
Alberto was an alcoholic, his Dad taught him to kickbox so he was fighting all the time with other guys, he was into drugs and crime and he told me that he was hopeless. The crowd that he hung out with weren’t real friends and he was living some really full on stuff. Alberto lost hope and decided that it was better to end it all. He tried to commit suicide four times, but God had his gracious hand in the situation and each time Alberto wasn’t successful. Later, one of his friends who had been living these full on situations with him told him that he had something that was even stronger than the drugs he was taking and asked if he wanted it. Alberto was up for it! This time it wasn’t a new drug, it was Jesus Christ. Later, someone invited Alberto to the church because they were going to have free pizza. He went along to the church simply because there was going to be pizza and he hadn’t eaten for three or four days. That day, Alberto accepted Jesus and his life started to change. Now Alberto is in the centre, knows Jesus as his salvation and only hope, wants to live every day for Jesus and tell others about Him, loves reading his bible and has recently been baptised. His ambition when he leaves the centre is to tell others about the power of Jesus to heal and transform lives.
Later, the guys showed me the dormitory where they sleep, we listened to some worship songs in Spanish including La Niña De Mis Ojos that Alberto really likes because it says (translated roughly to English), you found me when nobody else cared, you called me by my name, you are my child, the child of my eyes. We read the bible together and prayed together – thanking God for His son Jesus who has transformed our lives and given us new hope. I am praying that God would continue to work in the lives of Alberto, Javier and Aaron and see them grow in their relationship with God and impact the lives of others with their stories.
Later, we arrived here in one of the poor neighbourhoods of Tijuana called Pedregales de Santa Julia at one of the churches where Chris is pastor. The poverty around us here is profound.
We arrived for the Wednesday night service and Martin shared the word of God in the service. By God’s design I’m sure, we sang La Niña De Mis Ojos, which now has even more significance for me because I see in the lives of my new brothers in Christ, the depth and strength of God’s love for us in Jesus. Martin was talking from Luke 15 about why tax collectors and “sinners” – those who were not holy and righteous – were attracted to Jesus, the one who is holy and righteous, and why Jesus was attracted to them. We saw in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, God’s amazing desire to “seek and save that [those] which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Later we listened to the story of a brother from Chiapas who has a mountain of problems – economic, family and personal. We saw the love of another brother who has taken this guy in and is showing him the love of Christ – tangible and practical. We prayed together and once again, I was impacted by the love and compassion of our God who knows each personal intimately and has a plan for each of us.
This morning we met for morning devotions with about 18 people here in the church. I played the guitar and sang a couple of songs in Spanish (it was a little bit dodgy, but God uses even the least of us for His glory). Chris shared a really cool devotion from Daniel 4 about God’s transformation of Nebuchadnezzar. We saw that sometimes God has to take us to the floor before we lift our eyes to Him. Sometimes our pride is too much and like Nebuchadnezzar, we fail to acknowledge the king of glory and trust in our ourselves. But God is gracious and when we come to our senses, He saves us.
More to come…
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