Hecho En Mexico

This summer I got the chance to spend 11 days in Tijuana Mexico. Tijuana is a place that is so important in my life. I sometimes feel Hecho en Mexico. That is spanish for Made in Mexico. 

Mexico is where I first really understood some key things about God the summer after my freshman year. It's where I spent a month last summer getting a glimpse of what it's like to live in TJ and seeing true servant hood. Without Mexico, I know that I would not have the passion for the world that I do today. So in many aspects, I was made in Mexico. I love all the meaning that holds. 

two sweet boys from the orphanage casa Hogar

Anyways, this summer it was different. I made great relationships last summer and was looking forward to revisiting the people I so love. But when it came to the kids that live at the orphanage we stay at, I was sure they wouldn't remember me. Throughout the year dozens of Americans come invade their home hang out for a while an then leave...why would I be any different? But when I got out of the van I heard my name...or at least their precious attempt at my name (it's a hard one to pronounce). And it turns out they had been asking a friend of mine why I wasn't there with her again and when was I coming. 
To know that the kids I poured my love into last summer remembered me was such a gift from God. The 11 days I was there were so sweet. Our group took 70 kids who live on an old dump to camp for the first time EVER. We painted 20 houses for families in that community. We loved on kids at the orphanage and roofed a building with them. I got the chance to see a boy that stole my heart the first time I went to Mexico for the first time since the day I met him, and 

Andres, the little boy I met 3 years ago, today

he remembered me too.  After the team left, I stayed with one of my best friends to visit with our friends whose family runs the orphanage. We loved and laughed and talked a lot. It was so good to be with them. To remember and be remembered. 








Lately God has really been pressing Isaiah 55 on my heart. There are so many different things to learn from the passage, but the first part is what has stuck out to me this particular week. Its God remembering the needy.     

¹ “Come, all you who are thirsty,

   come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

   come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

   without money and without cost.

² Why spend money on what is not bread,

   and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

   and you will delight in the richest of fare." 

That's what I feel like this time was for me. Time to come and sit in the place that is so special for me and my Father. Time to love on those my Father has a heart for. Time to remember His invitation and invite others. Just a sweet time of joy. And now I'm home and those 11 days feel so far away. They seem short and inadequate. But I know my Father didn't send me to look at this trip as not enough. He sent me to remind me of life. To look through the lens of my camera and capture joy. 

water balloon fight at camp

As hard as it is to leave mexico, to leave friends that are like family and kids that need love, I will cling to these lyrics:

 "Come away with me, come away. It never to late, it's not too late. It's not to late for you. I HAVE A PLAN FOR YOU, I have a plan. It's gonna be WILD, its gonna be GREAT it's gonna be FULL of me"

                          --United Pursuit Band

I pray that we would not forget the wildness and greatness of our God.