Mexico, cont...
Visiting the Colonia
Thursday was our cultural day. We spent the morning visiting the colonia. Visiting the colonia was definitely the highlight of the week for me. We split into 4 groups of about 3 each, each with someone who could speak Spanish. The Spanish-speakers were Carolina, Garry Mathewson, Pastor Dave and Pastor Nacho. Pete, Carolina and I were in 1 group. Joaquin joined our group for visiting some of the homes. It was extremely windy with lots of blowing sand that day.
The whole experience was amazing, with a very real awareness of God leading us to the homes and people he wanted us to see. There were 2 older ladies, grandmothers, who had sweet spirits. They lived in 2 separate homes. With both there was an immediate bonding and a sensing of God’s presence in their lives. One had been diagnosed with cancer only the previous day. God wanted us there to pray with her and encourage her. After giving her the dispensa, before we left, I was able to give her a long hug.
Another thing that amazed me was that out of the 2 streets we covered with probably less than 30 homes, we happened upon 2 different prayer meetings. The first had 5 different families represented and they had just been reading the Bible and praying! At each house that we visited we gave out the dispensas and asked if we could pray for them and if they had any specific requests. (Carolina asked this!) The thing that impressed me at this first prayer meeting was that the requests were not really for physical needs but that God would draw specific loved ones to/back to Himself.
After leaving this first prayer meeting we went next door and I believe got to be part of the answer to one of the prayers that had just been prayed. We met Enrique who was in the colonia for a couple months helping out his elderly parents. It seems that he is a believer who has already come a long way from drug addiction and prison, but he was having some struggles and questions. At this point Joaquin was with us. Joaquin, along with his wife, Hortencia, are the directors of the hopefully soon-to-be- opened Resplandor de Vida orphanage. Joaquin has had seminary training. He definitely has the gift of exhortation. Enrique, who still goes to rehab, was struggling with honoring his parents and also was beginning to feel the peer pressure of those who were mocking him in carrying around his New Testament, etc. He also wasn’t really getting fellowship, and he had some theological questions. We probably spent at least 20 minutes with him. I ended up giving him my Spanish-English Bible. He was looking for his New Testament, I think to show us a verse. I suggested that Pete go get the Bible I had recently bought so he could show us the verse from there. He thought it was a gift to him and I thought, why not? That was a blessing. I trust that God used us to help in that difficult point in his life.
The other prayer meeting we happened upon, the women were especially praying for a 15 yr. old son who seemed to be going down a wrong path. After the prayer request was shared, this very guy came along. The mom had him go in the middle of the circle, we laid hands on him and prayed for him. I’m not sure how blown away he was, but our prayer is that God is indeed working in that young man’s life!
The last colonia experience I will share happened on Friday. While one of the teams were out and about on Thursday, a woman let Memo know that she would like Joauqin to come by and pray with her on Friday. Joaquin wanted to bring a couple people along with him so Carolina and I went. Her situation was that her alcoholic husband had left her about 2 weeks previous. She had an 11-month old, a 3-yr old, and a 6-yr old. She was desperate and hopeless and afraid and had no idea how she would provide for her children. She had a friend who was encouraging her to work at a bar for easy money (not to mix drinks.) Again Joaquin exhorted and encouraged her and we prayed with her. She was in tears as she was pouring out her heart. When Joaquin had mentioned on Thursday the planned visit on Friday, we decided to go buy groceries to give to her after praying with her. When she saw the $40 of groceries in the back of the pickup, she started crying again. We told her, as we did the other families, that we were giving these things in the name of Jesus.
The thing that struck me with the colonia experiences was that these people are no different than the ones right here in our community. It was a privilege to have them share the deepest things on their heart and pray for them. If I were to go back in a future year, there are people there that I really felt a connection with and that I would love to see again.
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