Kairos Christian Fellowship (Gracepoint – Berkeley)

6 vans/trucks.

37 brothers and sisters.

1,165 miles driven.

Many kids loved.

1 God honored and glorified.

This was our first mission trip to Tecate, Mexico.  Going into the trip, we didn’t receive too many details as to what we’d be doing.   But knowing we’d be doing some construction work and spending time with kids, we prepared by readying gloves and tools, rehearsing skits, planning games and prepping crafts.

We thank you for supporting the Mexico missionaries.  Knowing that none of this would’ve been possible without your support and prayers.

After spending a day training in LA:

and a quick stop at Noodle World:

we loaded up:

and then made the drive down to Mexico!

In Mexico, we stayed at a church with triple high bunk beds!

We woke up each day to the sound of roosters crowing for DT at 6:30am.  After a hearty breakfast of eggs and Zucharitas (Frosted Flakes in Spanish, lit: Sugary flakes), we headed off to the work sites.  Half of our day from 9am-2pm doing construction work split amongst 2 groups.  One group helped totally renovate a kindergarten.  The schoolhouse started out as a drab green but wound up a sight to see thanks to the colorful art of all the sisters!  The kindergarten team also mixed 20-25 wheelbarrows worth of concrete (BY HAND!) for a brand new porch.  Here are some pictures from the kindergarten site:

The other half of our team went to help repair and improve three houses that were all part of the same colonia (neighborhood).  The “head woman” of the household had been requesting improvements for other houses in her colonia for years but out of her own sacrificial heart, she never asked for anything done to her house.  This happened despite the fact that her house needed much improvement (i.e. the bathroom did not have any walls).  So we split up into 3 times and got down and dirty roofing (who knew how messy tar was!), ripping and installing a new fence, and putting up dry wall.

The 3 teams pictured with the families we helped:

Team "Skilled" - although I'm not sure how they got this name...

Team "Lightweight" - all the brothers <150 lbs. had to work on this unstable roof

Team "Awesome" -

We had the privilege of meeting amazing men and women of faith, two of whom are pictured below.  They both have clear testimonies of how God led them out of a life filled with drugs and sin to the point now where they are helping families raise their standard of living.  Now the families that see their transformed lives have to attribute it to some cause.  The hope is that these people would attribute the change to something supernatural, to Christ.  These are two precious brothers that were living examples of people that have sold all to follow Jesus.

We collectively as a team experienced a lot.  Yet at the same time, I think God spoke personally to each team member.  If you haven’t been, mission trips are a great opportunity to get out of your own comfort zone to serve others and to be fully committed to a cause that is above and beyond anything you could do by your individual power.  I look forward to the opportunity to go back!

Hopefully we’ll get a chance next year to go again.  Maybe we’ll see you there!  Until next time…