So, this past week my team did an outreach week. All the teams were given a week, and a budget, and were asked to find somewhere to do ministry. We had to plan everything-where we would stay, food, etc. My team stayed in Mexico, 4 hours away from the Gateway (where I am staying now).
It was so amazing how this opportunity worked out for my team. It was the night before we needed to know where we were going plus all the details, and we still had no idea where we were going to go. Some of the people on my team went to go talk to the director of the base and see if he know anyone we could talk to, and they came back with all the answers to what we needed to have answered. God worked it out and it was crazy.
So off we were to a small community in the mountains. I was taking a nap in the van on the way there, and woke to God’s beauty all around (mountains). With the wind blowing from the open windows and beautiful scenery, I was very happy.
My team learned a ton this week. We built some rooms, went house to house and talked to people, prayed for people, did church services, prayer meetings, played with kids. It was really cool to see God work through people and see change in the people we were living with for a week. They all welcomed us to warmly, took us in their homes, and were so hospitable. I love Mexican culture.
Did I mention that the girls learned how to cook as well? This brings me to the next thing I was going to mention in this post. On the last day we were there, we decided that we were going to serve people dinner, and then have a church service afterwards. We decided to make tamales.
So, when you make tamolies, it’s nice to have meat to put inside of them. And since we’re in Mexico, and in a Mexican community, it was decided to go out and buy a pig, kill it, and make the meat ready for the tamales. So, we all piled into the van on a search for the pig. After driving around and looking for a while, we finally found one at a good price. The live pig was put in the back of the van. Guess where I was sitting when it was put in the van. That’s right, the back seat. Tom (one of the guys on my team) told me I should pet the pig and tell her it’s going to be ok. I told him there was no way I was going to pet that pig and tell her it was going to be ok when it wasn’t going to be ok-especially when we were driving her to her death..
We stopped for gas or something, and switched around when we got back in the car. I ended up sitting in the front. And after we were going along for a while, all of a sudden people from the back were saying slow down because the pig knocked over the water bucket, and all of a sudden a saw a stream of water flowing to the front of the car. It was hilarious. Then, like 5 seconds later, the pig pooped all over the back of the van, and it smelled the whole rest of the ride home. (That van still probably smells).
Then, a day later, they killed her, and we ate tamales with the community, and it was great. Thus ends my story about our outreach week , and the pig J .
