April Outreach trip

In the summer heat of April, with temperatures reaching above 100 F, we crowded into six vehicles in caravan towards the two villages, El Mosco and Yucuyaa. We were on a mission, carrying the Light of Jesus in our hearts to the mountains. In the lead was the medical team along with their clinic pastor, Jesus (Hesus), who evangelizes and prays for every patient going through the clinic, and his wife who came to do the cooking. Next was a group of seven youth with their four adult chaperones from New York who were bringing gifts, games, and ministry for the children. Third, a group of nine Spanish language students were traveling with us for the cultural experience. Among them was a family from France with their boys’ teacher, and three singles from the USA. We had three extra drivers, and we picked up four to six interpreters along the way who would translate from Spanish to Mixteco, the mountain Indian dialect. A five hour trip took us seven hours. Every bathroom break took up to an hour with 25 people all waiting to use the only toilet available.
The caravan carried a large amount of food and water which was needed to feed us for the weekend but it disappeared very quickly when we began sharing it with the host family and other unfortunates who hung around the clinics so that after the first two days, some of our meals became rather sparse. Our Sunday night supper was two tostados spread with a watery black bean mix and a sprinkling of cheese along with a drink called atole. This was made from corn milk, sugar, cinnamon and a bit of rice floating around. It was hot and nourishing, so it made you feel more satisfied. However, we hadn’t eaten from 1:30pm till 9pm so, many were rummaging through their packs for snacks to supplement the meal. Some of us were able to buy a rich pear or pineapple banana from a local girl’s bucket for a peso each. They had a very unique and wonderful flavor like no other banana we had ever eaten. It gave us a very real sensation of what those people face every day of their lives.

The youth group and Spanish language students had their ministry well prepared in Spanish and really blessed the children through puppets, drama, songs with actions, and the balloon art, face and nail painting, candies, hakki sacks, and leis that they brought. Some of the group became rather overwhelmed when they realized that they weren’t in ministry for an hour or two as it would be in a Sunday school class situation, but rather, they were being surrounded by masses of children for the entire time we were in the village. They tried to stay involved with the children as much as they could and finally relaxed to just playing with them individually as one might at any family gathering.

There were plenty of patients in both locations but many complaints were backaches from hard work or headaches and stomach pains from malnutrition and dehydration which only a changed lifestyle could truly cure. There were three or four other patients with more severe problems. One was a pregnant married girl of 15 yrs of age who appeared to be miscarrying her baby. She was carried down the mountain to the hospital on our return trip.

We were the most excited about seeing the food distributed since we had been there to experience the need on the previous trip. Ed & Jane Leonard of Springfield, Mo helped begin the packaging process while they were visiting here by pouring salt into small bags. That salt bag was put in a larger bag along with rice, beans, oil, sugar, and tortilla flour to be given to each family. A dozen eggs were given with each bag as they were passed out. Over half of the bags were handed out in that village from the back of our truck and the remaining was taken to another remote village. Two villages were blessed in that same day. Please, Lord, multiply that food among them.

Sunday began with clinic from 9am until 2pm when church started. The church was packed with people: some regulars, and some who had been drawn by their medical needs. Children swarmed in and out and all around. The service continued till after 5pm with Bro Jesus preaching and then clinic opened again going on until 9pm, which was when we ate our supper. After clean-up, we dragged into our sleeping bags and quickly fell asleep in the cool mountain air.

                                                                                 Picture:  Old lady walking her pig. 

Our return trip Monday was started early and we hurried home like a horse to the barn with only one delay, when a truck broke down. We were thankful the Lord had prepared us in advance by adding a driver who was a mechanic. He had us up and running again in thirty minutes. Once we reached the base, we ran for the showers and to the Monday night meeting. Thank you so much for your prayers for us.

 Please continue to pray for the work among the mountain people of Oaxaca, Mexico. Please pray for the people in training here at the base that many of them will be called to go out and take the gospel to those spiritually and physically starving mountain people.