What an incredible day of Ministry 
125 decisions 4 Christ + 165 Southern Californians + 110 Ministry partners from Tijuana churches + 2 stages + 2,163 hotdogs + 80 smashed concrete blocks + 4 school buses + 9 cars + 550 burritos + 7 large army tents + 3 hrs in line to cross the border = ONE incredible day in Mexico!
On
Saturday May 11th, about 165 Southern California residents met in
different parking lots across San Diego County and Orange County. We
started our day carpooling to the San Diego/Tijuana border where we
waited until all the people from the US side arrived. We then crossed
the border together on foot and loaded onto four school buses that were
waiting for us on the Tijuana side of the border in Mexico. With water
bottles in hands and sunscreen on our faces we all felt prepared, but
nothing could've prepared us for the work God was about to do through
each of us.
The
buses took us to a dusty dirt road in the middle of Pedregales, Mexico
where we all unloaded and met for a ministry partners meeting and
prayer. Joining us in that meeting were about 110 enthusiastic Mexican
citizens from churches throughout Tijuana, who were there for the same
reason as us, to serve the people of Pedregales and teach them about
Christ's love.
We
then broke into our teams and began to set up for the day; each person
unpacking donated supplies in their various tents and greeting the
people from the community who had already begun lining up. There were 10
teams; a hair cutting team, a medical team, children's ministry team,
food prep/service team, family pictures team, soccer/sports ministry
team, security team, programming/logistics team,
counseling/prayer/evangelist team, and a facilities/electric team. Each
of the teams had participants from the US and from Mexico; all day long
the ministry site echoed with laughter, music, rapid Spanish and happy
English.
The
focus of our day was to share Christ and this happened in a powerful
way from the main stage area (our stage was really a flatbed truck): the
band “Two or More” and “The Message” both blessed us with fantastic
music in Spanish and there were many moving testimonies shared. Both
the bands and the Dunamis Team “The Mighty Men of Power” riled up the
crowd with a very dynamic demonstration of breaking, bending and
crushing things! It was a very busy and exciting day!
Despite
the heat, language barriers, port-a-potties, and massive crowds, the
teams served with joyful and willing hearts. Many people worked without
breaks just to make sure that our guests from Pedregales received the
care they came for. God definitely showed up! About 1,000 people were
fed, loved, prayed for, and served. However, the most exciting aspect
of the day was the number of people who made decisions to give their
lives to Christ! Nearly 50 adults made life changing decisions and over
75 children accepted Christ! God filled in the spaces and used us to
accomplish way more than we could’ve without Him! Through everyone’s
willingness to serve, whether that meant dressing up as a clown for the
children’s ministry, cutting onions till your eyes watered, giving
squirming little ones buzz cuts, or buying snow cones for the overheated
boys rough housing on the soccer field, the community experienced God’s
unmistakable love. Not only were the lives of the ministry partners
blessed, but Pedregales was positively impacted for God’s Kingdom in
innumerable ways.
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