It’s hard to imagine just a month ago the Ensenada Outreach Center was packed with hundreds of campers over the weeks – building homes, running children’s programs, worshipping in chapel, enjoying tacos, and living in community. What an amazing summer it was – watching lives being transformed… both here in Mexico, but also across the United States and Canada!
The transformations that happen among the teams are amazing! As a youth pastor I can reflect on the hundreds of lives changed from spending one week in Mexico. I think back to youth like Dan who come alive when he’s in Mexico, forgetting about the struggles and pressures of life back home; or Stephanie who becomes so stirred by her weeks in Mexico that she decides to dedicate a year to volunteer at EOC as an intern; or Bill, a professional contractor who now sees Mexico as a home of spiritual renewal and awakening as he returns year after year to use his gifts.
Now as an EOC staff member, I can see first hand the transforming power of Jesus in the lives of the Mexican people we serve … through the countless number of children being fed a healthy meal through the breakfast program, or the families who received a home after living in tarp shacks or cardboard shanties, or the pastors who gained a team of people and resources to help them extend their reach in their community.
The most amazing transforming moments are when these two worlds intersect. I remember one particular home dedication ceremony and the team had just passed over the key to their new home, sharing prayers, blessings, and tearful thanks to the family they built for. When it was the families’ turn to share some words the mother… shared how grateful she was to have met this team and to have made friendships with these once strangers from the United States. She shared how if she had to choose between the new home or having her new American friends stay with her, she would choose the friends. What a reflection of the unifying love of God. Where complete strangers can come together and share in powerful moments of servanthood and humility.
I am excited to see what God will reveal and stir up in this place and in my life as I spend an extended period of time on staff with YUGO Ministries. I am confident in a place of such community and purpose we will continue to see God move, work, and transform. As we strive to be the hands and feet of Jesus, we see a bit of heaven come to earth. Not because we have it all together, but because we are inviting the transforming love of Jesus to be real and alive in and through us. May we continue to reflect on those moments of transformation, and pray that a revolution of Jesus’s love may continue to transform our lives and this world.
Blessings,
Rhonda
