The Mission Trip to Eucador

My mission trip to Eucador was different but in a good way. It was a new experience for me which is always good and I knew it would be because it was a new country and there was a new goal for the mission trip. One goal that I never thought I would be apart of or want to go do but it was fun and very meaningful. First, it was the airports that we had to go to. Of course, XNA wasn't that bad but we had to be there so early and got back so late. The 2nd airport was the one in Miami, FL. It was nice and big with a lot of things to do but when you have to stay there 8 hours both ways it does kind of get boring and tiring. Second, it was in the mountains which I love and the weather was a lot cooler then Mexico or Guatamala. It was Fall like weather on the other side of the line.The mountains were so pretty. I always say that pictures could not do the justice that we saw on the trip. I will say that alitude sickness is not something to mess with espically if you are going to go up past 1200 feet when you are not use to it. We went past that height just the 1st day and when I came back down and to the hotel we were staying at, I did get a little dizzy and really out of breath. It almost scared me but I had something to help me with it. The roads going up that high were really scary too. It was pretty but scarey at the same time. Much to say, that we didn't go up that high anymore this week. All of the people came down to the community center to meet us and we had the groups there. All of the people were so nice whether it was down in the city or up in the mountains. You would never know how hard of a life they really had by their additude. Sometimes we forget how blessed we are here in the United States. I will say that we had a problem the 1st day when the people heard us coming. They had a community meeting just about us coming and what they should do while we were there. Some of them just wanted to take the water fliters we were handing out and leave. Others wanted to listen to the gospel that we were sharing. The Catholic leader in these mountains were one of them that said just take the fliters and leave but the people made their own choice. We did have to have our guide come up and talk to them in Spainish so they would understand. The Catholic leader didn't want us there at all but we still came for the week and poeple came. The little kids were so cute but there were a lot less of little kids then I was use to on a mission trip. This mission trip was more focused on all people and not just the kids. When we did the groups, we had about 4 to 5 people from our team in a group and then about the same amount of people to listen to us. It always depended on how many we each got in a group depending on how many came down or up on that day. We, then, tell and show them how to put the water fliter together and a little on how to work it. We actully drank the water from it to show them how clean it was and we were fine. We passed out water fliters because their water is really bad up in the mountains and even in the city. We couldn't even drink the water or we were get sick from it. We had bottles of water all the time we were there. After doing the water fliters, we then compared the dirty and clean water to the gospel. It was an easy way to go into the gospel with them understanding it a little bit more. We read the important verses from the Bible and explain what we could to them. One thing I noticed and it really got to me because of being a teacher and I love reading anything myself. The poeple didn't know how to read at all so they didn't know what the Bible said or couldn't read it for themselves. They just had to believe what the Cahtolic leader told them and that was enough. I can say that is sad because they can't think for themselves and really know the TRUTH. The leader keeps telling them that they just need to be good and do good works. The leader didn't tell them about Jesus died for them and they you can get the life of grace as a gift. It was just said and we had Bibles for them but they kept saying they would love to learn and know more but they couldn't read. Thank goodness that we had these little ipod like things that they could listen to the Bible with. I love how my last group of mountain people reacted to those ipod things. They were really interested in how they worked and wanted to know how they worked. They were even listening to them before we left the group and they were smiling so that is one group that I pray gets the TRUTH. I was really surpised at myself because by the last group that I had, I opened up and shared verses when I had the chance to and it made me see how easy it can be to share the Gospel. I know that all of it was God, though because we had a talk one night while I was there and I looked at the verses that I had marked and He showed me the ones that were easy and meaningful to myself and because of that He let me know that I could share them and a story along with them if I needed to. Those verses were: John 10:10, John 14:6, and Ephesians 2:8. One of the verses that I had to read because God really put it on my heart during my last group was: Expdus 20:3-5. It was againist everything that they believed and I just felt very strongly that it needed to be shared. I might have to write one more or 2 more enteries about this mission trip because there is a lot more then I realized that I need to type. I don't want one entery to be too long that nobody wants to read it.