We're Home! (Day 11)

The Fusion Team arrived home yesterday exhausted after a long day of travelling and excited to share with everyone our experiences in Mexico City! The trip was incredible! And, having a opportunity to tour around San Francisco was a wonderful way to end the trip...especially when I found the chocolate store!

I feel so very blessed to have had the opportunity to serve with each member of the Fusion team (Cassie, Barry, Emily, Margaret, Seth, Kevin, Lucas, Justin, Keith and Steve), and to have had the priveledge to serve God in Mexico City!

Fusion team...remember not to forget what you experienced, to support each other in the future, to pray for those we met in Mexico City, to pray for the missionaries and for the revival that we know will happen there because of the work that is going on. Dios te bendiga!

Days 9 & 10

It is the night before we fly home back to Canada and it has been a tough day of saying goodbye to the Vazquez family, the missionaries here, and other friends we have met. We will really miss Lisa...she has been awesome and has encouraged us so much this past week. The challenge will now be to remember what we experienced here these past 10 days and continue to pray for Mexico.

On Saturday, we had a ¨tourist¨day after our concert of prayer with Lisa. We visited the Teotihuacan Pyramids and climbed the Pyramid of the Sun, which is the 3rd largest pyramid in the world and contains 239 stairs one way. It was quite a workout to get to the top but beautiful once we did.

After the pyramids, we went to the CineVIP to see a movie. The CineVIP is a fancy theatre where everyone has their own leather recliner and there is waiter service to bring you your popcorn and pop or even sushi if you would like. And, this theatre is still cheaper than the main theatre we have at home!

For the evening, we hung out at Lisa´s place eating nachos and Krispy Kreme donuts (yes, they have one in Mexico City)! It was a great day to relax and enjoy Mexico City.

Today, like I said, was a day to say goodbye to all the friends we have made. This morning we had our Canadian/Mexican Cultural Exchange in a large park here and we invited Oscar and the girls from the english classes to join us. We brought PB & J and PB & Banana sandwiches for them to try since it is not a normal cuisine here and they brought lots of Mexican candy for us. Each group sang their national anthem for the other group (we even sang it in French and English) and played some games together. It was a fun morning and a great education into Mexican culture.

The remainder of our day we spent in Coyocan for our debriefing with the team from Toronto. A time to reflect on our experiences here and share with each other what God has put our hearts these past 10 days.

Saying goodbye was hard for all of us today but I didn´t see a lot of tears...maybe because we know that we will see this city and the Mexican people we love again. God is going to do great things in Mexico and we all feel extremely blessed to have been a small part in shining His light here.

A song we sang all the time while down here and means a lot to each of us:

Tu eres Todopoderoso (You are all powerful), Eres grande y majestuoso (You are great and majestic), Eres fuerte, invencible (You are strong, invincible), Y no hay nadie como Tu (And there is no one like You)

Prayer Requests:

- safe travels home and safety in San Francisco tomorrow afternoon

- the people in Mexico City who need to know Jesus

- the Christians here that they continue to be a light in their community

- Lisa, Paul & Cindy, Rob, Jonathan, Ilse, & Susan...they are the missionaries here in Mexico City and they need our prayer and support as they continue to tell this city about Jesus and train up amazing Mexican leaders to lead the church for Christ.

Days 6, 7 & 8

The past three days have been amazing and eye-opening! The days are flying by too fast and we are all going to miss Mexico City so much, especially the people when we leave on Monday.

On Wednesday, after our devotional time with Lisa, we left for Cuajimalpa for another day of sports. The team was pretty sore after the first day of activity and today would be pretty much the same. Good thing is that we did play a little more competitively versus the Mexicans and didn´t get destroyed. At Cacalote (where we played soccer on Monday), we played basketball and soccer with some kids there. It was a very hot day and we got tired quite quickly, but we did get a chance to talk to Oscar again. Oscar is a Mexican that we met on Monday and he speaks English! We invited him to join us again on Wednesday and Friday to play soccer...and he did. He is also coming to our Sunday celebrations!

After sports, we headed to Sonia´s for a "Canadian" meal...breaded chicken, mashed potatoes and Caesar salad...mmmm...guess they realized that we can´t all handle the chiles!

The highlight of our day was by far meeting Carlos. Carlos is a young boy who has leukemia and his family is very poor. It costs $4000 pesos a week for his treatments and since they can´t always afford it he has to go without. His family are not believers but allowed us to come into their home to pray for Carlos and encourage him. The Holy Spirit definitely filled that home...it was powerful!! As Lucas shared how his family relied on God during his dad´s health problems, you could see in the faces of Carlos´parents that they were affected. Before we left we sang Grace Like Rain and it was awesome! Carlos told us that he believes God will heal him but his parents don´t believe and we should pray for them. He is an incredible little boy!

Thursday was a wonderfully relaxing day. After getting to sleep in a bit, we had an awesome breakfast made by Keith and Steve...bacon, french toast, scrambled eggs, fried bananas, and fruit salad...it was sooo good! Then, after a devotional time with Ilse, we left for the Ciudadela (the market) where we had 2 hours to spend all our hard earned money...and we did. We bought jewelry, blankets, flags, pins, dresses, and even a large sombrero! The market was huge and full of vendors wanting us to spend our pesos in their stores. One guy even offered 99% off to Keith as we passed his silversmith store.

In the afternoon, we taught English again at the Vazquez family home with only 5 students between the 11 of us. Since they had already seen our pictures, we ended up going through basic vocabulary to pass the time.

In the evening, we all went to Paul & Cindy Enns´ home for greatly anticipated pizza! (Little did we know that the pizza would be the food that would be our downfall that night!) Paul talked with us about his life and how he became a missionary. He encouraged each of us to seek after God and let Him guide us in the direction that He has planned for us. It was an incredible message of encouragement and a challenge to each of us (even the adults) to seek out what God wants us to do with our lives...to find our purpose so we can glorify God with our lives.

Finally Friday. We left early this morning to meet with Alejandro in Cuajimalpa for our devotional time together. Both Cris and Alejandro shared their testimonies with us and it was amazing to hear how God has protected them through so many trials and how they both continue to trust in God for everything. The Vazquez family is amazing...they have only been Christians for the past 2 years and they have gone through some incredible trials before and after knowing God. They are an encouragement, blessing, and light to the community of Cuajimalpa, to Mexico City and to each person who meets them, including our team!

Today, was our last day of sports. The hockey game was a little more even today (either we have improved since Monday or it had something to do with Kim as goalie for the Mexican team). Throughout the week we have prayed for other people to come and join us in the gym to play but no one came. We will continue to pray for this ministry because it has a great potential to reach the youth in this area. However, in soccer at Cacalote, we met and played with whoever was there and had a great time meeting new people.

For lunch we drove out to La Marquesa, which is a large national park up in the mountains. We played some more soccer in a field there and some of the team went quading on a "go-kart" track! It was a great time and very nice to get out of the busy city for an afternoon.

In the evening, we went to small group meeting in Evelia´s home. Honestly, we didn´t understand the majority of the evening because not a lot was translated for us but it was interesting to be a part of their "church" for an evening.

And now...we blog...

Prayer Requests:
- continue to pray for health. Our team has been blessed so far with nothing more than a few tummy aches and some headaches. This is a good thing!
- Carlos and the Hernandez family...for healing and for financial support
- the small groups (cells) in this city, that they continue to grow and disciple new believers.

Days 4 & 5

Hola from Mexico City! Well, we have been very busy the past two days!

Monday:

Today was our first day involved in the sport ministry here in Mexico City. Rob (another missionary here) leads the sports activities in Cuajimalpa. We started the day at a local gym to play floor hockey. As we prepared for the day, the youth were all excited to play our Canadian sport, however, we quickly learned that the Mexicans are very, very good and we were destroyed! Oh well...

The Mexican youth that we played soccer with in Cuajimalpa

Next, we went to the soccer facility in Cuajimalpa to join in with an ongoing game. We tried to play Canada vs. Mexico but quickly got destroyed yet again as anticipated. It was fun, but we know now that we need to stretch before 4 hours of activity...we were all pretty sore this morning!

After a great lunch at Sonia´s, of which Seth won the challenge of eating 13 flautas and Kevin came in a close second with 11, we participated in a prayer walk through Cuajimalpa. It was incredibly humbling to pray for the youth in Cuajimalpa and walk around the their community. As a church, we need to continue to pray for the youth in this community that they would know Jesus personally and be freed of addictions that overwhelms the youth here.

In the evening, we just hung around the dorm playing "four-on-the-couch" and then another intense game of "jota, reyna, rey, uno!"

Tuesday:

Today, we had an awesome opportunity to explore the Basilica de Guadelupe. Millions of people visit the Basilica every year to worship Guadelupe (the Mexican version of the virgin Mary). As we walked around and prayed, we saw people bringing flowers to offer, crawling on their knees, and many statues depicting the virign Guadelupe and Jesus being crucified. It was an interesting experience and we were all convicted to pray that the Mexican people would hear the truth of Jesus.

The Basilica de Guadelupe from high up the hill

After yet another amazing lunch by Sonia, we taught english with a small group of teens who came to the Vazquez family´s home. It was fun to show the youth our pictures and play some cards with them.

Playing "Jota, Reyna, Rey, Uno" with the Mexicans in our english class

The final adventure of our day today was enjoying the driving of our own Steve in Mexico City. He only missed braking for a few speed bumps and Emily only had to take one Gravol! Oh, the poor Mexican man who was drenched on the sidewalk as we drove by...lo siento!

Prayer Requests for the team:
- health...5 days down, 5 still to go.
- the youth in Cuajimalpa, for addiction and light in their community
- the food to be a little less spicy for Emily and Cassie

Days 1 -3

Hola! Nosotros somos en Mexico City!!! Yes, we arrived in Mexico on Friday night and were able to get through all levels on security and customs with no problems....praise God! The only glich we hit was discovering that one of Emily´s bags was rerouted to Los Angles but it arrived at our dorm on Saturday morning. The political protests that are currently going on in the city have not affected us. They have been peaceful and in the downtown area, which we are far from. Although, we may not get to go to the Basilica but the March team has lots of pictures and we get to go to the pyramids instead.

The past three days have been an awesome experience! The team is definitely bonding and experiencing a lot of Mexican culture. Yesterday, after a devotional time with Wendy (one of the missionaries here), we were off to Culjimalpa to explore the area via a scavenger hunt. The catch was that each team was given a spanish-only speaking guide to ¨help¨us. It was a blast and we enjoyed using our basic spanish to find the clues. Culjimalpa is located 8000 ft above sea level in the southwest corner of Mexico City. It is the home of one of the families that we will be spending a lot of time with, the Vazquez family.

After lunch, we went to Coyocan, which is another area of Mexico City and is the area that a Fusion team from Toronto is working. We met with them for our orientation on Mexican culture, history, spiritual dynamics, and current events.

Today, we spent the day with the Vazquez family in Culjimalpa playing soccer in the street, having a praise & worship time together, praying together and sharing our testimonies with each other. It was an awesome day! After an incredible meal, pozole made by Sonja (aka mama), we went for a walk in the forest near their home.

Tonight, we are relaxing in the house and likely playing a rowdy game of spoons. There may also be a dance party later on the patio if we can find some fun music and it stops raining!

Please pray for:

- continued health...so far so good.
- protection as we start working in the sport ministry tomorrow and the english school on Tuesday.
- God to continue to work in the lives of the Mexican people.

Leaving Soon...

Hey team & parents!

Tha August team is leaving very soon...Friday, August 11th. Please ensure you are at the airport by 5:45am at the United Airlines area. Also, make sure you have your parental consent letter signed...if not, you don't get on the plane. If you need another copy, please call the church.

See you bright and early on Friday!

~ Kim