Embark with us on a transformative expedition to the heart of Chiapas, Mexico, where the road less traveled led us through a tapestry of spiritual encounters and cultural awakenings. Our recent mission trip found us weaving through bustling cityscapes and serene villages, embracing the warmth of newfound friendships and the resilience that comes from unwavering faith. Alongside friends from i6Eight Ministries and immersed in the richness of local life, we witnessed first-hand the stark societal dichotomies and the enduring spirit of communities navigating the complexities of modernity and the Zapatista movement.
Our narrative takes a heartfelt turn as we recount the profound connections made within remote villages, where the simplicity of life echoes with the purity of joy found in faith. The unique opportunity to share laughter with local children, preach in humble chapels, and witness the eagerness for biblical understanding left an indelible mark on our souls. Accompanied by Wesley Baker and Pastor Jaime, we traversed language barriers and cultural nuances, celebrating the triumphs of local churches and the significance of equipping local leaders for a future flourishing with spiritual guidance.
Concluding with a poignant reflection, we share a powerful sermon on leadership from Second Timothy that resonated deeply with the local pastors, emphasizing the necessity of nurturing the seeds of faith. Join us , and let the stories of Chiapas stir you to engage in the mission of the Gospel.
Embark with us on a transformative expedition to the heart of Chiapas, Mexico, where the road less traveled led us through a tapestry of spiritual encounters and cultural awakenings. Our recent mission trip found us weaving through bustling cityscapes and serene villages, embracing the warmth of newfound friendships and the resilience that comes from unwavering faith. Alongside friends from i6Eight Ministries and immersed in the richness of local life, we witnessed first-hand the stark societal dichotomies and the enduring spirit of communities navigating the complexities of modernity and the Zapatista movement.
Our narrative takes a heartfelt turn as we recount the profound connections made within remote villages, where the simplicity of life echoes with the purity of joy found in faith. The unique opportunity to share laughter with local children, preach in humble chapels, and witness the eagerness for biblical understanding left an indelible mark on our souls. Accompanied by Wesley Baker and Pastor Jaime, we traversed language barriers and cultural nuances, celebrating the triumphs of local churches and the significance of equipping local leaders for a future flourishing with spiritual guidance.
Concluding with a poignant reflection, we share a powerful sermon on leadership from Second Timothy that resonated deeply with the local pastors, emphasizing the necessity of nurturing the seeds of faith. Join us , and let the stories of Chiapas stir you to engage in the mission of the Gospel.
Welcome to the Be Disciples podcast with your hosts Kyle Morris and Dakota Smith. Today we have a special episode, and the special episode one is because we went on a mission trip to Mexico, you and I, and also we're recording with a video this time around.
Speaker 2:It's our first time, first time in a really long time.
Speaker 1:We did it over Zoom before back when we first started. But this is our first time with video and so we're just kind of testing it out with this episode, but we really want to share a testimony of a recent trip that we went on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from January 18th to the 24th. We just recently went on a trip to the state of Chiapas, mexico, and really we went to the border of Mexico and Guatemala and it was a pretty grueling, pretty physically, spiritually demanding trip, and so we just want to talk about those things with you and kind of let you be a visitor on our trip, so to speak, just by way of listening to some things that we want to share with you. So let's start with the chronology of the trip. How did the trip start? How did the trip go? How did the trip finish? We started out. We flew from Kansas City to Dallas, then Dallas to Mexico City, then Mexico City to Tuxedo Gutierrez. Do you remember anything in particular, just about travel there? What was special to you in that time?
Speaker 1:I don't know about special.
Speaker 2:Hanging out with me, right, just hanging out.
Speaker 1:I'm not a big, I don't really like to travel, so it's a lot of plane rides, it's a lot of waiting for your next flight, going through security, customs, kind of just the grind of trying to get to where you want to be. Right, you're excited to be there, but it's the process of getting there. I'd say the most exciting part was when we met up with the other guys in Mexico City. We got to see the guys from I-68 ministries who were meeting us down there to go with us and who actually invited us to go. So seeing them, seeing faces that you knew, giving them hugs, excited to be together for a week, that was probably the most exciting about on the way there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know when we first arrived in Mexico City. Do you remember how hard it was just to look for our basic checkpoint of where to go? I mean, the Mexico City airport is not very organized.
Speaker 1:They use letters when they should use numbers Literally and they use all kinds of weird, different You're supposed to go to Gate J and then it's really number like 34 or something Right. There is no Gate. J yeah, there's no Gate.
Speaker 2:J. The screens say J, but the actual printed material has a number. So that was really difficult, I'd say. When we were in Mexico City, do you remember? There was this random girl that was walking down like the food court area in tears. This is a common theme on mission trips, a common theme for me. We were on a mission trip in 2008 to Vienna, austria, and it was like, for whatever reason, all of these crying girls just kept being wherever we were and got a chance to pray for them and talk to them. So that happened. We also had a great conversation with an individual who she was attending a Catholic college I think it's been addicting university up in Kansas City. We got to speak to her and challenge her about the nature of salvation Is it Faith alone or is it Faith Plus Works? That was a great time, so God was already working, just ministry wise, before we met up with our own team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we also met some people from. Glorietta in Mexico City.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Camp Glorietta, Camp Glorietta in New Mexico. So it was kind of. We met people along the way. Plain rides were plain rides. None of them were too long, but mostly the waiting in between that was the hardest. But we finally get into Tuxa Gutierrez.
Speaker 2:Real quick. And the point on Camp Glorietta is that we're doing a mission trip to Mexico in the Baja area in Manasco in March, but on our way there we're stamping at Camp Glorietta, which is near Santa Fe, new Mexico. We've never been there yet, so we met, like some of the top counselors and administrators from this camp. That was just really cool. Yeah, they're there to recruit international students right there, right, yeah, so just kind of a cool little piece of the trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we get to Tuxa.
Speaker 1:It's late, it's like 11 o'clock or something we're staying in a hotel that night, yeah, before we have to make a lot of driving now to Ocosingo and then driving from Ocosingo to the actual churches and villages that we're planning on meeting. And so these drives were crazy, like everyone. It's like three hours, it was like five. Yeah, you know every time they said how many hours, you just add two more. That's the rule of thumb, yeah, and the roads were windy, elevation change, speed bumps in the highways, potholes. There's no real rules, people just drive around each other.
Speaker 2:The risk of roads being closed because of rebels or different groups.
Speaker 1:Different groups. You want to control and get some money or whatever they want. They just kind of close the roads down and you just got to wait or you got to go around, which thankfully that didn't really happen to us too much, Right.
Speaker 2:It did a couple of times. We'll get to that in a minute. The two guys with machetes yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you added the travel of plane rides, layovers, car rides, I mean, you're talking over 24 hours of travel, almost a day and a half of travel just to get to where we needed to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, and then we stayed in Tuxla that first night. Yeah, and it was beautiful.
Speaker 1:It was a beautiful hotel.
Speaker 2:We went into this. I mean it's a hotel, but it was a former house with two stories, very should I say Spanish looking, circular, railway, a pool in the front, beautiful greenery on the property. I mean it really looked like a compound, but just done in a very nice hotel like way. So we were blessed to have a really nice bed, just because the rest of the trip after that was going to be super rough. So before we went to the hotel, though, we stopped and got some street tacos. Yeah, did you enjoy those street tacos?
Speaker 1:Kyle. I did not enjoy those street tacos. I mean, they didn't even want to go. I was so tired.
Speaker 2:I was so tired. I was surprised we were stopping to eat because I was like I just want to go to bed. It's like 1230.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we stopped for tacos street. Tacos at a random place in a random street and we ate those street tacos.
Speaker 2:I thought I was going to get shot.
Speaker 1:You didn't laugh. Maybe you thought they were serious. It was definitely dangerous, but not in that sort of way. Yeah, so that night we ate street tacos and those street tacos came back to hurt me with a vengeance, to the point where I'm still figuring out and recovering from. So yeah, I got sick day one. That night, slept very poorly, got real nauseous, ended up very sick to the point where I didn't know if I was going to move forward, like I don't even get that sick at home. So I was like, what am I going to do? I just kind of got to a place where it came down to either I'm staying in this hotel for the next week by myself, or I'm pushing forward.
Speaker 2:You were ghostly white too, sweating ghostly white, I mean. Yeah, you'd been on the toilet a number of times, thrown up once, yeah. We were trying to figure out if we were going to have to stay at the hotel one additional night before moving forward. You know our team didn't know what it would do with Kyle, as he couldn't be able to go.
Speaker 1:We prayed for you multiple times so yeah, and I just spent time in prayer in that room, and this was probably the moment of the trip for me. That was like, not just because it was physically demanding, but there was a moment of faith in this process of figuring out what I'm going to do next, because I didn't come to Mexico to sit in a room. You know, we came to Mexico to share the gospel, and so I just spent time in prayer, going, lord, why? Why is this happening? Or how am I going to get through this? Strengthen me, just heal me right now, in this moment.
Speaker 1:Whatever, I just want to go so we can complete what we came to do. I want to be a part of it and so, yeah, during that moment, I finally just got to a place, you know, where the Lord spoke to me and he just said you need to put your shoes on, you need to pack up your bags, you need to walk out that door, it's time to go, and I'm still sick, like I'm like. Well, how am I going to do that?
Speaker 2:Because I paralyzed on the bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm just like laying on the bed, like I don't even want to move, and so I put my shoes on, I packed my bags, still feeling sick, and I'm like, lord, I don't think this is a good idea. You know, you're like talking back to the Lord as if you know better. And he just said no, you need to walk out that door and trust me. And so I was like well, there's something about walking out that door that I need to do, and so I'm just going to go do it. So, grab my things, walked out the door, came down and said let's go, and I did not know what the drive was going to be like, and I did.
Speaker 1:I felt so bad, I knew it was going to be long, but I didn't know it was going to be rough, I didn't know it was going to be windy, I didn't know it was going to be a trip that even if I wasn't sick, I would probably feel sick on this drive, and so stop go, stop go traffic, unexpected windy roads, windy turns.
Speaker 1:It was. It was. It was definitely rough, but the Lord provided it was that moment of stepping out in faith and just trusting God that he's going to take care of me the rest of the trip and move forward, even if it's hard and it's not fun and it's going to be a struggle the whole time. The mission is more important and I know that if I just continue to do what the Lord wants, which is to share the gospel, then he'll pave the way, and so that's what he did. Now was I completely healed and didn't, and felt great the rest of the trip? No, but it was definitely not as bad as it was and it got better gradually throughout the trip. Once I got some more sleep the next night after driving there, I was able to sleep a lot in the next morning at least had a little bit of energy, tried to stay hydrated and yeah, just from there on, just push through. It was, it was again. It was difficult, but the Lord moved, the Lord spoke to me and it was just one of those moments where you learn that through prayer. So learn that through prayer. It's important to understand.
Speaker 1:There's an element of faith, there's a part that you have to participate in. It's not just like I got healed me, I'll just stand here and tell you do it. No, god's like no. You need to step forward in faith and I will take care of you. But there's a there's an action that needs to take place, and so that action took place. And it was hard and I'm not I don't take credit, I just know that the Lord gave me the strength and the Lord provided what I needed and I did not want. There was a part of me that I just didn't want to go, because I was like there's just no way I can do this. But the Lord said no, you came for a reason and you need to go, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 2:There there's a theme of the trip where we were both confronted with intentionally having to do hard things, like when, given an option of doing what was difficult versus leaning into what was comfortable, we'd have to choose hard things and the thing about choosing comfortable things is you never, ever reach a point where it's enough comfort, like whatever.
Speaker 2:Whenever you choose comfort, that's good enough. But then what do you want next? You want more of it, and more of it, and more of it, and I think choosing hard things Builds your character, you know, builds you as a man. And so doing difficult, doing the difficult, it was really key on this trip and something that I came away with. There's another part of the trip I didn't get sick like you did, but where I could share something similar. But I was really proud of you because we put you in the front seat of the vehicle. Wesley, our missionary, who I've known for 17 years. Love him to death, but it's. He wasn't how would I say, even driving. Love Wesley, but it's not like he was cognizant of Start, go, start, stop, that sort of thing. So even even the driving was a little rough and, yeah, I was just watching you hold that handle there on the door like Put your head out the window to get some air.
Speaker 1:There are moments, like if we're driving and there's hitting me and feeling okay, but there are moments we had to stop for a little bit because, like a bridge construction, yeah, it started to get hot and I start sweating and I was like this is not gonna go well in Mexico.
Speaker 2:I don't know how they decide this, but there's literally a speed bump like every length of a football field and the most random places where speed bumps aren't needed.
Speaker 1:There's just a speed bump there, for no reason right, and they're not like big speed bumps to where you just kind of roll over them. Yeah, they're like tiny, tall ones, so you really like hit them hard. Yeah, and it was. It was not fun.
Speaker 1:I think the the part for me, looking into the trip that made it difficult to move forward was I knew the comfort of a Hotel room was over Until the very end of the trip. Yeah, I knew we were going to villages without electricity and running water. Yes, I wasn't gonna go to another location, to where I could rest in a nice bed and I could have a nice bathroom to go to if I needed to. Yeah, I knew I was gonna go to the roughest, yeah, possible situation Beansick and so that was, that was hard, like I had to buy faith. I had to buy faith. Go God, you're gonna take care of me and I'm not gonna need those things, mm-hmm, and you're gonna, you're gonna help me get through this.
Speaker 1:And so by the time we got, you know, to the first village Not that I was good, yeah, but I wasn't I definitely wasn't in rough shape anymore and you know the sleeping quarters was just sleeping on the ground. I think I slept on a couple benches pushed together some wooden benches, a couple pews, a couple pews that they had in their church, and, and that was kind of the situation the rest of you know for a few nights was, you know, sleeping on rough ground where those the concrete? In the next village, we just had sleeping bags in our pad, a little pad that we, you know, blew up with air that barely kept you off the ground and, you know, luckily the weather was pretty good, yeah, I think. And and so there were some positives, but the amenities were not what I'm used to or the luxuries in which I'm used to having each and every day, yeah, to be able to just go get water whenever I want or go get food whenever I need it. You know, we were eating what they provided in the villages, which may have been a saving grace, because it was just basic Beans, rice and chicken soup and various things, things that wouldn't hurt my stomach, things that were pretty Pretty tame, yeah, for the stomach, and so that may have been a good thing, eating those type of type of foods, and so, yeah, I was just thinking of all those things moving forward, I had to block it out and just say, lord, you're gonna take care of me and I'm just gonna keep moving forward with the team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know the team will take care of me, my best friends with me and I'm just gonna move forward, mm-hmm, and I don't want to disrupt our plans, I don't want to. I don't want to lag behind, and so the Lord provided in all of that. And I think the Lord provided in all that because the purpose of the trip was to spread the good news. That's right. It wasn't for any other selfish reason. I wanted to move forward because I wanted people to hear the gospel, and whenever the gospel is the focus and the foundation of a trip, I think God's gonna provide a way to make it happen, and so that's his will, that's what we see in scripture, and so that's what he did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's amazing when you look in scripture. Just as a side note, miracles don't happen arbitrarily. Miracles always take place when scripture is being written and developed, when God's Plan of salvation is being moved forward, when the gospel is being preached in the New Testament, like these things accompany, they ornament the gospel, and so I Actually do believe it was quite incredible. You went from ghostly, white sick, barely Able to get off the bed, all the way to sing I'm just gonna go and we'll see and to see your improvement from that moment Was. I mean, it was like bang, bang and it was really cool to see, I think, god's hand On you for the trip. So let's let's move and let's briefly talk about Wesley Baker for a brief minute and then let's talk about the travel up through the villages and what that was like, and Then some of the ministry we did in the villages.
Speaker 2:So I've known Wesley Baker, a supported missionary, through I six, eight, since I was sophomore in college. Wesley was a worship leader at my previous church that I went to in college. Wesley just married Four years ago a woman named Nelly. They have two children, so it was really good to see West. I hadn't seen him in about six years, but after our college days we stayed in touch and that sort of thing. They own a little, I guess, three-story apartment in Oco single and they've done a really great job at the place. They live really simply but they also have some of the Basics that we have, like TV and Roku and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, yeah but they?
Speaker 2:he's currently Doing Bible studies there in Oco single, working with a local pastor trying to reach Other individuals in the area either by way of evangelism or equipping. He's doing a fantastic job. It's really hard work. You know it's hard being a missionary because you often feel alone in what you're doing, and so the work is really difficult, really arduous.
Speaker 2:They're also doing a ton of ministry in the villages, because the villages largely go unreached, and, yeah, he's doing a great job. One thing that was a component to this trip that we didn't know of until we had already committed Was the the villages that we were going to. Voice of the martyrs had done like a whole segment on Chiapas, mexico. You know, on YouTube you can look it up. I think it was done in 2010, 2012, and there are Christians in these villages that had faced persecution. You know their buildings are being burned down.
Speaker 2:There were a couple of deaths because of a rebel group called the Zapatistas, and the Zapatistas are like this anti-government, marxist, socialist group that Takes it upon themselves to see to it that these Jungle villages are kept preserved in their culture and all of those things. So, even though these guys, ironically, are anti-religion, anti-capitalism, anti-government, they live the high life. They visit all these people in Europe and they do their thing, while the people in the villages in the jungle are still utterly poor. Nothing has improved, and so it was crazy. What I'm trying to say is is it's crazy, as we drove to this location it was probably six hours total to get to our first destination, jungle driving and and you'd go through one village and they'd have electricity. So it's a pro-government village and the help the homes would be at least in better condition made out of block made out of block rather than wood Planks.
Speaker 2:Then you'd go five miles down the road, you get to another village and there'd be the sign that says Zapatista Village in Spanish, and no capitalistas, no capitalists here. No religio, no religion, no, nothing like and it. You know it's black and red colors.
Speaker 2:It looks like that's black super, star, yeah, super terrius looking and stuff, and so, anyway, you know, the people in those villages look a little more downtrodden they're the expression their countenance on their face looks a little more worn. I think for the most part, they're just farmers that want to live, but Ironically, it seems like they're oppressed by the people who are advocating for them, which seems to always be how it goes, doesn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 1:it was very interesting to drive through and you know you're driving through their villages. I mean you're not stopping cuz yeah, I want you to, but yeah, you're driving through and the people are kind of looking at you and some people would wave and say hello.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and but you just kind of had to go through all this like rebel territory Just to get to the villages that aren't a part of that, yeah and so, yeah, it was kind of. I don't know if it was scary or not, you know, they just look like regular people doing their thing.
Speaker 1:You just don't know who's behind the villages or who's yeah, you just who has ulterior motives or right, and you, you're kind of going in and you know you're going in and they're seeing you, so you're kind of like, well, on the way out, are they waiting? Yeah, are they looking for us after this?
Speaker 2:That was at least our thought, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, and you've had that experience before in the Philippines, so yeah, where they do start tracking you and they're trying to figure out where you are because they don't want you there, and so there's a little bit of that in your back of your mind. But we did have, you know, wesley with us, and then we had a local traveling pastor, yeah, named Jaime Jaime, and Awesome, he knew Spanish and the local language of the villages. Because so tell, yeah, and they did not speak Spanish, so we needed him and he travels to these villages on a regular basis. So he kind of had the end. He was the friendly face. When people saw him they knew, hey, everything's safe, we trust him and he's built those relationships.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it was a, it was a hard drive, it was. It was muddy, as big, old, like holes in the ground. We had a drive there's like four by four and you know, and you're in the jungle, you know, and we went through so many different elevation changes and different things that it was. It was really cool to see God's creation in that way. I'd never been in a jungle like other than Jamaica, a little bit as a rainforest, but that was a big jungle, lots of mountains and so very very fun, two things that happened on the way there.
Speaker 2:So so tau is the original Mayan language. So we were straight up in old school, like Mayan territory, and we passed what they believe is the Highest elevated Structure, mayan ruins it's called to Nia, and we unfortunately we didn't get to visit it, but we drove past it and it seemed like it was maybe mile off in the distance and we had this, this great open area to see the whole thing as we were driving out. That was beautiful. We also stopped at a Wasn't a gas station, but more of a because they didn't have gas, but it's like a roadside convenience store, a roadside convenience store when, before you break off the paved road and you go on to the dirt road, people stop for soda and chips and that sort of thing. And it was really cool because we had the opportunity to share the gospel there, like we purchased our drinks and our chips.
Speaker 2:Wesley and Jaime were translating and I thought this is the coolest thing that when the gospel is being communicated you know there's may seem like 15 people there and it ended up being maybe 30 35 and To see people not walk away and dismiss it like they would in America, but to see people congregate and to be like magnetized towards the message was really, really cool.
Speaker 2:And and I Think that was important for Wesley to see, because Wesley wrestles with evangelism and he told me. He said, you know, that was my favorite part on the trip, because I wrestled with just jumping in and sharing the gospel. And he said, after what happened it makes me think, oh, it's not that difficult, like I should do that more often. And he said, he told me afterwards, the reason why they were congregating is because the gospel is, like, basically prohibited in many of those villages, and so they were listening to something they'd never heard of before the gospel of grace, not of works, but of grace, and so that was a really big encouragement to just see the movement of the Lord. And in that aspect of the trip it unplanned a ministry opportunity, and so that was before we broke off into some of the the most thrilling jungle travels, I guess you'd say yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So then we, we went to. The first village we went to was the furthest one away, I don't know what it was called. I don't know what the village is called. I know there was 90 people in this village was the number, and really the church we visited there was really just a family. That was the church. You know, I think you know moms and dads and some some children, yeah, and there wasn't very many, maybe what eight, ten.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something like that church of ten people. The one, the man he looked about my age, I I think he's a pastor because he can read.
Speaker 1:He has a.
Speaker 2:Bible and he can read. And this village is located at the end of the road. So, in a very literal sense, where the dirt road ended and the jungle started, that's where the village was. So we took this road as far as we could go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is there's no law enforcement, there's no anything Like. This is a people group that you know they govern themselves. You know things that happen in that village that they consider against the law they handle themselves. So it's just, you're in a whole new kind of like I kind of wild west, you know who's just handled by the town.
Speaker 1:You know they just handled by the people. That's exactly what it felt like and that's how they lived. You know they're farmers. They build everything themselves. The food is something that they gathered themselves. They do a little bit of selling things in the city to make some money for maybe some supplies, where they'll make that trip every now and again. But really this village didn't have electricity, didn't have running water. Yeah, it was pretty much as bare minimum as it gets wooden structures, the churches made out of wood, their houses were just made out of wooden planks, I believe, like they slept in, like hammocks, which probably would have been a better idea. I should have brought a hammock, I know it. Next time that'll be the case. And then, yeah, but it was when we arrived to this first one, the first thing we saw was this woman who was the?
Speaker 1:mother of the church who was preparing food and getting ready for us to be there. But once we arrived she just burst out in tears because she was so happy that we would come all that way to visit them that they had guests. You could tell she had a. It was more of a weeping.
Speaker 1:Yeah like a spirit of hospitality she had, but that is not a thing she does very often and so it was just, yeah, a weeping of thankfulness. You could just say she was excited that we were there and she was grateful. And so when you get that reception, maybe those things you've been thinking in your head and building up about the dangers or the different stuff, or how are these people gonna be?
Speaker 1:all that kind of just drops and you go oh, we are welcomed here and they want us to be here and they're excited about it, and so I'm excited about it. So that kind of changed at least my attitude a little bit. It actually softened me up a little and I didn't feel like I had to look out for anything. I could just be there and be with them and try to get to know them the best we could. We didn't know their language, but it kind of got an idea of a little bit of who they are and how they live and what they're doing. So it was a cool moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they gave us their best to fresh, handmade corn tortillas. Whatever these black beans were that they literally dug out of the soil up the mountain behind them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they grow them in some sort of sandy soil up in the mountains and it's like the only place you can grow them. But these beans were good. They were good.
Speaker 2:It tasted very different than the beans. I've had Power. Everybody was tooting yeah.
Speaker 1:That's like putting in the church that night.
Speaker 2:Man, that was like jet fuel or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, you know they made. They even went to town, I think, and bought eggs for us. Yes, so we could have eggs. You know we had chicken. Most of these villages have chicken but there was plenty of food. Yeah, too much, I couldn't eat at all. Yeah, but it was very. They had a. They call it a coffee, but it's kind of like it's some sort of like a seed or some sort of bean in the jungle that they soak in this tea and it's very sweet. They had some sugar and it tasted fine and they'd serve it hot. So that was good. It doesn't have any caffeine or anything, but it was a good drink and that was pretty much in all the villages same drink, same food. But very hospitable, wanted us to make sure we had everything we needed.
Speaker 2:And that night we preached. Three of us preached and keep in mind, preaching there is a little different than here, so our sermons are more like 10 minutes long because of so many jumps and translations. So I preached out of the encouragement of Jesus to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. You preached on John 3.
Speaker 1:John 3, yeah, nicodemus being born again and what that means. Yeah, so sharing the gospel from Jesus provides it. It's not something we earn. It's something that Nicodemus had to make the change to be born again in Jesus Christ and not in of his works and his knowledge, cause Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He knew a lot.
Speaker 2:And so the next morning we also did a. So that first service was at night, outside by the fire, with our headlamps on, holding our Bibles, preaching to them in the dark. It was a little different fun, you know, it's like camping. But and then the next morning, what was what this have been? Sunday morning woke up, did a church service there. We had Danny Valenzuela with us from I-68. He played in, led worship and then we actually did a Q and A with them where they had some theological questions and we got to speak to them, bring some clarity to some things. This, this church, I would say, was and I don't mean this to degrade them maybe one of the most unreached and unhealthiest. Just, it didn't seem like that strong leadership. There was only one man, you know it was. This is really tough, so we need to pray for God's church right there in that village.
Speaker 1:That you know, I know it's not an unwillingness.
Speaker 2:No, it's not Of the people, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's mostly just an education kind of level. Got one guy who can read. They can't like they can't like read the Bible on their own and so they it goes through somebody else and so they can only really get those teachings at those times. So I do think they could you know, and I don't know what their day to day is always like. That's right, but definitely prioritizing sometime in the word each day, if they could, would be probably very helpful.
Speaker 2:I just mean it was a little more difficult to do any sort of training there because you're starting from such a different base, and so I thought the Q and A was really helpful for them, just to at least see you know you answer the questions you have with the Bible itself in context itself. And that was that was a good start. So from there we traveled to the second village called San Francisco, which was about an hour away, an hour away through the jungle still. But this is a community of a couple hundred families, not a hundred families, but a couple hundred people, which is it's council led, you know.
Speaker 1:Yep elders.
Speaker 2:Elder led community from the tribe. You had to go through some extreme mountain passes to get there super steep. We picked up some guys walking to the village on the way, put them in the back of the truck and rode up with them.
Speaker 1:And we had some in our vehicle too, some in the vehicle too.
Speaker 2:And then we spent about a day and a half there, got there and there were kids everywhere that was really encouraging to see. And then, of course, we were there to encourage a church. So what do you remember about that second location? Yeah, I'll finish with the pastoral training side and the preaching, but what do you remember about that village?
Speaker 1:Pulling up and seeing all the kids. That was my first like impression was we pulled up and there was a group of probably 20 to 30 children, it seemed like half the town was children. All these children, and they were. They were lively. I mean, you saw life in this village. It wasn't like, oh, poor village back in the jungle that has nothing. These kids were like playing soccer, running around, having a good time, and you could see that it was a little bit different than the first village.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a lot of electricity electricity you know, much, but they'd been there since, I think he said, 1995 and they built out of this village and this village kind of sits in this basin where the jungle walls surround it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's beautiful. Pictures don't justice yeah it's.
Speaker 1:It's an amazing setting for a place to live. They definitely seem to be a little bit more, you know, aggressive in their way of life, like in the sense of building buildings at brick buildings, concrete floors and some of the buildings. A lot more horses and animals Again. Like Tristie, they even had Wi-Fi that you could purchase.
Speaker 2:So government has three hours at a time.
Speaker 1:Three hours at a time For like a dollar or something like that, and the government has grants where they put them in. So they seem to be a little bit more advanced In the direction that they're going, and so that was. That was a lot of fun. I played soccer with some of the kids. I know you were chasing some of the little kids around as a blast.
Speaker 2:I felt like I was hanging out with my own kids.
Speaker 1:I mean, I got a picture of you in the back of the truck Preaching, sharing Bible stories to the kids and they were all around listening and I taught them on the subject of marriage, why marriage is important to God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we had a. There's a couple little kids. They definitely had I Didn't know the exact words they were saying both some potty mouths, yeah, but they would wrestle with you. You would, you know, just wrestle and tickle them and have fun, and just they just loved have been there and hanging out with you. Yeah, they took us back to their source of water, which is this big cave where they're. They have pipes that go into this cave, where this running water, where they get the water for their town, and so they like let's go back there. So we kind of hiked a little hike back there, but it just seemed there was like there was a lot of life in this town. It seemed like it didn't seem depressing or dreary. It seemed like people were excited to live there, excited for their life there, and the church building was full that night, yeah, of people. So yeah, I just think, from a first impression it seemed like they cared, not that the first village didn't, but there seemed to be more advancement.
Speaker 2:Yes, village than the first. Yeah, they had more opportunity. I did some reading on the village of San Francisco when I got, when I arrived home and and apparently a number of them migrated from like it was either Columbia or Guatemala, from the drug cartels. They escaped like Basically slavery, came and settled there so that they could practice their faith more openly and whatnot. So that was a blessing to read after the trip. And then I would say you know, you walk into the church service at night and man, the music was so loud culturally I was not used to that too loud. I mean the bass. We're not talking like you know, just a little bit loud. We're talking like, yeah, I mean I'm like it hurts you a little bit.
Speaker 2:But the church, the women and Children sat on one side and the fathers and their little boys sat on the other side of the aisle. That was really unique to see. We both had an opportunity to preach from a book of Acts, chapter 4.
Speaker 2:Yes and I Preached on revelation 1 how the Bible says when Jesus returns, every eye will see him. And the basic point was it doesn't matter whether you're here or an Oko single or in America or China or Africa, when he returns you will see him. And Then we got a chance to encourage the, the men, and to be good husbands and good fathers. We got to pray for the man. It was a I thought it was a really moving service, mm-hmm, and they're very very appreciative.
Speaker 1:I could just you know their body language. Yeah, the way they responded, and I think the the next morning after that they were, before we left all those men Were outside lined up, lined up to say goodbye to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so you could definitely tell there was a sense of encouragement that we're able to bring and for their families or marriages. But ultimately you know, to hear the gospel, to be reminded that the gospel isn't works-based. Salvation isn't works-based, but it's the grace of God, and so that's a message we were driving in each, each place we were at was we want to make sure you know the real gospel with with heavy Catholic influence.
Speaker 2:They're Sometimes can be an unhealthy relationship between faith and works there, and so you kind of just want to make sure that you hammer at home like a healthy, righteous life is lived as a form of saying Thank you to Jesus, not as a means to earning salvation with Jesus.
Speaker 1:Plus, they had a very interesting. I think they struggle with handling conflict well, because some of these villages had I don't know how many denominations. Yeah, there's like eight churches there, so it seemed like oh, we disagree on this, so we'll just go start our own church.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I don't think that's the way to handle disagreement. So there was definitely this church was probably one of the largest. Yes, I mean, they have a lot of people. The other churches were smaller but they were like four Church of Christ's in one village. Because they all had a disagreement on something, so they started their own church. So very just kind of interesting, where they weren't able to handle their, their differences.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is technically a Presbyterian church that we went to, but you know, you got to understand Presbyterian in America or whatever it might be like, denominationally speaking it's. They may not even know the great distinctions themselves, but it was more evangelical than than the rest. Yeah, and we did do a little bit of pastoral training with the leadership, you know I'd say what five to seven guys and taught them how to interpret narrative genre as they're working through the Bible. So that was really good. The food was fantastic but, yeah, this was a very lively village. So then we come back, we head back to Oco Shingo, which was.
Speaker 2:We went Maybe a four-hour drive. All the way back the Lord actually just told me get into the back of the truck, don't ride inside, get in the back, ride down the mountain. Because I wanted to choose to do something difficult, like I really respected what you did coming up, and I just, scott and I, got in the back of the truck. We picked up a couple of Um Travelers down the mountain on the way. I got totally sunburnt. Yeah, it was actually really rough, really hard on my back. I I sat on a cooler in between, like underneath me in the bed of the truck for the whole ride down but got to see God's creation and I was so sore and exhausted I smelled like exhaust after. But on the way down we got stopped maybe five times for A toll, toll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had there these guys that the government doesn't clean the sides of the roads or doesn't clear the jungle, the overgrowth, yeah, and so people take it upon themselves to get their machetes and to chop down the grass and the trees along the roads and set up their own tolls, which is putting branches in the road, some of them with their children, manning the branches, stopping traffic and asking for money To get by, and so that's pretty much an unofficial toll for clearing the roads. Uh, a little bit of a shake down, I would say.
Speaker 2:basically a toll, but well, and there are pros, appetista or zapatista themselves, yeah, and so they. I think they recognize this is an opportunity to practice capitalism, although we say we don't believe in that. I thought that was really interesting.
Speaker 1:We don't believe in capitalism, but we're going to take advantage of this entrepreneurial opportunity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's okay if you buy soda and chips from us, but yeah, yeah. So just some irony.
Speaker 1:It was at least four times we got stopped at least, because I remember Wes getting upset, like he told the guy on like the fourth one. I already gave you guys money back there, that's right, I'm not giving you more money.
Speaker 2:I'm just gonna keep driving yeah so it was.
Speaker 1:It was definitely An interesting experience to, because you're sitting there going. It's just a stick.
Speaker 2:And if you just keep going, they have contacts in the next village. They'd probably stop you a little more heavily in the next village and and threaten you. So, um, that was interesting. We got back to Ocosingo, which is a little I'd say it's like a city of 50,000 or so where west lives. We stopped at pastor Hi Mace house, yeah, and they served us from fresh pescato, some fresh Fish. Oh yeah, it was so good and that was one of the most refreshing meals I've had my whole life.
Speaker 1:Because it was like it was. The fish was really good, but it was like cucumber and like just fresh vegetables and onions and tomatoes salsa and it was very fresh, very you know it just kind of caught the day before. Yeah, it's caught the day before and you know it rejuvenated me a little bit. Yeah, some some different food, especially some meat, some some fish. It was light but it was filling at the same time. So very grateful for his, for his hospitality as well.
Speaker 2:And then that night, after we rested at west's house for like a half hour, we went to one last church In a village about an hour away not too far away, but really it was a two and a half hour drive.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This church was massive, at least the building. The building was yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean brand new tile, walls, pillars, paint, everything, yeah, and uh, new pews. This was maybe one of my favorite moments. I preached out of Second Timothy, chapter four, paul's final words to Timothy to preach the word, be ready in season and out of season to train up leaders, stuff like that. There's gonna come a time where people have itching ears and you know what like, uh, basically, this opportunity it wasn't the church but we, it was their whole leadership team and then their women's leadership team and we just had an opportunity to say like, if you don't prioritize training up leaders, you will have a beautiful building with nobody in it. And there was like this boldness that just came over me. One of the leaders was crying as he was hearing this, like realizing we could have a beautiful building but if we don't pass on the faith you, you don't have an ongoing faith here in this location yeah and I.
Speaker 2:You know they served us dinner afterwards, but that was maybe where I felt the Lord with me the strongest in that sermon and my prayer is that they would Prioritize. We gave examples of what it looks like to invest in new leaders, to not hold it to yourself but to keep passing it on, and that was a really just touching moment for me. So To conclude the trip with that, I was Pretty excited. You know like that topped it off for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and really after that it was, it was pretty much just Stage by stage travel all the way back. Yes, but one of the things we did throughout the whole trip Was we study God's word.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's true With all as a team, as a team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we as, so we we took different passages Throughout scripture, different really.
Speaker 2:We kind of stuck with one genre narrative, narrative we did the Red Sea crossing, david and Goliath, yep, and then Sinakarib in Assyria coming against Hezekiah.
Speaker 1:It's in Isaiah 36 and 37 and so we, we were able to study God's word together, help equip Thy six, eight guys, yes and just have good conversation, be in the word together. And so there was the element of prayer being in the word together, preaching the word, building relationships, reaching these people. And so it was, you know, a multifaceted Trip. It wasn't just focused on one thing. We tried to ensure that it wasn't just travel and Ignore the word and just preach it when we, when it's convenient. All of our free time was in the word, but we were in the word the whole time. Every time we stopped, either, had a meal, we're at Wessa's house in the villages in the morning, whatever that was, we spent time in the word, and so we try to use our time To the best of our abilities, to to grow in our walk.
Speaker 2:Well, and what came out of that Was now the hope and the expectation for next year. And so we already do our pastoral training for pastors in September. We've done that two years in a row in Panasco, in Panasco. This, this coming September will be our third year where we do that. But the idea that's now come out of this trip is, hey, next year, rather than spending all this time on the travel, we're gonna then stay in Oco Shingo, we're not gonna go back to the villages, where it's a little more risky, but we're gonna invite, we're gonna bring down, we're gonna pay for the pastors to.
Speaker 2:This is I68 talking Mm-hmm. I68 now wants to bring the pastors from the villages, put them in a hotel state, get a conference room and do a pastoral training for these Unreached pastors and the village areas. And so if we go back next year, we won't travel back to see them, but they'll come to us and we'll spend all this time just training and equipping them. I68 as an organization, they have their specialty with the house builds, but they're starting to transition to equipping more of like a seminary, like ministry Mm-hmm, where they're. They're starting to train, you know, pastors in the area so that you don't just have the physical Necessities met, you have the spiritual and I really appreciate that about them. So the Lord will bring it to pass. But there's really talking about it. I'm tired. I'm reminded of how tiring all of that was yeah we came back.
Speaker 1:There's a massive fog storm you know and can, even could barely barely see driving back? Yeah, I mean, we traveled another 20 hours to get back, do you? Remember coming in from Mexico City to Dallas with the pilot said yeah, the pilot was like hey, we're about to hit some really bad turbulence, like when the pilot uses those words, I'm like really bad. Not just we're gonna hit a little rough patch.
Speaker 2:No, we know what really bad turbulence is. Yeah, we were coming from Vienna to Chicago one time and it was like free falling in the air.
Speaker 1:Yeah, turbulence, it was terrible, your stomach was in your throat.
Speaker 2:So when this, when the pilot said that, I was like oh man, do you mean like turbulence, like I've known it once before? Or do you mean like just a little bump, little bumpy? We both prayed. Yep, never had any turbulence landing. Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was. There was definitely blessings and reminders of of God being right there with us the whole time, yeah, you know, and having faith that those things would happen, and not doubting. You know, I think times when we doubt is when we're unsure of our own belief, not what God can do, but I think when you're in a moment of Truly understanding what you believe and being put in that moment of a tough situation but saying I'm gonna do it anyways, you, you really start to learn who God is and what he can do and how he can provide, and sometimes it's not easy. I mean, we see all throughout scripture, you know, people came to Jesus. In Whatever circumstance they were in, they put their faith out there.
Speaker 1:And I said, you know, kind of reminds me of the woman who who had been Bleeding for years, if I could just touch his, his cloak, if I could just touch his cloak, I could just get through this crowd and I could just touch his cloak, I would be healed. Yeah, and it's like that. She took the steps forward, she put faith in Jesus Christ. She did, she, she knew, she believed God always had the power, but she took that, that step in her suffering To, to come to the Lord, and so I think those moments in our life are, you know, obviously you don't want those every day, because they're hard and tough and they wouldn't be, as if it was there every day too.
Speaker 1:But but I think they are important to be in those situations as a believer, to not stay comfortable, to test your faith, to to have those testings and and to go out there and do it. You know, when I first heard of the trip, I was all about it let's go. You know, I think if I knew what was gonna happen, I would have been like nope.
Speaker 2:You had a lean in the comfort lean in the comfort now staying home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my wife's pregnant, it's probably just better. I could come up with a thousand excuses.
Speaker 2:Right, I've got a bunch of kids.
Speaker 1:We're leading a church right, there's plenty to do here, there's a lot of ministry, yeah, but there was a moment for us to get out of that, to go do something uncomfortable and To just put our faith At the forefront and to really live sent as we talk about in our church. You know, I know church family You're the ones that are gonna listen to this podcast, that's right More than anybody else. So really, you know, we went on this trip because we want to encourage the church that there. We need to go on these trips more as a church not just you and I, but as a church, continue to go into the mission field, continue to go reach the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1:I remember multiple times on this trip you said, man, this is the ends of the earth, it is, this is the last village in the jungle, yeah, and so we need to stretch our faith and get out of our comfort zone. And Because it really does grow you, it really does stretch you, it sanctifies you, and Faster than maybe just the day-to-day grind of what's going on now. You know, not everybody's life circumstances in a place. Maybe right now you are struggling in something and you are being sanctified right now here in Ottawa, kansas, and that is totally fine, but I do think there's times where we have to step out of what is normal and we have to do things that we're uncomfortable with, and when we do that, we grow and we understand God more, I think if I were to conclude, but just a couple of thoughts.
Speaker 2:Here's some things that I would say. Number one we have an upcoming trip to Mexico and the Baja area, march 8th to the 16th. We still have room for five to seven people to go. So church family, I'm praying that the Holy Spirit would keep knocking on your heart and you would say I'm gonna go on that trip, no matter what. I'm gonna get out of my comfort zone, I'm gonna sacrifice something. I'm going. Please let that be you. We need five to seven more people, so that's a practical thing.
Speaker 2:Second, it was really good to pray for the Lord to protect us while we were there under pressure, and to pray for my wife and to pray for my children so that when I came home I tell you what I first saw my children at co-op. We hold a co-op here on Thursday mornings. I came home and individually went to each of their classrooms and Pulled them out of class and just hug them and held them and cried because my prayer was Lord, I don't really think this is like super, super risky, but Nevertheless I pray that you'd give my family back to me. They are yours More than they belong to me. They belong to you first, but let me return and be reunited with them so that they gave me a great appreciation for life and for my family.
Speaker 2:Coming back here, and it's like when you're taken out of your comfort zone you're reminded of what you have. And In coming back and being reminded of what I have, it makes me want to be that much. Better of a husband, better of a parent and a daddy, yeah, better of a pastor, better of a friend. It's almost like when you put it all on the line because of Jesus, you remember who belongs first. To begin with, jesus belongs first, you know. You don't even count your life at all as anything, but put him at the forefront. And so I think these trips Remind you that Jesus must be at the forefront. And when you're forced to do that and you have to do that you come back different. So do that. You know, to our church family.
Speaker 2:Last is this is our church vision to live. Sent John 20, 21. Jesus said just as the father has sent me, so I now send you my disciples the vision of the church. What does vision mean? It's who you want to become. Who do we want to become as a church? We want to become a church that values Jesus so much that we go in the same manner that Jesus went Incarnationally going, loving people, giving them God's word being a blessing to them for salvation. In some facet, our, our people need to get out there and to go, whether it's in Ottawa, around Kansas, around the country and other countries. We need to be people who get equipped in the pew To leave the pew, yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you all for listening to the be disciples podcast. We hope that you enjoyed this episode on our trip to Mexico and next week we'll start getting back into the book of acts and Pastor David will join us as well. He's actually sitting behind the camera today listening to us Making a weird face, so he'll be back on. We're excited to get back in the rhythm of doing our podcasts and ministry. Have a blessed week you.