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Slowly
our vans make their way down a steep grade, along the dusty road to one of
Tijuana’s many "colonias". The sights and smells are quite “different”.
It is hard to believe that we are just a few miles south of the US border. What
people call their home here is made up of a few pieces of scrap lumber, tin
and whatever material they can find to make a shelter. Raw sewage runs down an
open concrete channel filled with all sorts of litter. Our vans stop at a fenced
in basketball court. We unload our gear and soon are surrounded by a bunch of
kids. They want to see what these “brown Americans” have come for. A saintly
elderly Mexican lady welcomes us personally, expressing how happy she is to see
us. Some of us get out balls, Frisbees, balloons and other items to play with
the local kids. They enjoy the attention and they like to beat us at a friendly
game of soccer. Other members of our team make their way to some of the homes to
invite young and old to our open-air service at the court.
 As
we try to begin our service a few minutes later we discover that not all of our
tapes with the background music for the skits have been packed—so we have to
improvise. It amazed us how calm everybody stayed. After all, they worked hard on
learning their skits and songs and now they can’t use them—at least not at
this time. We are thankful for this experience, because it reflects what can
happen when we desire to serve the Lord. Despite of our best efforts we often
encounter circumstances beyond our control. We have 
the choice to belly ache
about it or to continue to trust the Lord that He’ll come through
nevertheless. Two of our team get to share a testimony. After a while someone shares a
message about how our heavenly Father has created everyone in His image and that
He, just like the father in the story of the lost son is looking out
for us everyday to come back into his family. When the call is given, a young
woman with child comes forward to accept God’s gift of salvation. Some of our
young people get to pray and rejoice with this new member of God’s family. In
the background, Angele, prayed for a mother and her little child with
a cleft palate and tumor on his mouth. An older gentlemen comes forward to
receive prayer for a health problem with the gentle prodding of a friend.
All of
us leave this place with a renewed sense of God’s love for all people and his
compassionate heart to reach out to them through us. It is our prayer that
everyone on our team comes away with the insight that the Lord can and will use
them if they make themselves available to Him.
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