Q-2: Do you think of your life or your job as your mission in life?

Q: How do I discern when, and when not, to use my life, time, and talents to make God’s world a better place for people who struggle just to exist?

Bethany Nelson:

Whenever I read this story about Jesus calling the disciples, I am amazed at their willingness to drop everything to follow him. Their families, their jobs, their familiar way of life – they leave it all to follow Jesus. And, according to the story, they do it immediately. They didn’t tell Jesus they would check their calendars and get back to him next week. No, they immediately dropped their nets and followed.

Jesus also calls each one of us to follow him. To live as he lived, to love as he loved, to serve as he served. We are all his sheep. How do you respond to the call? Do you befriend that person at work or at school that no one else can seem to get along with? Do you take time out of your schedule to volunteer your time to help those in need? Two weeks ago, 22 youth and 9 adults from this congregation decided to answer Jesus’ call by spending a week in Tijuana, Mexico building two homes for families in need. They left behind friends, family, TV, video games, even running water, in order to serve. Some of them are here today to share with you their experiences from the week. Matt Quick, who is a four-year veteran of this trip, is going to begin by explaining a little about what exactly goes in to building these houses. Also, Matt, would you talk about why you have decided to go on this trip for four straight years?

Matt Quick:

The first day of building is dedicated to cement . . . a lot of cement. We use 4 by 6 foot black basins to mix the cement, then we pour it into an 11 by 22 form, which makes the floor of the house. The second day is dedicated to walls. Hopefully we will have built some walls on the first day, and we can get them put up by the end of the second day, as well as the roof. On the third day we put bailing wire, tarpaper, and chicken wire on the walls, as well as tar paper and roofing paper on the roof to provide waterproofing. On the fourth day is stucco, which is cement without rocks, which gives the walls a waterproof finish. We also put in the windows and doors that day.

As for why I’ve gone for four years. I haven’t been as fortunate as some of the people to get out of school in May, so finishing school two days before the trip seems like a daunting task - to not have any relaxing time. But it’s actually surprisingly easy. From the start, when I get to come help load the trailer and see everyone’s smiling faces, I know that everyone I’m with cares about what we’re doing and feels strongly about why we’re going down there. It helps to know that everyone who is going cares about everyone else and what we’re going for. I also like building, so that gives me something to do. But also, I like to go down there to serve God. The first time I went, it gave me the sensation that I was doing something for someone else, and that it was helping me build myself as well as building relationships with other people and with God. For some reason, the work was surprisingly easy and I never got tired. Even if I was exhausted at the end of the day and I stayed up until two in the morning, I could still go back the next day and work as hard as I had the day before, and that was a really powerful feeling for me.

Bethany:

Matt makes it sound so easy, but trust me, it’s not. We left camp each morning at 8 to go to the worksite, and didn’t return until at least 6. Some days it was closer to 7 or 8. We worked 10 to 12 hour workdays to finish the two houses. It also requires a lot of creativity. The sites are basically small, empty pieces of land with a little manual on how to build a house. We were very thankful for those who had gone on the trip for a few years and knew what they were doing, and could lead the rest of us. Working this long and this hard together requires a lot of teamwork and cooperation. Carolyn would you describe some of the teamwork you experienced at your site?

Carolyn Devoto:

On day one, when we laid our slab of cement, we had two mixing basins inside the form boards, with a pair of people mixing each one. When a mixing basin was ready, we poured it in, and started smoothing. This method is pretty standard, and it works quite nicely until you have about two-thirds of the slab laid, and it becomes increasingly difficult to fit four people and two huge basins inside the form boards. The situation is not impossible to solve, but at our work site, it was certainly a challenge given that three sides of the new house were surrounded by cinderblock walls. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to simply move the basins around the perimeter of the house as we pleased. The cement mixers stood thinking for a minute, and I was the first to suggest a plan of action of how to finish the slab. Now that we had completed a majority of the slab moving left to right, I thought we could finish it moving top to bottom, gradually moving out of the form boards and leaving the basins there as long as possible. I thought this would be most effective and the best way to avoid wading around in wet cement.

When I proposed this idea, I did my best to explain what I meant, using my hands to demonstrate what I’d worked out in my head. And they agreed that it was a marvelous idea. I was proud of my intuitiveness. The first step in carrying it out was changing the position of the basins. As the others began doing so, I noticed they weren’t doing as I had intended. How could they have misinterpreted my flawless demonstration? I objected, and in clarifying, discovered that the way they had interpreted my idea made much more sense. I got them started, then they enlightened me. Our ideas were different, but a combination of them both was just the ticket. With the help of my original suggestion, five or six more bright young minds, and a minor misunderstanding, we come up with the perfect solution to a potentially messy situation. Moments like this one kept us sharp on the work site and reminded us to keep our heads where they belonged.

Bethany:

Another challenge on this trip was that most of us did not speak Spanish. We were very grateful for the few youth who did speak Spanish and who were our link to the families for whom we were building. Genevieve was the one on my work site who was wonderful in her ability to translate anything we needed, and could also connect with the family using the Spanish language. Genevieve, would you share about what it was like to be a translator?

Genevieve Gray:

On my work site, I was the only one who could speak Spanish, and it was really useful because we were able to know exactly where the mother of the family wanted to put the windows and the doors. We were able to learn that the dad had power tools, which helped because the roof of their original dwelling ran into the roof of the house we built. It was also really nice because when we prayed with the family, I was able to translate. The mom had so much faith, even though they had so little. They lived in a house with one room and a bunkbed. That’s all they had. It was so nice to see how much faith she had in God – that she kept going even though they had so little.

Bethany:

When we first arrived at the work site, before we did anything else, the mother led us in prayer and Genevieve translated. At the end, we blessed the site and gave the family the keys to the new house. Again the mother spoke to us about how much faith she had, and how she had been praying to God for the house to be built. How she knew that God had sent us there to build it for her. It was very moving for us all.

Of the 31 people on the trip, 14 of us were there for the very first time. Thank goodness for the veterans who showed us what to do. Katherine and Jenny were two that were there for the first time. Would you share with us what it was like to be a rookie?

Katherine Doyle:

Going into the trip we didn’t know what to expect. We knew that we would be building two houses and helping two families, but we weren’t sure what else would happen.

Jenny Larsen:

I was a little nervous going on the trip, because I didn’t know many people. I thought that everyone would have their own group to hang out with. But then I realized it really wasn’t that important.

Katherine:

I also didn’t know very many people, but I went on the trip because I thought it would be a great experience, which it was. The trip was so much fun, and I really learned a lot from it. Everyone got to know each other throughout the trip, and it was an awesome experience. I think the trip turned out something like I had expected, but there were many surprises along the way. I didn’t think we would really get to know the local kids, but we taught them some American ways.

Jenny:

This trip made me realize how lucky I am. I learned many things from this experience. One thing I learned is that it doesn’t matter the amount of money or the size of house you have, it’s the love you have between your family and peers. Mexico is a community of love. Everyone there seems to know each other. It was as if the community was one whole family brought together. To me that felt really special and made me feel loved too. We are both so glad we went on this Mexico trip, and we encourage others to make a difference in the world.

Bethany:

The main purpose of the trip is to build houses and serve the families, but one thing Katherine and Jenny mentioned is the added bonus of how much better we get to know each other as a youth group. The time we get to spend at camp together sharing the stories of the day is very important. Each morning we began the day with small group devotions. This was a time to share and reflect about our experiences on the trip. We also studied a different scripture each day and discussed how it applied to our lives and our own personal paths following Jesus. Stan would you share about what the devotions meant to you?

Stan Nowak:

The first day of work we were given the scripture that was read earlier about Peter and Andrew dropping their fishing nets to follow Jesus immediately. We were given the question, "What does it mean to you to follow Jesus?" You could take the stance that Peter and Andrew did, and go to the extreme, drop your entire life and devote everything to following Jesus and following God. But in this day and age that’s a difficult thing to do, since we’re surrounded by obligations from school, from work, and from our daily lives. For me, following Jesus is simply just to think about what he stood for and what he represented, and take that into account when making decisions for your life, and using that to govern the way you live your life.

The second day we talked about integrity. We were given a scripture from Proverbs, "The righteous walk in integrity – happy are the children who follow them!" We talked about what integrity meant. To me, integrity is honesty, but in talking more about it, it’s really about what you do when nobody is looking and nobody will find out. One of our group leaders, Chuck Quick, gave us the situation that you’re at a fast food restaurant and they give you five dollars extra in change. The question is what will you do with it? Will you give it back, or will you walk off with the five dollars? This is about integrity because nobody will find out if you walk off with it. But it’s about the kind of person you are. If you have integrity, you will give back the five dollars.

The third day was about excuses. We were given a scripture from Matthew. "Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." We talked about how excuses govern our lives. How when there’s something we don’t want to do, we come up with a way to get out of it. If there’s a pressing demand, we come up with something to delay or procrastinate. We are often like this disciple who wanted to follow Jesus, but he didn’t want to give everything up right away, so he asked first to bury his father. He made an excuse, but Jesus asks us not to do that.

Bethany:

The youth are definitely the meat of this trip – they are the reason we go on this trip - but it certainly couldn’t happen without the adult leaders, who take a week off from work to participate. They do it simply because they love the youth, and they love to serve. Roland was one of the adult leaders this year. Would you share a little from the adult perspective on the trip?

Roland Galli:

It was an honor to go with the kids this year. I went a couple years ago and ended up getting sick, so I missed out on a lot of it. They are a very special group of people to give up a week of their summer, when they would much rather be sleeping, playing video games, or going to the beach. But they go down to Mexico and give a week of their time getting up at 6:00 in the morning, because someone is rousing them at 6:00 to get out to a work site and build a home.

One of the youths that was working on our job site became ill on Wednesday morning. We were already behind on the project and now we were down a person. To see the kids rally behind the sick youth and get all the way back up to speed was amazing. They sprung out of the car, and next thing I knew the home was cruising along and they were energized! They are wonderful kids, and it was a great pleasure to spend time with them. These guys are young, and they’re going to be coming up in the future, and I feel very confident about where we’re going in the future with kids like this.

Bethany:

We want to thank all of you for your support of this mission trip. It would not have been possible without your prayers, your brownies and cookies, and your support of our many fundraisers.

So what next, now that the Youth Mexico Mission Trip 2003 is complete? I want to challenge the youth to make this trip just the beginning of your journey of serving and sharing God’s love. There is so much need here in Marin, in your school, in your own circle of friends. Continue that great work you started in Mexico in your lives here at home. That is my challenge for all of you as well. You don’t have to travel to Mexico to follow Jesus. We can do it right here, right now. Are you ready to drop your nets and follow?