Today is a missing Mexico day. I am so happy to be in Peru, as I know it is truly where God wants me right now, but today I am homesick. I never expected to be sent to Mexico for my first year in missions, but my time there brought me so much joy and sanctified me in so many ways. Today I am remembering what a blessing it was to live and serve in such a wonderful country. I wanted to share this blog with you all to celebrate these blessings and to remember how faithful and how good Jesus has been to me in this! I invite you to remember and love Mexico with me!
Oh General Cepeda, how many things I love and miss about you! I miss the beauty of the desert and the mountains crawling with cacti and wildflowers. I miss the Mexican flag and mariachi music and giant fiestas always happening in the street. I miss confetti and light-up Our Lady of Guadalupe images in every window. I miss tacos, homemade tortillas, and street corn. I miss beautiful sunrise hikes and donkeys.
I miss our little yellow house with our tiny hobbit door. I miss our team and living next door to two wonderful missionary families with adorable children. I miss creepy pinatas and the man who rode by me every morning on his donkey while I walked to the coffee shop to open the doors. I miss passing Javier’s hardware store every morning and watching him sing and dance to his favorite music (including Taylor Swift and Celine Dion). I miss hearing the man that sells oranges drive by in his truck offering us fresh fruit over his loudspeaker while I took my prayer time in our little chapel at the mission house. I miss it all, even trying to sleep through the loud concerts on weekends, the moths eating my clothes, and the cold weather.
Most of all I miss the people who became my friends and family there (all 11,284 of them mentioned on the population sign when you enter town). I miss the ladies who came to daily Mass and sang off-key with me. I miss Eduardo the ice cream man and Aurora the lady who sold us gorditas on Saturdays. I miss the amazing people who bravely came to door hours to ask for help and prayers, and I miss the joyful people we encountered at the ranchos who were always so trusting and welcoming to us.
I miss the choir and our weekly jam sessions. I miss the tourism office and everyone who worked with me at Cafe Asis. I miss drinking coffee every morning next to the giant dinosaur while my friend Carlos kindly watered my flowers. I miss playing Phase 10 (and losing every time) with Adolfo and Marcos in the office on quiet afternoons. I miss all of the wonderful children who touched my heart and who deserve the very best in life!
I miss Dona Marciana and Golla, Lupita, my friends at Los Portales, Rita and Gallo, Marta and Raul, Mama the dog, Wendy and Maria Jose, Francisca and her amazing children, Profe Armando and his family, Patti and her ambulance, Martha who called me crazy but loved me anyway, Laura and her husband at the gym, and Rodolfo working in his little shop on the corner. There are so many people living in Mexico who warmed my heart and taught me how to love. SO many that I could never fit them in a small blog (or probably even a novel)!
When I joined FMC, I was extremely excited to do mission work and begin a new chapter of my life following God’s call for me. At the same time, I felt like I was leaving a lot behind, which is a normal feeling when you sell all your stuff and move to a new country with people you barely know. I remember during training in Louisiana, someone mentioned a verse from Scripture that gave me some needed comfort after remembering how much I had left behind to do this crazy thing I still felt a little unsure about. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us:
“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come of eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).
When I heard this, I remembered how faithful God is. I remembered how wonderfully He provides for His people and I knew that He was going to provide for me too. I had read this before and had always assumed He would give me back a hundredfold by bringing me to Heaven to be with him. That seemed like a good enough reward for me...because Heaven is definitely the best prize and should be my biggest desire. However, I seemed to gloss over the part where Jesus promises good things to those who follow Him IN THIS LIFE. He wants to give us good things! Looking back at my year in Mexico, this is so true. I left my family and my friends to follow Him, but out of love for me He gave me so many friends and family in Mexico that I will always cherish and delight in. I left my home in beautiful Colorado to follow Him to wherever He would lead me, and He gave me a new home in beautiful Mexico that I am often homesick for. I never expected to be so at home in a place so foreign to me, and I never expected to love it so much.
But we have a generous God who is always faithful and kind to us! The Lord opened my heart to love in new ways and He gave me such an unexpectedly beautiful life in Mexico. He is already romancing my heart and giving me blessings and joys here in Peru too. He always does this when we invite Him in and give Him permission to shake up our lives and give us the things He desires for us. God is good and gives us good things. We need to take the time to remember these good things that the Lord has done for us when we have followed Him (and even when we haven’t)! Sometimes we even need to literally sit down and write a list of these things so we never forget how consistently faithful God has been to us.
How grateful I am to have had such a beautiful adventure in Mexico. How grateful I am to miss a place I never would have never known about without responding to the Lord’s invitation to be a missionary. When the Lord leads us somewhere new, He WILL provide; there is no need to be afraid of the new adventures He invites us into.
Is there a new adventure the Lord is inviting you into? Dive in. Open your heart. Say yes. You never know, saying yes to the invitation of Jesus could very well change your life.
Jesus, thank you for calling me to be a missionary. Thank you for my unexpectedly beautiful year in Mexico. Thank you for calling me to Peru and for all the good you have done here so far. You have always been so kind and generous to me. Lord, lead us and guide us and bring us to the good you desire for us and those around us in this life. Open our hearts that we might be able to hear your invitation and respond with a fearless and faithful yes.
Also, a quick shout out to Mexico. Thank you for your amazing people, food and culture. Thank you for your tortillas. I hope to come back and see you soon!
