My Mexico Experience

     Hello friends! So a lot of you know that I went to Mexico in October. A lot of you supported me in going. Thank you so much! It was the coolest experience of my life! I'm sorry I haven't posted more pictures. I tried to share a bunch of pictures in a blog post a couple of days ago but it's a real pain on this site.
     So anyway, I wanted to share my testimony from the trip. I had an unforgettable experience with the Holy Spirit (in case that name is weird to you, that just means God). The entire trip was amazing and a great learning experience, but this is the one thing that sticks out the most about this trip for me:

      Our hosts, Mr. Rory Smithee and his wife, Señora Flora Smithee, made sure we would be staying in the nicest hotel in Felipe Carrillo Puerto. We were very blessed to stay there.
     When we first got to the hotel, we began to look around at our rooms and peek in the doors of other rooms. I would be rooming with my cousin, Gavin, and his grandmother (my aunt's mother) for the duration of the trip. We were given a room with two beds but discovered that at the end of the hall there was a room with three beds that would better suit our trio. So we asked if we could make the switch. Our new room was at the very end of the hall with a window facing the road. Little did we know that right across the street was a club whose music blared from about 9 or 10 at night to around 4 in the morning. Not only that, but this club had no walls.  

The club was right outside the window on the yellow wall,

on the top floor of the building on the right.

Our room was in the part of the building above and behind the restaurant on the far right. 

      That first night night was rough. We thought we'd never get to sleep, mostly because of the music, but also because adjusting the little air conditioner to evenly disperse the air was difficult (the temperature was in the 80's and 90's all week), and the beds weren't quite as comfortable as we're used to. I'm not trying to be pessimistic. Trust me, I try to see the good in every situation. Even while I was there I made sure not to be complain-y. I just want to give you a picture of what that night was like. As soon as we would finally start to fall asleep, the song would change, changing the rhythm that our brains had finally gotten used to, waking us up again. Hahaha!

     So in the wee hours of the morning, at about two or three I think, during a long interval of awake-ness between short dozings off to sleep, I lie awake listening to some American club music (which I thought was funny), a DJ saying things in Spanish over a muffly speaker, and people laughing loudly. I decided to pray. I thought, "While I'm awake this would be a good time to pray and get ready for the next few days." So I began to pray that God would prepare my group and I and give us unity and boldness, and I began to pray for the people of the area. When I did, I had a thought. It was one of those thoughts that you're pretty sure is from God but its not like you heard a voice say something. It just sounds like one of your own thoughts. But the words "Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me" came to mind, so I prayed them over the people. Then I began to feel like God wanted me to pray the entire chapter of Psalm 51 over the people. So I got up and grabbed my Bible, and went to sit on the bathroom floor so I wouldn't wake anyone. 

     I opened up to Psalm 51 and even though it felt kind of weird I began to pray "Have mercy on them, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out their transgressions..." I think I might've even gone through the whole thing twice saying "the Mayans" instead of just "them", here and there. It felt good to hear from God and obey Him, so I went back to bed and finally got a few good hours of sleep. 

     The next evening, after exploring Felipe Carillo Puerto, our group met in our room to pray and talk about our plans for the days ahead. During that meeting God moved in great ways, giving two people in our group visions, and using us to cast out demons in the building and in the area. But what stood out the most to me was the things our guide, translator, and partner in the ministry told us about the Mayan people. He began to tell us that a love for children was very rare in the area because of things that had happened centuries ago. The ancient Mayans used to sacrifice people, sometimes their own children, to their gods. At that point, I remembered hearing this about the Mayans in school, but I hadn't thought about since we'd been there. During our meeting, we realized that God had brought us there to cast out these evil spirits and break the generational curses. It was then that I knew it really was God who had given me the thought the night before and the task of interceding for forgiveness and for God's presence on the Mayans' behalf. Read all of Psalm 51 here. You will be blown away by just how perfect this chapter was for the Mayans. 

     The thing I took away from my experience is just that I shouldn't second guess the voice of the Holy Spirit. John 10 talks about how the Shepherd's sheep follow Him because they know His voice. I am one of His sheep. I know His voice. It's that simple.

-Kristian