It has been less than two weeks here in Mexico and our team has already: seen God move incredibly, made connections with local people in the church and community, bonded with each other, and had opportunities to serve.

Our first activity after orientating ourselves with the new surroundings was to visit two schools which we will be serving over the next two months. Both were incredibly welcoming, something that has been generally striking with the people here in Mexico. Both are also all ages, with our role being to teach English, run sports games and activities, share the gospel, build connections, and learn from those we are serving in a multi-directional way. We had a particularly powerful prayer time with the heads of one of the schools, a school where God is the centre in a way that none of the team has ever witnessed before. The integration of Christianity through devotionals, worship, and the general running of the school was incredibly inspiring.

The school has a vision to create confident, educated young Christian’s, a vision which we are honoured to be a part of. The second school was described as more nominally Christian and therefore hopefully a place where we can share the living truth of God’s love through similar responsibilities.

Our next activity was to attend Scouts. In all honesty, as a team we were apprehensive about how useful this would be as we were fearful of imposing, but we quickly learned how important it is to get stuck into every opportunity and walk through every door God has opened, as it turned out to be such a fulfilling experience. We made important friendships with lots of teenagers, some of whom go to the churches we are attending, we learned about the culture and also in practical terms we learned games and activities that we can use when we begin to serve in the schools. While we didn’t necessarily serve the scouts, God blessed our presence there.

On Sunday we attended our first church service, where two team members were immediately recruited to be a part of the service. The team as a whole was inspired by the sense of togetherness as the church was fairly small (being a plant) and therefore an intimate space where God was centre.

This week we have been attending a youth conference which was an important learning experience. God’s timing to have this at the beginning of the trip was significant as it helped us the gauge some cultural differences, and the reality of educational poverty, which can lead to the gospel sometimes being misdirected into prosperity preaching. As a team we prayed for truth and that above all God’s love, mercy and grace would be preached on the second day. Our prayers were answered in the most literal sense, when the final speaker on the second day preached everything we had prayed for. There was spiritual revival and numerous young people came to God. The team made important friendships through the conference, and prayed for individuals whom God directed us towards.

Finally, as the team struggled with the new altitude, heat, language and culture, God answered our prayers for rest. He gave us breaks to bond and sleep and have fun in the city as we prepare to serve for 4 months.

We have learned more than we could imagine in merely a week. We have experienced the power of God’s global family, the importance of prayer, and the need for connections to be made. We are already growing as individuals and as a team, having a much clearer sense of our calling here in Puebla.