April 5th 2011
Dearest Supporters,
I was praying this morning thanking God for you. I was thinking about it and I realized I don’t know how to say what you mean to me, you mean the world to me. Then I smiled, you change the world with me, that’s how special you are. I am so blessed to have every one of you, the active Family of God! I could not do any of this without you.
I wanted to let you know what YOUR PRAYERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!! I have been uplifted and empowered and stretched and moved by God working through your prayers! It makes such a difference, water in a desert kind of difference. We are fighting a battle and we are not fighting alone but we often feel like we are. We are made to fight together, to be together, to be the hands and feet of Christ, the living and moving Body of God! Prayer makes such a difference, joining together makes a difference. You make a difference!
So I’m really happy to be able to write you and tell you about my trip to Mexico over Spring Break. Going to Mexico was amazing, a really special time of service, learning, and fellowship. There was forty-eight of us from Sutherlin Family Church that drove in seven different vehicles down to Baja California, Mexico. It took over 24hrs of driving with only breaks for food and bathroom to make it to the Missions to Mexico base. I remember crossing the boarder was so thrilling to me, the air smells different in a foreign country! The roads and dirt look different, the house structures and people and animals that are all around, it was just so wonderful to reach Mexico, to see that country and be blessed to serve there.
We had five days of work and ministry in the community. Each morning we had chapel together as a team, a time of worship and going through the Bible and seeking the Lord together. Then we would drive out to the work site and from there we would divide into different groups that had different types of ministry. There were prayer groups that went out daily and went to the people’s homes and into their homes, talked to them about God, gave out Bibles, and would lay on hands and pray for them. This was a sweet ministry full of the moving of the Spirit as well as the hardships of spiritual warfare and something that impacted the team members and locals heavily. James 5:16 NLT “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” Another group stayed at the work site and ministered by doing manual labor, I did this four out of the five days. Digging postholes for the fence around the compound, or building the parsonage we were making for the local church. I learned a lot more about construction, which was really exciting for me. J I finally, after years of nailing, learned how to nail properly, I was very happy about this and nailed board after board on the parsonage all morning till my arm was worn out and refused to nail properly anymore.
The afternoons were spent at the church doing VBS with the kids! I love kids as everyone knows and it is always a joy to spend time teaching and singing and playing with them. We did puppets and songs and Bible verses and Bible stories and craft, a variety of activates that we pray left the kids with a better picture of God. My favorite part of VBS was watching the American youth from my church, most of which this was their first mission trip, interact with the people and the children. They made friends and connected to the people and the kids loved them, I loved watching their hearts expand and grow in love for the children and for God. It was really special to see God working in their lives as they chose to serve and love others!
The evenings were a time for a little rest, some fellowship, a delicious meal and often a time for another chapel. Wednesday night, however, we got to attend the Mexican church service. This was a night that touched all our lives. We were with the kids doing VBS and the adults were in the service, but at the end we, the team, were asked to go out and pray for the people of the church. They were at the front of the church and we went down and prayed for them. Laying a hand on a shoulder and praying out loud, as is the custom, then going to the next person. The Spirit was moving in a powerful way and I felt it as I went from one lady to the next, three in all. As I prayed for strength for them and love and to share with their neighbor and comfort and passionate faith, I was filled as I prayed they would be. The third lady, as I prayed for her, my hand on her shoulder, it began to shake. She was crying, this beautiful short older lady and her shoulder went up and down and I prayed out loud in the Spirit for everything that was on her mind and every struggle and hardship. I prayed till the time of prayer ended and she turned, and I reached out and hugged her, a sisterly hug and it was so special! We all sang together a song about us being one in the Lord, and then we went around and shook hands and hugged the people of the church, in unity, realizing we are the church too. That was such a wonderful picture to me. To see two cultures, two languages, two people, joined in the love of Christ and realizing despite any differences we are ONE body in Christ, we are not separated by these things and we will be together in heaven one day, the same church of Christ!
There was so many God-touched and God-filled times through that week, but I think the sweetest one of all, was the last. On Friday night, the night before we left for the States, the whole team sat down for debrief, a time of reflection and voicing the things that impacted us most through the trip. The memories that stood out to us most, many were happy to share what had touched them in this way. Asking what God was teaching us that week, that was a little harder to voice as most of the lessons were very close to our hearts. I nearly instantly knew what I wanted to share about what God was doing in my heart that week but I waited to share. It was so close to me that I was afraid I’d just brake down and cry. Many people spoke before me about the lessons and what has changed in their own lives through this week, it was such a beautiful time of fellowship and heart and full of God’s goodness. Sitting there together, all forty-eight of us sharing our hearts and how God was working on us, every person who spoke increased the depth and closeness of the team. There was a time when so many of us were crying, the struggles on our hearts, the goodness of God, “when people are healed they cry” my Uncle Paul says. We joined together in prayer for the struggles, lots of our youth felt so alone in the struggle to follow God in the school and they were really hurting on this point, so we adults put them in the center of a circle and we all gathered around them, as the Body of Christ should, supporting, encouraging and we all prayed out loud, voicing our request to the Lord for these precious youth that have such a hard battle to fight each day. We joined together with them, supporting them in their faith. It was such a great picture of love!
I was crying, most of us cried at some point that night, and I realized I had to speak, to share, cry or not. I wanted to voice what God was doing in my life through this trip to Mexico. So I finally spoke, and I did cry, and then I laughed as a team member shot the tissue box across the floor that had been passed from crying person to crying person. I talked about how in Malawi I encountered hardened missionaries. People who had grow hard because of the hard things they had gone through, who seemingly had lost sight of the real purpose they were there. I encountered a lot of harshness in the people as well, the cruelty and abuse and brokenness that went on to make more pain in otheres. I talked about this and cried and said how I didn’t become hard because of hardness. I wanted to remain soft and loving throughout all the hardships I’ll face. I then talked about Todd and Lesty, the missionaries at that base, and how watching them serve has been such a great encouragement. The openness and honesty and heart shown in their lives, the fact that they grow weary and tired and get discouraged but they still love and share their lives and keep going, I want to be a missionary like that. I learned a lot from them, just watching them and how they love!
Another lesson I was being taught was that my differences are an asset. While in Malawi I worked so much to be like and understand the people, which is good thing, but I forgot that I had something to offer, that my differences are part of my gift. That was really encouraging to me to realize my joy and childlike wonder and love for play has been and is a gift that I can use to minister to the people around me not just in the States but in Africa and Mexico too.
We traveled back to the States and I think all of us were a little sad to go home though we looked forward to seeing our families. In the church parking lot all the team members driving off one by one and some in groups, I just didn’t want to leave the parking lot because I didn’t want to leave all these wonderful people that I had gotten to know and love! But it was time to go and I said goodbye and was happy to be received happily home. I’ve been thinking a lot about the things I learned in Mexico and how God is moving and working. I’ve been seeing the amazing importance and impact of the gospel! Something I haven’t really seen the power of before. I’m growing! I’m getting new insights and direction and God is showing and teaching me new things and reminding me of old lessons, and making alive things that I’ve just know before. I’m excited to see what He does! Mexico was a great experience and time, but God is the one who moves! We can do all these things but unless God makes them grow, we labor for nothing. So we pray that God has used our efforts to not only touch us but the people of Mexico.
Please keep praying for me concerning future ministry and encouragement in daily life. I did have an interview for Africa Inland Mission (AIM) and their TIMO program on Saturday and it went well. Please keep praying.
Thank you all so much for what you are doing
You are changing the world!
Much love,
Pinky
Glazner
