Hi, my name is Heidi. I just turned 16 and I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. Last January my parents, five younger brothers, and I had the exciting opportunity to travel to Juarez, Mexico for the third time. It meant a 24 hour drive to Colorado and then a 20 hour bus ride to Mexico. We were ready to experience a life changing week in Mexico with International Family Missions. Throughout the week we enjoyed many things, but to tell you every amazing thing would take too long. So here is a collection of tidbits that are my best memories.

On the first day we were able to attend a church service in a Spanish Church. During the service we did some special numbers and listened to the Mexican Christians sing – the enthusiasm is awesome, the timing gets faster verse by verse and by the end its hard to understand the words since the singing is soooooo fast.. On Sunday afternoon we went into a colonia and invited the people for a Bible club to be held the next day, After all the Spanish you thought you knew, its kind of fun to see how little you can communicate (the food and color words don’t really help much in this situation). Walking through the neighborhoods showed me what an affluent society America has become. In the colonias, the houses are made of old packing crates, scrap wood and maybe an old vehicle. Seeing this makes one feel blessed to have an actual home.

On one of my favorite days in Mexico we were able to visit and do a craft day at a woman’s rehab center. After arriving there and asking the girls their ages I found out that some were younger than me and most of the girls were only a few years older than me. This discovery shocked me and I am so thankful I didn’t grow up in the rough life on the street. During the day some of the girls who had become Christians shared their awe inspiring testimonies, of how God helped free them from bondage to drugs and other sin.

Another exciting opportunity was taking a whole orphanage roller skating and to Burger King (even though it took three hours to get our food).They accidentally sold us 12 extra meals and the leaders were disappointed because of the added expense. Then twelve extra teenage orphans showed up! God had worked it out perfectly. Although the trip was short it made us as a team see our society in a new light. In the course of three mission trips we have done dramas, bartering, and eaten delicious Mexican food (except for jalapeños). I personally have had the opportunity to lead people to Jesus using the Bible and “a wordless book”.

Sometimes it is harder to be a missionary here at home where people are not as interested in hearing about God. But God calls us to be faithful anyway. Some opportunities our family has had are volunteering in local nursing homes, making crafts to take to shut -ins, handing out tracts and singing and playing instruments for various functions.

I want to leave you with a phrase that I read in a book recently. It went something like this-“The world refuses to read the Bible, but they will read our lives, and on that will they base their opinion of Christianity and on this will they make their decision whether to reject it or to embrace it”. In this day and age the religions such as Islam are on the rise. This shows that people are searching for something but they are looking in the wrong place. I encourage you to be a light in the darkness and be a missionary for God in whatever you do.

God Bless You!