Last day in Papalote

We´re busy packing and cleaning today, saying goodbye to new friends and finishing up work at the Nueva Era building site, a church plant in the area.

The team here has seen God do some amazing things and we´ve heard some gripping stories. We have seen overwhelming poverty and heard about lives transformed in miraculous ways.

For me, there is a personal side to what we´ve seen and heard. My family is from Mexico, but I was born in the United States and have lived well. I know that my family in Mexico has struggled with a lot of the pain we´ve seen here, particularly abuse of women and children. This is something I´ll be praying about as I return home. It´s so personal, but I put it here on the Foothills blog so that my church family can know that Mexico´s struggles are my own, our own.

Like on our East Asia trip last year, God has given me encouragement throughout the week. The one that sticks out in my mind is finding a small Bible in a muddy bank, left there by a recent flood. The Bible was open to Psalm 136, which tells us that ¨his love endures forever.¨I love it that God speaks to me from flood debris, and that the word he gives is about enduring, everlasting love because that is what people here need to know about. From what Ilene has shared with me, the culture in Mexico believes in limited love. There´s not enough love for all of your children, for example. I´ve seen that in my own family, too, as my  grandmother was separated from her twin at a young age and one was allowed to thrive and the other forgotten. Such sadness, but such a hope when people hear of God´s unending and unlimited love.

Thanks for letting me share. See you in Oregon.

- Elena Hammond