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I got home just over 48 hours ago. It was good. Really good. God worked in my life, but it will take me a lot more time than I originally thought to begin processing the things He did. I've been counselled by some very wise friends to take the time to let these things sit in my life, to absorb them, to be led by God into these new things. Some of you will probably be hearing from me in the next few days - I am seeking counsel in some areas that I believe that God is leading me into as a result of this trip. The rest of you will just have to wait a bit, or ask me in person to share parts of this with you. It's not ready to be written for public consumption yet, but I'd love to share the stories with you, and the things in my heart.

In the meantime, I just finished writing a follow-up letter to the people who supported me with prayer and financially. I thought I'd stick that in this post, and you'd at least have a bit of a snapshot of the experience tied to the last two weeks or so of my life.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Dear Friends and Family,

I’ve been back in Calgary for nearly 48 hours, and have spent many of the waking moments in that time trying to decide how I would communicate to you the experiences of the last two weeks. There are so many things I could tell you about, and none of them seem adequate to describe the impact of this trip on my life.

I have been counselled by some friends to process this time slowly. To wait patiently for the results of the trip to become clear in my life. I think these friends have offered good advice, and I ask your patience as I spend time contemplating, absorbing, understanding, and implementing the outcome of this trip in my life.

So, instead of profound life lessons, let me offer you a series of verbal snapshots of the trip:

-Picture yourself in a western style dorm bathroom. Only there are signs stating in large print in both English and Spanish how important it is to not flush the toilet paper after using it. You need to put it in the garbage can that is in every stall for that purpose. Seems easy right? Now picture yourself in that same bathroom at 6:00am after five hours of sleep. Your brain is not functional, and you are fishing for toilet paper that you have accidentally dropped in the toilet instead of in the garbage can.

-I spent most of my week mixing concrete and mortar for the wall our team was building. Mostly this means that I spent my week using a shovel – shovelling gravel, sand, cement powder, and mortar powder, and then hauling buckets of water to combine these ingredients into a useful product. The organization we were partnered with has recently acquired 4 acres of land in the colonia in which they are working, and the first step to developing the land is to build a wall around the property to show ownership, prevent land claims by squatters, and create greater security. To be honest, it felt like very little progress was made, but two sides of the wall are nearly completed, and our team laid nearly 1000 cinder blocks a day over four and a half days. We were challenged to think of the project not as simply “building a wall,” but rather as “building a mansion in God’s kingdom.” The long-term dream is for the area inside the fence to include a mission training school, a medical centre, and dorms to house visiting mission teams among other things.

-You haven’t had a true work experience until you’ve been shovelling sand, cement, and mortar all day, standing in a sandy Mexican desert during a wind and sandstorm. I’m not sure I’ve ever been that dirty in my life. After my five-minute shower (time limits to make sure that everyone gets warm water) I glanced in the mirror and realized that my face was STILL filthy! I cleaned sand out of my ears, my teeth, and every other imaginable location! My hair was kind of crispy and stiff – caked with the sand that had been blown into my ponytail over the course of the afternoon.

-On the last afternoon we visited the tourist market in Juarez for a few hours of shopping. I shopped for a while with friends, but we ended up sitting in the outdoor café in front of the market for quite some time. As I sat there, and watched the mariachi band play for whichever table would pay, as we said “No gracias” to dozens of people hawking merchandise I realized there was something beautiful and vital about simply sitting in the midst of dozens of Mexican young people, watching them interact with each other, absorbing the sights and sounds and colours of the culture that surrounded us. It was a powerful moment for me.

I hope these brief snapshots give you some idea of what this trip was about. God has planted many things deeply in my heart over the course of the eleven days I was away from Calgary, and I believe they will continue to spring out of my life in new and exciting ways over the next days and weeks and months.

I was privileged to build relationships with a number of people on our team, and look forward to maintaining those relationships now that we are all back in Calgary. This is one of the things that most excites me. These are people whose hearts meshed with mine in powerful ways, and I am eager to spend time hearing their stories, sharing hearts and dreams with each other.

Thank you so much for your financial support, and for your prayers. God blessed your gifts. He provided safety and health (other than a 24 hour stomach bug that about 80% of our team caught). He worked in the colonia, and in the lives of our team members. This was an experience to be treasured – to be stored in my heart and not forgotten, and you helped make this possible. I am so grateful for your support, your love, and your encouraging words. God has created a harvest in my life, and in the lives of many on our team because of your financial support and prayers. Thank you.

With love,

Lisa