Mexico Slide Show

July 9, 2007


Dear Family & Friends,

Well, we have been home from Mexico for a couple of weeks and have had time to recover. What an AMAZING trip! We are very thankful for the opportunity to go on a mission trip, especially to have been able to go together, and are SO grateful for all of your prayers and financial support!

We left with a team of 7 other people from our church on Tuesday, June 5th, and actually went backwards! We took the van to a mechanic to fix what we thought was a “minor” problem, and spent 4 hours there. When we finally got on the road, we were 4 hours and 10 miles behind schedule. So, we decided to drive all the way through the night to get to El Paso… about 24 hours. Robert and the rest of the guys took turns driving, and they did a great job… they drove in nearly 60 mph winds most of the way down!

Once we got into El Paso, we met up with the rest of the team – 20 other people from churches in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho – and headed to the Bible Institute in Juarez, where we spent our first night. The next day we went through customs and officially crossed the border. It was great to see our prayers answered as we all made it through customs smoothly!

It was another 7-hour drive to our final destination of Rio Chico, a small “town” in the mountains, about 300 miles south of El Paso. Our van, a 1987 15-passenger Ford, held up through the tough mountain passes, thanks to lots of prayer, although our brakes were definitely smoking by the time we arrived! (We discovered 2 weeks later, after we had made it out of the canyon, that the break fluid that we put in before we left was all gone! God was truly in control of that situation and protected us the entire way!)

Rio Chico is a camp designed to reach the Tarahumaran Indians who live in the Copper Canyon, a very remote and destitute area of Mexico nearby. Throughout the next week, we worked as hard as we ever had on whatever projects we were assigned each day. We hauled huge rocks, shoveled gravel and sand, mixed and carried concrete to lay sidewalks and make steps, did demolition work, framed a second-story apartment, dug a trench and laid a sewer line, painted, laid tile, moved 300 smelly blankets into storage, cleaned and organized the camp and many other tasks. What a blessing to see all that we had accomplished at the end of the week!

After the first day, when we both carried rocks all day, we were certain we’d wake up barely able to move the next morning. When we woke up feeling fine, we thought that surely the next day we would feel the soreness. It didn’t happen then either. God provided each person on the team the strength and energy to work as hard all week as we did on the first day – it was incredible!

Even more significant than the work we accomplished were the spiritual blessings we experienced on the trip. The team was made up of 29 people of all ages, from 15 to 70, from 5 or 6 different churches. The spirit of unity was amazing, and was such an encouragement! We met people we will never forget, and what a blessing it will be to see them again one day!

Each night, we met for worship and spent time together as a group. Many of the locals who work at the camp would join us at these services, and worship with us. One of them, Carlos, was a gifted guitar player and singer and played for us several times. His passion really made an impact on us, despite the fact that most of us didn’t understand the words. How awe-inspiring to realize that the different cultures, different language and different location didn’t mean anything. We were all worshipping the same God. A passage in Ephesians 4 (which I had been reading that week) really took on new meaning for me… v. 4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” God also provided beautiful sunsets over the mountains as we worshipped each night. Hearts and lives were impacted and changed. It seems impossible that anyone left the same as when they arrived.

The last night we were there, we held a foot-washing service and we were able to bless the Mexican people who had blessed us all week through their friendship and their service to us by cooking our meals and helping us with our work. Robert was privileged to wash the feet of a man who was a Tarahumaran Indian, one of the people the camp at Rio Chico was built to reach. The man lived in the apartment we had torn up and worked on all week, and had pretty much kept to himself. The staff didn’t think he would be comfortable participating, but when Robert felt led to ask, he willingly came up and allowed his feet to be washed. What a humbling and inspiring experience!

It was an absolutely amazing week, and although we were somewhat eager to get home to our own showers and beds and families, it was hard to leave. God not only protected and provided on this trip, He shattered our expectations and taught us new things as He drew us closer to Himself. How awesome to be used by Him to impact the lives of others, even if we won’t know until we reach eternity the faces and names of those our work will have affected in some way!

Again, we are so thankful to have had this opportunity, and for your support, which makes you just as much a part of the work we did in Rio Chico. Please continue to pray for the people in Rio Chico and the Copper Canyon, including Pastor Tomas, who runs the Bible Institute, the camp at Rio Chico and the trips into the Copper Canyon, and his assistant, Brenda, who is such a blessing to the ministry and the teams who come to help.

Please also continue to keep us in your prayers as we prepare for another mission trip this fall! We have the opportunity to go for 2 weeks in October (6-20) to work at an orphanage in Chile. We will be doing repair and building projects on the facility, as well as teaching and ministering to the young girls who live at the orphanage. For more detailed information on this ministry, visit www.visionforchile.org. The cost of the trip will be $2500 each, and while raising $5000 seems daunting, we know that we serve a big God, and that He can and will provide a way if we are supposed to go. We will be organizing and participating in several fundraisers over the next few months, and will also be relying on the financial support of our friends and family, much as we did for the Mexico trip. Some of you have told us that you missed the opportunity to send support for our Mexico mission, though you wanted to. If you feel led to support us financially for this trip, please send your checks to: The Rock, 304 16th Ave N., Nampa ID 83687 and write “Reynolds Chile Mission” on the memo line. Most importantly, we need your prayers! Some of the things to pray for are:
- For God to prepare our hearts in the coming months to be open to His teaching and to be used by Him
- For safety in travel and that we would not have any problems with customs
- That we would impact the lives of the orphans and staff we will be ministering to
- For unity among the 40 team members from all over the country
- For physical strength as we work on the various projects
- That God would provide all of the materials we will need
- For financial provision (for us and the rest of the team)

We are extremely excited to see what God has in store for us in Chile, and to continue to serve Him here in Idaho in the meantime.

God Bless, and have a great summer!

Love in Him,

Robert & Amy