NOTICE: Final Update
Hello family and friends,
This is my final week of CSOM! There’s so much we did these past two weeks that I’m still processing through, and I can’t wait to share with you what the Lord’s been finalizing in my heart.
July 24 started off as an early morning trip to the airport to head to Mazatlan. Right after our flight, we helped with the VBS at Calvary Maranatha. The VBS lasted two days, where we played games, shared the gospel, did crafts, and got to know the kids. We spent the rest of the week hanging out with the young adults, getting to know people in the community, and serving at nearby churches.
The time in Mazatlan was a time where our team was stretched, which I believe ultimately prepared us and unified us before our journey up to the Cora tribe.
VBS at the church
Church Clean-up at Calvary Chapel Maranatha East
The Cora tribe is an unreached people group in San Gregorio. They have their own distinct language and culture. It’s about a 7-8 hour drive from Mazatlan and we were able to go up with a Calvary Chapel team from Culiacan. A lot of the Culiacan team didn’t speak English, but during our 3-day trip in San Gregorio the Lord unified our hearts with a love for the people.
We arrived to San Gregorio late last Thursday evening and ended the night with a devotion and worship together. We slept in tents. My particular tent was sardined packed with seven other girls! The next morning we spent the day in the village going home to home sharing the gospel with the natives.
On maybe our second house visit, we encountered a woman who was about eighteen to twenty years old, who was taking care of her four siblings and one niece from ages 3 months to maybe 5. All glory to God… she ended up accepting Jesus as her Lord and Savior. But I was amazed at the life she was living taking care of five kids. While speaking to this woman, the Lord impressed on my heart the story of Hagar’s encounter with the Lord. When Hagar is feeling from Sarai because of her harsh treatment while pregnant the Lord encounters Hagar in the wilderness. The Lord tells her to go back to Sarai and submit to her and then gives her a promise for her about the baby in her womb, Ishmael. She responds in Genesis 16:13 saying this,
“So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.””
Genesis 16:13 ESV
El roi, the God who sees. Hagar, a Gentile, was one of the first women in the Bible that God revealed a distinct aspect of His character. I believe that God sent our team all the way from our homes to this woman’s house so that He could reveal Himself as the God who sees. He brought us to show that woman that the Lord had seen her tears, suffering, and the silent cries of her heart for Him. The story of Hagar shows us that God did not intend to be glorified and known by just one nation, tribe or people. God is not limited by those things. It has always been His intention to reveal himself to all people. He first used the nation of Israel to be the conduit of reavealing himself to the world, and in the final covenant, Jesus used the church.
The Cora Woman Who Accepted Christ
The second day of our trip among the Cora, because of the monsoon, some of our prior plans were cancelled, which allowed us to have a time of worship and a small devotion. We sat on a mountain that overlooked the entire village. As we gazed at the beauty of God’s creation, the pastor spoke about vision and the need for it as God’s people. That we basically need the Lord to burden our hearts for something and that it is vision that only the Lord can give. In our time of worship, I began to weep; the Lord brought to my mind all of the people who are silently crying for help. Everyone is longing for hope, but how will they know that hope unless we tell them? I felt the Lord tenderly telling me, through my tears, that no one weeps for the lost like He does…that there are very few who share His heart for the lost. In the midst of my sadness and overwhelming despair, the Lord reminded me of when Israel was heading down to Egypt to see his son Joseph and stay with him in Egypt. On the journey down, the Lord says to Israel,
“I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”
Genesis 46:4 ESV
Devotional and Worship Time On Mountain
Even though the number of people going to hell without ever hearing the Gospel and spending a life without real hope, the Lord promised to go down this mountain with me, and that is enough. I can’t go back from this trip living the life I once lived, willfully ignorant of those dying and going to hell without Christ. I specifically asked the Lord to break my heart for His people, and He introduced me to the unreached.
Thank you for your love and support these past six weeks! If you’d like to hear more in depth about this trip, you can respond to this email, and I’ll be sure to email you back. Thank you for believing in me; there has been so much fruit in my life in these six weeks that you all will reap!!! That’s all for now, folks!!!
With much love,
Abby
Login To Leave Comment