Sungsoo Kang

There are so many lessons that I learned on this mission trip and instead of trying to explain one in depth, I have included three vignettes that offer a glimpse of the experiences I have had on this trip, each beginning with a quote that I heard.

“Porque Jesus me ama (Because Jesus loves me).”
I met this boy named Uriel at an orphanage who wouldn’t stop crying. His parents moved away to the US and left him in Mexico to live with his grandmother. However, his grandmother became very sick and because she was not able to take care of him, Uriel was left at the orphanage. As he kept on sobbing right in front of me, I really did not know what to say to him, so I started to explain the salvation bracelet craft that we had just made earlier. After I finished, he had a smile on his face that would not go away. Confused, I asked him why he was smiling when only a minute ago he was so sad. He looked up at me and said, “Porque Jesus me ama.” I realize for Uriel and the rest of these kids- and even me- it is not a home that we need or food or good friends, but the love of God. God already gave us the best gift- his son Jesus Christ- and Jesus is more than enough for us.

“Jesus, ayudame (Help me Jesus)!”
The third week we visited a park where drunken men who are at the end of their roads literally go to die. As I approached the park with another team member, a man named Marcelo ran up to us to ask us for prayer. With the stench of alcohol still on him at 9am, he was shaking and cried out to Jesus to come into his life and to change his heart. At that moment, nothing in Marcelo’s past mattered anymore for God saw him as more righteous than any “normal” person who had not accepted Jesus yet. As it says in Ezekiel, “The wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it.” With all the stereotypes I hear of Mexican men who are prideful, sleep with whomever they want and beat their wives, some of the greatest miracles I have seen was with such broken men as Marcelo and I know that God is continuing to raise up faithful men to stand in the gap and to build his kingdom in Mexico.

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”
We worked with a missionary named Mayra who longed to serve in Pakistan, but God had called her to Uzbekistan. Although she said this quote very much in passing, we would soon realize that God would call us in a different direction even in Mexico. As we originally had planned to travel to the city of Uruapan, God placed us for two weeks in Chilpancingo where we would experience the blessings of God like we would never have expected. All of us have plans and expectations for our futures and even the changes we would like to see in our families. However, we seldom do not realize that our futures and even our relationships are not our own. Though I want things to go my way when I want them to, I must learn to submit all I have to God for only he has our lives in his hands and only he has the most wonderful plans for all of us- all in his timing.

The need is so great for even one church, let alone in one city in one country in the world and I would only be naïve to think that I can make a difference. I remember God was telling me after seeing the harvest field during one of the altar calls, “Just be thankful for your salvation.” After seeing the overwhelming grace that has been shown to me, there really is nothing I can do for God, only to be thankful that he chose to save me. With everything that I experienced in Mexico, God has taught me to be faithful in everything by recommitting my life to him every morning.