Espiritu Santo: He is with you, He is Everywhere.

I recently took a trip to Milpa Atla, Mexico and wanted to document my experience on this page. Espiritu Santo is the Spanish term for Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is with me always and was with me during to trip to Mexico. As I summarize my mission trip I hope to give you a small glimpse into my experience on this trip. Eventually, this will be a place to store my many missions' trip summaries in the future. I am excited to share my experience with hopes that it will build your faith and lead you to take your own journey of spreading the Gospel, either in a faraway country or your own city.

Wheels up

I live about an hour and a half from the Atlanta airport. Our flight left around 9:30 pm on a Thursday night. Naturally I arrived three hours early due to it being an international flight. I parked my truck and went through security. We had formed a group chat that consisted of six other men and me. I informed the group that I was at the gate and was about to get coffee if anyone wanted to join. Two group members eventually joined me. These two were from neighboring states, but also traveled alone as I did. Little did I know God was foreshadowing things to come in the days ahead. There was also three team members that traveled together and one, the leader of the group, that lived in the same state. We all met and exchanged introductions. Four of the team members were fairly young, ranging from 17 to 20. Then you had me, 29, and two other men older than me. I am young at heart and really enjoyed the jokes shared between the younger members and myself. We boarded the plan a took flight to Milpa Alta.

Arrival

We landed in Mexico City and quickly went through customs. We waited for our transportation. They arrived. We met the family that would be hosting us. Daniel was a mission's director in the Dominican Republic. He was born in Milpa Alta and was trying to recreate what had been done in the DR for his hometown. He was visiting with his wife and two children. We went to lunch close to the airport and then traveled to our first location. On the way to the first location, we stopped at a store to purchase some soccer balls for the girls at the place we would visit. I was surprised to see the store guarded by two guards armed with home defense style shotguns. This alerted me to pay attention to my surroundings. After we got the supplies, we went to Ministerious de Armor, or Ministry of Love. This was a girl's home in the city. They took in girls off the street to help them get away from the bad things that could happen like sex trafficking. We were told not to take any pictures to protect the innocent. Daniel had served here in the past when they had housed boys and young men for similar reasons. In Mexico most of the buildings are made completely of concrete. I assume due to the lack of timber in the area. The compound that housed the girls was very large. It had multiple rooms and, at least two levels. The ages ranged from three years old to teenagers. We shared testimonies with the group as Daniel's wife translated. There were around twenty-five girls in attendance, along with a few older women who were the administrators of the place. After we shared with the group, we played basketball and soccer with the girls. As I rested from the activities, I noticed a very young girl had picked up my bible and was trying to read it. She was maybe five years old. Daniels wife informed me that she wanted to hear stories like Daniel in the lion's den. We had recreated this in a skit for the girls during sharing our testimonies. I tried to read to her, but my Spanish was as bad as her English. I was able to gift four Spanish bibles to the ministry. The director was very thankful for the bibles. We then traveled to the house we would be living in for the next three nights.

Workday

We woke up with very little sleep. Milpa Alta was only two hours behind our time zone, but the beds lacked comfort. The seven of us in the group shared two rooms and one bathroom. The beds had a thin cushion on them that sat on top of multiple plastic milk crates. Thank God, they did have hot water. The bathroom had a toilet and a shower all in one room. There was nothing dividing the two and the water drained to the same drain. The view in my room was breath taking. One of my room mates would frequently sit on the roof ledge and read his bible. It overlooked Milpa Alta, and you could see mountains and Mexico City in the background. This was very good accommodations compared to some of the places I had stayed in Africa. We had breakfast that morning served by Daniel's grandmother or Abuelita. They provided us with three meals a day. Most prepared by Daniel's wife and Abuelita. We walked back to the site that would eventually be where the ministry would be. Abuelita had purchased this land some years ago and decided to gift it to Daniel for his ministry. It had two house, one we stayed at, cactus fields and the building site for the ministry. Cactus is the main export of Milpa Alta. It is also a staple dish in the area. They had poured the foundation for the building and also placed seven rebar columns that would eventually be poured for the first level. We had two tasks that day. First, to clear the land of vegetation. Also, to wire up two streetlights. I worked on clearing land. A local helped us sharpen our machetes. We chopped down weeds, bushes, and small trees. The weather was very nice aside from some small rain showers. One of the young men was an electrician. Three of our team members worked on the lights and the rest of us cleared land that morning. We got the land cleared despite the blisters that formed on our hands. The electrical was not up to American code and we ran into multiple issues wiring up the lights. After we finished clearing land we went to lunch. After lunch we painted most of the first floor of the house. Blanco y Verde, or white and green. The concrete walls required multiple coats of paint. The electrician also wired-up new lights in dining/living room. We then ate dinner and waited for some local pastors to visit. These pastors traveled from local churches and some from over an hour away. We drunk coffee, ate pastries and sweet bread. We shared testimonies. They pointed out that my name, Logan, was the same as the comic book Wolverine. We discussed the issue of local pastors competing with each other. Daniel reassured them that his ministry did not plan to compete with them. The couple that would be assigned to the ministry was also there with their two kids. They would soon be going to the Dominican Republic to train for this ministry. The young man in the couple shared a video with me of him and his wife playing music at their church. He was playing a Shofar. After clearing it with Daniel I gifted the couple with three Spanish bibles. After some more discussion and saying goodbye, we went to bed.

Espiritu Santo

We woke that morning and got ready to visit a local church. We arrived at the church a little late for the first service. The pastor's daughter had already begun to sing. She ended the song and introduced some guest that would be singing and speaking at the service. This was a brother and sister duo with the sister doing the bulk of the ministry. Her name was Merari De La Torre. She was anointed by the Holy Spirit to do what she was doing. Singing and preaching. Her brother was very gifted on the guitar. She had sung two songs that really spoke to me even though I could not understand them. I prayed to God that I could understand her. She then began to sing her version of Yeshua. A song that I had memorized. God revealed to me that Yeshua means the same thing in any language and let me know that he had called me to this place. He also let me know that the Holy Spirit was active in thousands of other church services at the same time. I was overwhelmed with joy after hearing this. After she preached, I had the opportunity to share a message about Psalms 91:1 and how it had affected me. That dwelling in his presence gave me the power to share the Gospel in different cultures. The church fed us lunch after the service and we got to meet the church leaders, Merari and her brother. We then went on a tour of Milpa Alta on the Milpa Bus. Abuelita organized the tour and guided us as we traveled on the bus. We then went to a place that had cactus fields, fruit trees, and flowers. It was managed by a man name Roberto. He was 80 years old. We walked around the property and looked at the cactus and other produce/flowers. Then we had cactus soup and mint flower tea. Then we traveled back to the house and decided to paint another room and the front door. I also had the opportunity to minister to the younger men, with the help of the older men, on two occasions, on this night we got to minister to and pray for one of the young men.

Departure

I woke up the next morning very early, it was still dark. I walked out to the building site and looked over the landscape. I put on some worship music and prayed. I reflected on my time in Mexico. It was bittersweet knowing that we would be leaving in the next four hours. Deep down I knew I would be back one day. We ate breakfast that morning and said our goodbyes to Daniel and his family. Drove two hours to the airport and departed to Atlanta.

Farewell

After a three-hour flight we landed. I hugged each one of the team members at the connecting flight/final in Atlanta. I let them know I was only a phone call away if they needed me and walked towards customs in Atlanta to drive back to Columbus. I knew one day I would see Jack, the leader of the group, again.