Vigilia, Oansa and Mole

Acuña, Mexico. May 27-29, 2011

Even though, we only had an outline of the basics things we were going to follow for a schedule for the weekend, God had our weekend filled with blessings, and amazing experiences.

We headed down on Friday after noon. At 5:30 we arrived in Del Rio HEB to load up on water and pick up Kelly Mathis :) 

Kelly is the summer missionary to Del Rio, Texas. She just finished her first year at the University of Texas at Austin. \m/ In fact, Gabriela and I met her at Ignite Camp, the incoming christian freshman UT camp. Kelly applied through GoNow missions organization to be a summer missionary and God called her to the border. (GoNow is the same organization Gabriela applied to go to Venezuela!). Kelly is the intern for First Baptist Church Del Rio. She works under the supervision of Ps. Jeff for Del Rio and under the supervision of Ps. Moises for Acuña. Thursday was her first time to cross the border to Mexico. It was awesome seeing her and how God was already blessing her, using her and protecting her a week within her mission. 

After picking up Kelly, we crossed the border to Mexico and headed over to reunite with Iglesia Emmanuel. We all headed with them to Pollos Don Triny to talk and for some delicious dinner. That night we watched the video of John Monsima directed to Ps Hugo and Psa Betty. Thy cried as they saw the video. Julio was there too and he expressed how much he misses him and how John had trusted and believed in him when no one else did. After his words and emotional words from Pastor Hugo & Pastora Betty, we all prayed for John and his wife.

It was around 10:30 and time to get Kelly back. We sat her in the middle of the circle and all prayed for her at the same time, Acuña style. Then, we quickly recorded a video of her expressing her mission (in spanish) for the teens to be encouraged to be missionaries wherever God may want them. Kelly's spanish is amazing, even if she likes to say "un poquito" haha. After we dropped her off, we all we all attended "vigilia," an all nighter from midnight until 7am that consisted of prayer and worship! It was the second one that they had. Last month, they had 900 people and this time their goal was in the 1000s. They had a ton of people there, from pastor to children to adults to grandparents. Their second worship song was Happy Day in spanish!!!

Friday Night Vigilia shows how powerful unity can be. Most churches, regarding denominations were part of the prayer worship all-nighter. The kids had their pillow to just fall asleep when they couldn’t stay awake any longer, but they were part of the community, part of the same goal. There was a part that everyone was kneeling down, it was beautiful, a true symbol of humbleness and surrender, it felt right. Even the Major of the city and his wife was there. They knew that as leaders of the city, prayer was needed and it was amazing to see that happening. The revival is truly starting. It was the second time they were having it, the first time was last month. They will continue to have these Vigilias every last friday of every month. Pastor Hugo recommends that if there is any future trips coming up, that we should try to go when the Vigilia is going on. The time we were there, we prayed for the Major and his wife, for the authorities, for the Pastors of the churches and for the Pastors and their wifes and their marriages. Pastor Hugo also told us that earlier in the day that the Major had met with ten pastors from the city and had dinner and prayed for the major. Ps Hugo has the provilege to be one of the ten pastors to be there and he was very thankful to God. During worship, they had girls dance with their “Panderetas,” They had one song and then about 30mins of prayer focused on something specific and then a song and then more prayer and so on. I knew that one of the reasons that God wanted us to go that weekend was the Vigilia. And we didn’t even know that when we settled on the date of the weekend. We are not the one in charge of it, its God and his perfect timing :)

Another prayer commitment that is going down through the unity of churches in Acuña is  24/7 prayer till Jesus comes for the second time! Yeah, until the end of times, prayer nonstop! I am not exactly sure of the details but I know they take turns praying between churches to cover all the hours, weekly, monthly, etc. It is so encouraging to see how unity between churches is so powerful and it makes me want that for Austin! Pastor Hugo shared that there has been prophecies from around the world that a revival will start in Acuña, and I know is happening. I was priviledged to be there and taste it!

The next day, we visited Maria Elena! She told us she had a dream, where people came to pray for us, so she was already expecting us. The church was being painted green. I realized that on the fence section that we had written verses on, had been left unpainted, even if the sharpie had fainted. The church is still not finished. However, there are more places to seat, there is a prayer request white board on the back of the church and it has been decorated very nicely. There we had another amazing worship time, this time for us personally. It started by Maria Elena praising God for freeing her daughter from getting married to the wrong guy and also shared that her son had just gotten into jail again and she just needed support and prayer. Also, she shared how God has been helping her on situations she had never encountered before as a leader of the church. But God has been teaching her and she is very thankful. She was also happy that every time she has a down time in her life, God sends people from Austin to pray for her :) After praying for her, they all prayed for Gabriela and I and our trips this summer. It was really special and powerful. After spending an amazing time at “Puerta de Esperanza” Church, we splitted up. A few of us went to pick up Kelly and the rest to visit Savy I thinkkk. After picking up Kelly, we ate some delicious Mole, which is made with chocolate! It was simply delish! Then we jumped rope with the little girls. Karen and Viri had a mini contest as they tried to beat each other by jumping to a 100! At around 5pm we started loading the cars and their church van with things needed for their OANSA program in a new colony. Iglesia Emmanuel wants to plant a church in Las Aves Colony, and is starting by taking the OANSA program for kids and getting the parents to listen to the salvation message with them. It was amazing to see them really owning the program and putting their own twist to it. They brought speakers and they had music in the background as the kids played around the game circle. The colony seemed really nice and maybe rich, but Pastor Hugo told us that the people there are actually poor and the houses are made by the government. All the houses looked exactly the same, and were white on the outside. They were maybe like five out of all them that were painted the usual bright colors. Another thing that I really brought joy to my heart was seeing Iglesia Emmanuel kids helping the kids from that colony to play the games and memorize verses. It seems that it was yesterday that we were helping them memorize John 3:16 and explaining to them the OANSA materials and games. I truly enjoyed seeing the kids pour out on other kids :) The lesson was given by my dad and it was amazing to see them pay attention so well! And afterwords a good number of them gave their lifes to follow Christ! They had asked us (Americans) to bring toys as OANSA prizes for the kids of this new colony that had come last week and memorized scripture and were coming back again. Nate had previously told us that someone’s children, instead of asking for gifts from the guests coming to the birthday party, had asked to bring gifts to donate to the kids of Acuña! How wonderful is that! I don’t remember who it was but that is such a great idea! One of the gifts was toy Lacrosse sticks and we had to teach the kids how to play Lacrosse, since they had never heard about the sport! After a wonderful OANSA time with old kids and new kids we dropped off Kelly and said goodbye to her. I am truly grateful that her supervisors let her come with us for the two days! We had met her supervisor years past, so it was easy for him to agree to let her come, I love how God takes care of every thing :)

Have I mentioned that there is Air Conditioning at Iglesia Emmanuel yet? We slept amazingly in the church with cool air! In the morning, we had great breakfast and a wonderful service at Iglesia Emmanuel. We helped out at their OANSA program. Since Pastor Hugo had recently saved a donkey’s life and the donkey was by the church, Dave Murrel (translated by my dad) told them the story of the talking donkey to the kids and they were amazed! After OANSA program we played more games with the kids and had an amazing lunch. On our way out from Mexico, we stopped by the small shopping stores and got a few souvenirs :)

It was a great weekend, God showed up everywhere and it was so encouraging. Definetely what I needed before my summer Trip. Thank you God!