By Oliver Ma

This summer, from June 23rd to June 29th, I, along with other Youth, went to Mexicali, Mexico to serve the Lord and spread His Word. This was my second time in Mexicali, so I was already familiar with the base and what we were doing. 

Despite the familiarity, one of my favorite parts of the trip was passing out food and praying for the homeless. Although they may not have fully understood us, I still got this feeling that they received what we were praying for them and that it meant a lot.  I used to have a fear of or even disliked homeless people, but through this experience, God has opened up my heart towards the homeless.

As for the team, this year’s was the smallest in number, but I really liked that because it made it easier to bond with each individual. What I really liked was the fact that there was very little drama between members of the team and that it did not pose as a distraction for us. 

In this trip, God did many amazing things for us, but personally, God showed me things about myself that I need to change. One main thing is my frustration and toxicity. In this past school year, I feel like I’ve grown further away from God and as a result, I have become very harsh and toxic. Being toxic is basically being really mean and sarcastic towards people around you. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I went into the Mexicali short term missions trip with the mindset that God will do something amazing in my life and change it. But as each day passed, I grew impatient. I started to get very frustrated with God. But one morning, as we were doing Time With Abba and worshipping,  God told me that my frustration is useless. He decides what happens and how. He showed me that instead of being harsh and mean, He wants me to show the love of Jesus to other people. Coming back from Mexicali, I realized how frustrated and toxic I’ve been to the people around me, whether it’s my friends or family. I’m slowly making progress towards changing myself, but without God, I cannot do it.