It is with great joy and excitement I get to announce that all the funds have been raised for the Mexico Missions trip!!  I can’t thank everyone enough for their generous support.  We are leaving first thing in the morning, Thursday March 10^th and returning on the 17^th.   If you’d like to see what’s happening or has happened, please visit me on Facebook (Michael Zenker, or Grace Walk Canada) or you can follow my blog at https://mikezenker.wordpress.com/ .  We’ll be posting pictures and updates along the way (pending Wi-Fi).

This trip is not your ‘typical missions trip’, this one has a deeper hope and purpose.  Here’s what the team read before they signed up:

“This mission’s trip is NOT your ‘traditional’ mission’s trip.  This is not about you….or the people we are going to.  This is all about discovering Jesus on each step of the journey.  Look for Him on the flight there and back, look for Him in the people you’ll meet, look for Him in the culture you’ll experience.  Listen for Him to speak to you and reveal Himself to you in all the activities of this trip.   This trip is designed to be a ‘wake up call’ as to the riches we have here vs what they don’t have there, the riches they have there, and the lack we have here….your job is to discover the difference. “

I’d like to invite all of you reading this to pray for us on our trip.  Pray for the impact the entire adventure will have on each person going and on each person that we’ll encounter!  Pray for our host and guide, Gerardo Vazquez (Director of Grace Walk Latin America), he has done all the ground work and planning to keep us safe and organized.

Here are some of the things we’ll be doing on the trip:

A team of adults and youth are flying into Guadalajara, Mexico

• then driving 4 hours east to Celaya Guanajuato, where we’ll be meeting a Church connected to Grace Walk and share stories, bring some gifts for the children and explore the city.
• Next we’ll travel to Santiago Ixcuintla Nayarit.  (Gerardo’s wife’s hometown)

Some of the things we’ll be doing in Nayarit are:

• Painting the fronts of twelve homes (they cannot afford paint, and yet they love colour) (**we are planning on investing back into this little town and hiring the locals to do the painting, so we can do more ‘relational’ time with the children, teens and community).
• Purchasing chairs for the Community Centre (which seriously lacks seating, they have dirt floors)
• Bringing as many school supplies to give away as possible, buy them there if need be.  They cannot afford basic supplies
• Canadian Tire Waterloo has graciously allowed us to purchase sports equipment at cost and we’ll be giving some to the children and the rest to the Community Centre/Church
• Health supplies (shampoos, toothpaste, toothbrushes, hand sanitizer, etc.)  the town has ONE home that has an indoor working bathroom, otherwise the rest of the town utilizes community out-houses with running water.
• Connecting Canadian teens with Mexican teens in order to share culture and life stories
• Working with children through stories, games, bringing stickers, playing sports with them, etc
• We’ll be exploring the deeper needs of the places we visit so that we can return with a better understanding of how we can partner with these towns, bringing practical help, but also the profound message of Grace and Love!

Thank you again, I’m looking forward to sharing updates as the trip progresses!!

Mike Zenker