You know when you have all those really good intentions to start a blog and keep everyone updated. Yeah, that was me nearly 2 years ago and oh look we have been in Mexico over a year now and not a single blog post. Whoops, sorry!
The last year has been one of the scariest, most challenging but joyful years of our lives.
We arrived in Mexico with somewhere to live but no furniture, almost no ability to speak spanish and almost no help. Because the plans for the work we were going to do fell through almost immediately we were also left with no work here either.
Those first two weeks I cried a lot! I was so scared and just had this overwhelming feeling of ” What on earth have we done!”
I was scared of spiders, scorpions, snakes, being mugged, being kidnapped, and just not being able to function normally when you can’t speak the language.
I didn’t hardly sleep and I was so nauseous from stress that I couldn’t eat.
Funnily enough, none of the things I was scared of were realistic. I have seen zero snakes, 1 scorpion (way far out of town), no harmful spiders and I haven’t even been mugged or kidnapped!
We have fallen in love with Mexico, with its craziness, it’s no rules but at the same time way too many rules and most of all its people!
Tijuana gets a seriously bad rap in the media, and I’ve definitely seen things I wish I hadn’t, things I never would have seen in New Zealand. They definitely have problems with infrastructure, schooling, rubbish control and corruption but most people are just trying to survive, living their lives and providing for their families and almost all of them are super friendly.
We love the varied work we do with LifeChange, from working in the office on admin and finances, to sending newsletters, playing with kids, teaching kids and families about a God who loves them and cares for them, and helping provide for their practical needs, and hopefully one day soon facilitating missions trips so others can experience similar.
One year down the road we are so happy we made that big giant leap into the unknown, there have been many times in the last year when we did not know what the future held but we hold the hand of the one who does know, and we trust Him with our everything.