This story is about a moment that showed me I’ve been entirely blind to the spiritual warfare that takes place around all of us every single day.
Here’s What Happened
On the second half of my recent mission trip to Reynosa Mexico, I stayed with Melody’s Children’s Home. They recently finished two bathroom/bedroom combos, so I wanted to stay with them as a test run for future visitors.
Melody’s Children’s Home is directed by Jaime and Rosalba Mayorga. They’ve run the home for over a decade and care for 16 children.
Jaime and Rosalba were born to be Missionaries. They’ve been involved in some sort of mission field for most of their lives. Jaime gave his life to Christ in his early 20’s and hasn’t looked back since. Now 60 years old, Jaime has been a full or part-time missionary for nearly 40 years.
That much time as a missionary shapes the way you see the world. Seeing the Holy Spirit work as if it’s a physical person in the room changes how you interpret the events of your life. We all see things through a lens, and that lens is crafted by previous experience. Our lens is like a filter we put information through to help us evaluate what goes on around us. Information enters, the filter is applied, and our conclusions exit.
What Crafts Our Lens?
As Christians, hopefully Jesus is our filter. Jesus’ teachings give clear guidance on how to view the world and our behavior within it. If we take the bible seriously, our lens will be crafted by Christ. But that doesn’t make us immune to cultural influences. Many times, worldly affairs have a huge effect on how we determine our priorities. And I’ve found those influences to be especially strong in America.
Things like politics, careers, and even family, take up so much of our time and energy. Those things are not inherently bad, in fact, they can be good and important. But they’re also time-consuming and can distract us from our true purpose. We have to make sure we incorporate them into our faith, and not the other way around. The wise man builds his life upon the rock.
The more time we spend on non-kingdom things, the more our worldview becomes shaped by non-kingdom things. And the more blinded to kingdom activity we become. Which is what I discovered about myself while in Reynosa.
One Moment…
One moment showed me that I have likely misinterpreted many significant events in my life.
On my last day with Melody’s, a young woman came through the doors—without warning—at 10 pm. She sat down at the dining room table and was soon escorted by Jaime into his office. She was the mother of Carlos, Mariel, and Adele Guadarrama (3 children that have lived with Jaime and Rosalba for more than 3 years). She had shown up that night to remove them from Jaime and Rosalba’s care. (Many kids living with our Partnered Children’s Homes still have their parents, and those parents have certain rights. As long as they have no history of physical or drug abuse, they can remove their children from the home whenever they like.)
Everyone was devastated. I watched as they packed their bags and said their goodbyes. Almost everyone was in tears. They were crying over the loss of family. During those 3 years, Carlos, Mariel, and Adele were viewed and treated as literal family by Jaime and Rosalba. That’s how all who stay at Melody’s are treated. Losing them is equal to losing biological children in the eyes of Melody’s Children’s Home.
Carlos, Mariel, and Adele with their mother the day she left them with Casa Melody’s.
What Now?
I asked Jaime what he planned to do about Carlos, Mariel, and Adele. His response amazed me. I mean that in the definitional sense of the word. His response bewildered me and didn’t make sense…
He was still going on the mission trip! He’d be leaving later than planned, but he was going regardless.
I couldn’t understand it at first. How could he leave Rosalba and the others after what had just happened?
He explained to me that Carlos, Mariel, and Adele’s mother showing up was spiritual warfare. Satan was attempting to stop him from evangelizing to the people of Tarahumara Sierra. The reality of what had just transpired was obvious to him. He didn’t have to reason through it. He knew immediately what was going on, and he wasn’t going to let Satan win.
That’s the moment that showed me how blind I’ve been most of my life. It hit me like a ton of bricks. How many times have I quit something because it was the rational choice? Or justified inaction because it was convenient. I can’t help but wonder how many times I’ve been tricked into avoiding God’s will.
Carlos, Mariel, and Adele 3 years later shortly before their mother returned.
Reflection
I think if we all took a moment to seriously reflect on things, we’d discover we have blinders on. I bet we’ve all been fooled by Satan into thinking we’re doing the right thing. That’s what makes spiritual warfare so tricky. Satan’s plan often looks like the right choice. No one would have blamed Jaime for scrubbing his mission trip. I certainly would have understood. And it would have made things easier if he stayed behind and dealt with the fallout. But that wouldn’t have been God’s will.
Jaime and Rosalba knew that and had the courage to act on it.
I’ve been reading through Acts and have come away with a few cool observations.
In the early days of the Church there wasn’t a roadmap for evangelism. It wasn’t like it is today, where there are books and tools to help us evangelize as effectively as possible. They were figuring it out as they went along. Flying by the seat of their pants. Plus, there wasn’t a Bible! It must have been hard for the original disciples to trust that new believers understood and shared correct doctrine. If it was me, I would have worried constantly that Jesus’ teachings were inadvertently being twisted.
How did they get past that?
I think it comes down to two things:
1. They lived in an oral culture, where literacy rates were low and information was passed by mouth. Because of this, extra emphasis was placed on accuracy of the details. They understood how easily ideas can be accidentally manipulated by the telephone game. They made an extra effort to ensure that everything they were teaching stayed true to the original words of Jesus.
2. More importantly, the Holy Spirit was in control. Several times throughout Acts you read about the Holy Spirit taking the wheel and leading the early Church. For example, the Spirit preventing paul from entering Asia in chapter 16. And with the Holy Spirit at the helm, they were surely spreading God’s intended message.
This is still the case today.
Mission work has an inherent risk to it. Whether it be physical danger, or just putting yourself out of your comfort zone. There’s no faith without risk. And there are a ton of uncertainties.
For example, every time I take a mission trip to Reynosa, I meet a lot of strangers. On my most recent trip I spent all day handing out food with a group I had never met. They were Texans, born in Mexico, that felt called to the mission field in Reynosa. Despite knowing next to nothing about them, there was an unspoken bond. Something about having a common goal and the same set of values, made them more trustworthy. Not saying I’d give them my wallet, but I was more than comfortable with hopping in their van to head to the first dispensa of the day.
I believe these types of relationships are enabled through the Holy Spirit. That it facilitates a seamless increase in Christian networks in order to further God’s will.
The original disciples had to trust that the Holy Spirit had things under control. That as long as they were staying true to Jesus’ message, things would turn out right. And now, it’s up to us to do the same.
I love the book of John. It gives us the most upfront, almost in person, view of Jesus out of all the Gospels. It’s like John was scribbling what Jesus was saying as the words came out of his mouth.
The Book of John also shows us how much modern Christians have in common with the disciples.
In chapter 14 Jesus grows quite frustrated with the disciples. After all the lessons he’s taught them and the miracles he’s performed, they still don’t realize he’s the Christ.
Philip said to him, “Lord show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?”
Some things never change. How often do we look past what God has put right in front of us?
It reminds me of the sermon I heard yesterday morning from my church here in Houston. One of the main points was “where your emotion lies, there also lies where you believe you will find peace”.
Wherever you invest your time, energy, and mental bandwidth is secretly where you think the answers are hidden. If you obsess over your weight to the point of sadness, deep down you think that having the perfect body will give you internal peace.
But where do we really find the answers? Look to John 14:6;
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, No one comes to the Father except through me”.
There it is. In quotation marks. Jesus tells us the answer. He is the embodiment of God and the only way to make it off this earth alive. He’s in control.
It’s so simple that I think we can’t help but overcomplicate it. Leave it to us humans to shoot ourselves in the foot.
Wherever you’re at this week and whatever you’re struggling with, I hope that you’re able to take a moment to realize where your peace is found.
myself and 6 friends teamed up for a mission trip to the mountains of Saltillo, Mexico. A few of us traveled from New York, some from Illinois, and others were already in the south. We all made our way to our friends Bruce and Paula Hepburn of Mexico Missions, and they drove us south to Big Heart Orphanages’ campus.
While there, we were joined by Life Church of Lafayette from Louisiana, and collectively we completed several service projects for Big Heart Orphanage and a couple community outreach activities for the local village.
All in all, it was an incredible trip. We witnessed the hand of God in several ways and were spiritually rejuvenated for the year to come.
Watch the video below to get a taste of what our trip was like!
Big Heart Orphanage has put a ton of work into Colegio Regents
As mentioned before, this school year they will have over 400 kids from the primary to college level in attendance, and they continue to grow. They recently hired another preschool teacher and are currently seeking to hire an English teacher.
They are heavily involved in the community
Just this last month they held a cultural event where they served local dishes and showcased cultural dances.
They also held a festival to celebrate Mexico’s Independence Day. Check out the mechanical bull in the background..
They look forward to a successful and studious year at Colegio Regents!
Big Heart Orphanage took a big step recently and decided God was calling them to open up a new location. This Summer marks one year that they’ve been at that location!
It’s called Big Heart Orphanage of the Mountains, for obvious reasons. They currently house just two children there, Andrea and Mateo, but they have a lot of confidence that they will grow, just like their Reynosa campus has.
“We have been praying and we know that many of you have also been in agreement, praying with us for each child that God is going to put in our care. We look forward to this new beginning here in the mountains.”
