Baja Missions Trip 2023 - Day 1 "Travel Day"

Hello there! If you are reading this it probably means that you had some vested interested in my trip to Baja Mexico, whether that be as a prayer or a financial partner. Both of those roles played such a vital role in getting and sustaining the trip to Mexico this year. To put the trip to Mexico in a few words, eye opening, life changing, and spiritually challenging. 

I was trying to figure out how to inform all the people who were a part of my sending team, and there is so much to say that a short 1-2 page update wouldn't be able to do justice to all the things this trip cultivated in me, and in the lives of the team I traveled with. So here's what I'm going to do. While I was on the trip I journaled faithfully about the daily activities that we had, and there are a few reasons why I did. One so I could remember all that God has done, two a way for me to process how I was affected throughout the day, and thirdly so I could come home and share with you all this life changing trip in as much detail as possible. 

I will be posting once a week, for the next couple of weeks. Each post will outline a day or two of the trip to give you a snapshot into the inner workings of the trip, and even some of my inner thoughts and feelings. As I've said in previous posts I've written on this forum, I'm not that good of a writer, I failed 7th grade English, but I will be open and honest about my experience and would be happy to answer any questions you may have as you're reading. I'm excited to share with you all this experience, and can't recommend highly enough that if you are given a chance to go on a missions trip of any kind, even if it's local, say yes. It will push and mold you in ways you never thought possible, and it just might change someone's life, and it might be yours. Hang tight, and welcome to next couple of weeks of reading! 

Day 1 - Travel Day

My day started at 2:30AM to my alarm waking me from a dead sleep. My first though "what year is it?" closely followed by "that was not enough sleep." Cut to me rousing myself from my bed, sauntering to the bathroom and preparing myself mentally and physically for the long day that was before me. The only expectation I had was to have no expectations. I've never been on a missions trip before, and haven't even been out of the country, and I found this was one of the ways I could manage my anxiety surrounding the trip. The one word I had chosen for this trip was "flexible", due to winter weather which had lead to unseasonably cold temperatures and rainy weather who knows what challenges this trip would hold, and the schedule had already changed multiple times since it initial inception. 

Our whole party of 10 arrived at the airport at 4AM, with one straggler who underestimated how long it would take for them to get to the airport. Cory and Terry, the leaders of the trip were visibly nervous due to the large amount of moving parts with making this trip happen. Bag tags, TSA, changing gates, and flights, the list goes on. But with relative ease all our bags were tagged, boarding passes printed, and we all passed through TSA. We now had to wait for our flight to begin boarding, while others stood in a very long line waiting for Starbucks to open at 5AM, I began nervous walking the terminals. I usually do this even when I'm traveling for vacations but I had a heightened sense of anxiety. This is my first missions trip, and the first time leaving the US, and on Spirit airlines no less... If you know you know. I do not recommend Spirit airlines to anyone, ever. Feel free to ask if you have questions, the point of this is not to inform everyone about less than ideal airlines. 

However, aside from a bumpy ride due to weather fronts we were flying through we made through the first leg of the trip. I was able to sit next to two other team mates and learned a little bit more about them, Dewey and Lucia made great travel mates! Once we landed in Las Vegas we had only a few hundred feet to traverse to our next gate, to catch our connecting flight which would land in San Diego. Once boarded we had just a short 1 hour flight left. We landed in San Diego, only having to deal with turbulence, and listening to a So-Cal gal share her whole life story with her row mates. 

We grabbed our bags off the carousel, all persons and bags accounted for, nothing short of a miracle, and we waited for our driver to pick us up. Kevin or "Uncle Kevin" as we began to call him picked us up and drove us to our final meal state-side. A good Christian meal, Chic-fil-a. All I've heard my whole life about San Diego is it's very sunny and the weather is gorgeous. It was anything but, windy, cold, cloudy, and slightly raining. We had to eat our Chic-fil-a huddled outside in their open air eatery, the only available option. It may seem silly, but having a final meal stated-side that I was comfortable and familiar with helped to calm some of the anxiety that had been building in my body the whole day. 

Our Mode of Transportation for the Week

After a stop at Costco (my first time) to pick up food for the Fiesta we were going to be throwing later in the week, and a last minute stop at Walmart for some essentials we couldn't bring on the plane with us we were ready to cross the Border. 

We were uncertain how crossing the border was going to go, between the copious amounts of food we were bringing over, the fact that we were all squished into a 15 passenger van with suitcases, and food for 200 hundred people, there was a real potential that our entire van would have to be searched to make sure we weren't smuggling anything in. As a general rule getting into Mexico is so much easier than getting out. Someone suggested saying a quick prayer before we got there, and Liz piped up, "Lord help us to get across the border smoothly." A simple yet effective prayer! 

As we crossed the border we were directed to pull over into one of the many parking stalls, a fully armed fedarale opened the door, an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder. He was friendly enough, made some joke about the amount of food we had, asked us where we were going and what we were doing. The answer that we were volunteering building houses and throwing a Fiesta seemed to be enough for him. He closed the door and waved us through, didn't even check our Passports. Getting across the border could not have gone better! 

Once we crossed the border we had about a 30 minute drive to the Connections House in Rosarito, just south of Tijuana, where we would call home for the next 6 days. As we drove the experience was best described as the Tale of Two Cities. On the land side of the road the homes looked like little more than tarp covered sheds, most buildings were made of whatever materials people could find to give them some cover from the elements. Scrap pieces of plywoods, pallets, tarps, even old billboard signs were all these people had to call home. The ocean side of the road had exquisite mansions with sea side views, balcony's and stucco that looks polished and clean. The dichotomy of these two sides of the road is not lost on me. Few people who come to Mexico actually experience the impoverished communities that lie even directly across a 4 lane highway. Not venturing off their resorts site to experience the people that call Mexico home. I was excited but also uncertain as to what was in store for us this week. But even just driving 30 minutes I knew the Lord was going to use this experience to humble me. 

We arrived at the Connections House fairly quickly, dropped our bags, were introduced to the couple who runs the connections house, and washed up. We were all very weary from the journey, but we had some time before dinner so some of us piled back into the van and headed to the local grocery store Soriana's, think Walmart, but with a way better bakery! We picked up unique snacks, pastries for the next morning, and placed an order for 150 tortas which would later be a part of our Fiesta. It wouldn't be the last time we would visit there. Driving in Mexico is an interesting experience, between the pedestrians, dogs running wild in the streets, and traffic laws that are only obeyed loosely, I was glad we had Kevin to help drive us around! 

After heading back to the Connections House, receiving a hot meal and a short devotional with the team, with drooping eyes I prepared for bed. It didn't matter that there was a cacophony of dogs barking, a car with a speaker driving up and down the road selling tamales out of the trunk, or that the overhead lights in our room were still on. I was tired and restless, ready to sleep and start the work tomorrow. At the same time overjoyed we all made it here safely and in one piece. 

The View from the Patio of the Connections House