Day 1 April 14th 2018

The Journey began for the SOTL missionaries early, arriving at the Detroit airport at 4:30 AM. Our flight left at 6:35 am with a brief stop over in Atlanta, and a connecting flight in Austin. We arrived in Austin with 10 minutes to board our flight. We scurried off the plane, only to discover that our flight had been delayed by 20 minutes, which was a blessing in disguise as this allowed us to a much needed bathroom break and snacks.

We continued our journey with a short flight to El Paso.  Upon arriving we were picked by Alfonzo from Ysleta, in two big Ysleta vans. We took a short stop to the famous Whataburger, which everyone seemed to really enjoy.  A short while later we were at the historic Ysleta Lutheran missions compound, which is just a few miles from the U.S./ Mexico border.

2018 Mexico Water Trip 1806 Members

For those unfamiliar with Ysleta, they have multiple outbuildings that do a variety of outreach ministries. Some of what Ysleta does is medical outreach, a book share, church services and a bible study, a thrift store, and a food and special needs pantry. Ysleta has a dorm room, which we are staying in, that houses different mission’s teams that are working in the El Paso and Juarez area. A mission team from Nebraska is also staying here the same time as us.

The dorms are rooms with bunk beds and it has a communal bathroom area. The feeling of brothers and sisters coming to gather together to share the good news of Jesus Christ and be of aid to his people is palpable here. It is a unique feeling to be gathered together, from all different backgrounds and ages, and personalities sharing this common purpose. This common love of Christ.

We settled in to our new home for the week, and had a brief team meeting about the plans for church tomorrow and planning for the health and hygiene lessons we will be sharing with the people of Juarez during the week.

Weary from the day, we headed into town to get a few last minute supplies from Walmart, and went to a locally owner taco place, which was deliciously authentic, the owner even helped us with the menu!

Our day ended around 10:30 with a devotion, which included Capella singing, about how we are all different people, similar to different colored crayons in a crayon box. These “colors” having different traits and gifts that, while different, we can all use together for this greater purpose of sharing God’s love with all people; and this creates the most beautiful picture of all.

Ysleta Lutheran Mission