so much of what I’ve been hearing about Mexico, about Puebla, about our own NEIGHBORHOOD lately, has made me want to pull and say “you know what?” i’m done. it’s back to the US for me.” drug trafficking taking over zones of the city, a gang of sex traffickers operating the next neighborhood over, people dumping lifeless bodies of girls and boys just ten blocks away from our small, homey apartment. even as i write i feel the dark wisps of fear snaking around me, waiting for a weak moment to vacuum themselves into my mind. my heart weighs heavy with so much devastating news and knowledge that was never mine to bear but carries it nonetheless. Mexico- a country so beautiful, so rich in resources, so generous in hospitality, so loyal in its family ties- is sagging beneath the weight of so much evil and darkness. there’s such a black cloud over Mexico right now, and my flesh and emotions cause conflict within me, stirring desires to run back across the line of safety, like a game of Capture the Flag with much higher stakes. morbid ancestral traditions swirled in with modern day wickedness brews together to spawn a bleak present for Mexico, and sometimes it feels like the darkness won’t be stopped from spreading.
all this becomes terribly and exceedingly overwhelming… until i stop and shift my focus to remember Who already looked darkness in the eye and brought Light forth to reveal it was nothing more than a powerless shadow… He Who already went to the place of deepest unescapable despair and completely stripped it of its power. my Jesus descended to the grave and broke forth from it to tell me the grave would no longer have any dominion over me. He came back to impulse me to open wide my arms and remind all those whom I encounter that there is something more to this life: a tremendous beauty hidden behind the thick fog of tragic heartache, that the love they seek and desire is waiting to be discovered and accepted, that they have a purpose so unique so vital, that there is a better way, that death is not something to fear. even i must be reminded of this at times.
i know i have been called here [to Mexico], and perhaps even for such a time as this, even if i don't feel quite as valiant as Queen Esther, or as a wise Judge Deborah. fear is my biggest enemy, but i will not let it be my king.
friends, would you pray for us? and more importantly, for our beloved Mexico, our beloved Puebla? for peace to settle in our hearts and in our neighborhoods. for courage to win, for the love of Jesus to be released over every street and every heart, no matter the cost.
