My Week with BAY HILLS

Last week I worked with a Youth Group from California. We worked on a solar house in the morning at RAV and then we did a Sports Ministry in the afternoon.

The first afternoon we began with 7 children and ended with 15. The second day we had around 25 kids and by the last day our numbers were close to a hundred. By Wednesday we would see kids flocking to the soccer field to join our camp. I had the wonderful opportunity to just walk all around the neighborhood inviting kids to join.

This is a picture that I took in the evening after a church service. We worked with a local church in the area.

On Thursday afternoon there were hundreds of Mexicans of all ages swarming the soccer field because usually the American groups give away free things and this happened to be the day in which we were giving out soccer balls, jersey's and cleats. My job on this day was to be security. So I was set at the far entrance of the soccer field and I had to monitor who came and went making sure no soccer balls disappeared. Well, there were some older men sitting up on the hill sending kids down to steal balls and the next think I knew there were clusters of dirt being thrown down at me. I really didn't mind, I just didn't want to get hit in the head with one. So I had the group leader, Eddie, who was well over 6ft and 300 pounds come guard. They stopped throwing rocks at me!
Later I was sent to guard another entrance. I encountered similar problems only with teenage boys. This day was so frustrating to me. It was the first day in which I truly felt like I was not 100% safe and where I felt like I was treated differently because I am white. I was so frustrated with how I was treated, but I really think that God used this experience to teach me something. He taught me that I really am on the mission field and that my security rests in him not 300 pound men!


This is a picture of the neighborhood we were serving. I took this picture from the soccer field. Between the neighborhood and soccer field there was this huge space filled with garbage and what not. The soccer field is visible from every part of the neighborhood.

This is Becky, my favorite Group Coordinator at Agua Viva. I had the pleasure of working with her. She is a missionary here and will remain at Agua Viva for another 2 years.


This is us just being silly waiting for the service to begin. The girl on the far right was one of the group members. We called her Elmo.

I usually attend a service during the week and I attend youth group on Saturdays and then the regular service on Sundays.


This is Me, Becky, & Vasti. We worked together in translating for our group. Vasti was our main translator.


Overall, I had a really good experience this week. It was a hard week in that I think I finally "hit the wall" but I believe that it was a crucial week to my overall experience. I learned that there are many who are not Christians and that MEXICO is a mission field just like any other place!