Why Mexico?

I'm actually surprised I haven't gotten this question more often, because even I never saw myself going to Mexico for a year, at least not in the near future. And the reality is that it wasn't all that long ago when I thought Mexico was the last place I would ever go, for ministry or otherwise. And learning Spanish? Who am I kidding! It would only take a few individuals - David Nickodemus, Zach Grafe, Hannah Childress, Ashley Morgan - to prove just how much I hated the Spanish language just a few years ago..

So why am I going to the one place I thought I would never go for ministry? Why am I learning the one language I truly hated? Have I lost my mind?!?!

NO! God has completely transformed my heart, mind and desires!

I know there are some of you that I haven't had heart to heart conversations with in two, three, or four years or more. So, here's a brief summary of how God has transformed me since I became a believer in July 2006.

In August 2006, I moved to Texas and got involved with InterVarsity - by God's great mercy! Within a month, I had found a local ministry to pour my life into, Pioneers Friday Church. Four months later, I attended Urbana 06, one of the largest missions conferences ever, and felt God lay on my heart a call to world missions. In March of 2007, God called me to spend my Spring Break in Monterrey(translated: Mount of the King), Mexico, which opened my heart to the idea of Mexico. That fall, I stepped into leadership with Pioneers Friday Church, teaching four and five year olds. The next spring, I did not have the option of returning to Mexico, so I did a state-side mission trip to St. Louis, MO. In my two year absence, I allowed my heart to close and harden toward Mexico, thinking "I've already done that."

In November of 2008, God called me to explore a slightly longer term project, in the form of Student Training in Missions (STiM) through InterVarsity, so I applied and was accepted. In December, I found out the project I was assigned to was none other than Latin America Mission's Spearhead program in Mexico City, Mexico, despite the fact that I desperately wanted to return to Europe. Despite my fears and uncertainties and stubbornness, God told me to "Just trust and go." In March of 2009, I was allowed to return to Mexico for the first time since my previous Spring Break trip, this time heading to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, again with InterVarsity. This second Spring Break trip was difficult for me, because it was very much a construction project, with a considerable amount of heavy labor, hauling around concrete and cinder blocks to build a roof for the Sunday School building of Puerto de Salvacion (Door of Salvation) church in Merida. God re-opened my heart for Mexico sometime during the course of the week I was there, and he called me to truly trust him.

In June of 2009, I boarded a plane bound for Mexico City, my first time to truly live in a city of more than 100,000 people (try 23.4 million! That's 251 times the size of College Station! And 5030 times the size of Frankenmuth, the tiny city in Michigan where I was born and raised!) During the two months I was there, God called me to step out in obedience to his will and to trust that he was doing something that I could not see, to trust that the seeds I was planting would sprout and grow long after I left. That August, I returned to Texas A&M with no clue what God was teaching me or what good I had done for the kingdom, with one exception - Christopher Manuel. For those of you with Facebook, you can find a picture of Christopher when you visit my profile... He's the beautiful young man in my profile picture and he became a believer during my seventh week in Mexico, after two weeks of EBV (VBS). Anyway, I came home knowing I had loved my time in Mexico but with no clue what God had done, because whatever it was, he wasn't done with it yet. I also had no intention of returning to Mexico long-term, at least, not for the foreseeable future. I intended to go on staff with InterVarsity and move to Arkansas. I also thought I'd at least be dating by now... God had other plans. He shut those two doors, the second in September and the first in November of 2009, leaving me hurt, confused and downright dizzy...

Urbana 2009 reignited my passion for missions and for languages, particularly worshiping God in other languages and I made a commitment to spend at least two years of my life in cross-cultural missions, but I confess that I still thought that would be when I went on staff with InterVarsity, at some later date, despite spending several hours wandering through Global Connexions, the area Urbana set aside for mission agencies and training programs to set up booths and talk to Urbana attendees. I was intent on going to graduate school or finding an odd job around College Station for a year or two...

In March, God opened the door for me to return to Mexico for the fourth time, although it was to be my first true return trip, as I returned to Merida, Yucatan, and was able to reconnect with people that I met the previous spring. What I didn't understand was the weird feeling of coming home that I experienced all week long, despite the fact that my "best friend" on the trip was Joey, a guy from the University of Texas Pan American, located in McAllen, TX, whom I had served with the last time I was in the Yucatan, followed by our two wonderful staff members, Sara Sher (Texas Tech) and Nick Dombrowski (UTPA). After a week of quiet leadership and internal leadership conflicts, I returned to the States wanting desperately to return to Mexico, but fully convinced that I had not explored every option and that, while I wanted to go to Mexico, God probably had something else planned for me, but I had no clue how to find out what that was... Well, that lasted about a month.

In April, God finally told me "Nicole, enough is enough. 'You WHO KNOW WHAT IS RIGHT, you people who have my law in your hearts, do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified of their insults. (Isaiah 51:7)'" Of course, on the way to this verse, I passed by Isaiah 52:7, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion 'Your God reigns!'" For those of you unfamiliar with Mexican geography, Mexico City lies in a valley, literally built over a lake, 7,800 feet above sea-level, between the Eastern and Western Sierra Madre mountains, such that the city is literally surrounded by mountains, and the outskirts of city's enormous population are literally climbing the sides of those mountains.

That was it. I knew where I needed to go. And where I needed to go was Mexico City.