"Behold, He comes, riding on the clouds.....There is no God like Jehovah!!!"

So if you're reading the title, it may sound like a strange one. Unless you know the lyrics to the song, "Days of Elijah." My home church choir sang this song all the time, and I always loved it. It became the theme song to all the high school girls in my van during our recent mission trip to Chiapas, Mexico. If you know anything about the music of this generation and have ever heard "Days of Elijah," you will realize that the styles just don't seem to match up at all. That's why I was so surprised that, by the end of the week, after hearing the song about 25 times, they all knew the words and were singing "There is no God like Jehovah!!!" at the top of their lungs as our van twisted and turned through the mountains and valleys of southern Mexico.

The mission trip was absolutely amazing. It is the 2nd time that I have been to this part of Mexico for a trip like this, doing construction type work and children's ministry among the Tzotzil Indians of the mountains. Just to give you a "trying to be short, but still somewhat lengthy" sum-up of what we did this year, here's the layout:

SATURDAY -- Arrive in Chenalho, Mexico after 2 flights (before the 2nd one out of Mexico City, we got a bit turned around and half of our group had to all-out run to make it to the flight -- we almost lost a chaperone too! But God is good :) and a 2 1/2 hour drive through the mountains. Praise the Lord for Dramamine.

SUNDAY -- Attend a 3 1/2 hour Tzotzil church service -- all of the music was in Spanish, while the preaching was in Tzotzil. No translation, but it truly didn't matter. The joy of the Lord was in that place, like not many places I have seen. Unabandoned praise, joy, song, and laughter -- and not in a weird, overly charismatic way either. There was a tambourine dance group of about 20 girls that played and danced during the music. The choruses were repeated for about 5-7 minutes each -- not lots of verses, just choruses over and over. No one cared if the people playing played pitch perfect or in time. No one cared if you had a good voice or not (and there were some people who came up to sing who were definitely taking the Psalms seriously and "making a joyful noise unto the Lord"!) It was awesome. I loved being in a place where people truly enjoyed being in the presence of the Lord -- and He was most definitely there. Afterward, we played sports with the Tzotzil kids -- volleyball and basketball. I only joined in the volleyball game, and I realized why I no longer play. I am by no means any help at all to a volleyball team (unless it's the opposing team!).

MONDAY -- First workday! We drove 1 1/2 hours through the mountains and villages, corn patches on terraced hills, past sheep, dogs, and chickens and tarps of drying coffee beans in our vans to our first destination, a little village called Oxinam (OSHI-nam). We painted the entire inside and outside of the church. The girls painted a lot of the village kids' nails as well, which they really, really enjoyed. Our girls noticed that, at home, we make such a big deal about needing a manicure or pedicure, and it can become commonplace for some of them. These little girls had NEVER seen nail polish before. Then, we drove back to our base camp (staying with the missionaries in Chenalho) and the students started cutting and painting lumber to make pews for the church that we would visit on Tuesday (more on that in a bit). I helped Barbara, a lady from Switzerland who is now married to one of the pastors there, make dinner -- chicken fajitas and the biggest batch of guacamole I've ever seen. If you ever need any one to cut, pit, and scoop out avocadoes, I'm a certified expert in avocado amazingness now :) Then we had a time of worship, kind of debriefing on everything we had seen and done that day. It was good times.

TUESDAY -- Second workday (and this, I might add, was the day to compare all other days to)! My travel group of 4 girls and I had breakfast duty, so we were up at 5:30 to make pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fruit for the other 19 members of our group. I don't normally see 5:30 in the morning.....but it's easier to wake up in Mexico because the chickens and barking dogs and firecrackers help you wake up. And yes, they do that starting at around 2 or 3 in the morning.

Then we drove 2 hours through the mountains to a small Tzotzil village. Only thing was that we weren't doing any work in this village. There was a hill/mountain with an elevation of at least a couple thousand feet (according to the missionary) right next to this village. The village we were working in, Paquits (pah-KWEETS), was on the opposite side of the top of the mountain. We had to carry all of the lumber for the benches that the kids had worked on the night before, as well as buckets, shovels, the generator, saws, and welding machine up the mountain via a tall, windy, rocky, slidey (yes, I just made up that word) donkey/horse trail. The path went quickly straight up with a few switchbacks -- it was INCREDIBLY difficult. So, with the help of several of the Tzotzil Indians, we carried all of it, plus our backpacks and lunches, up the mountain. Four of the Indian men carried the generator up and down the mountain -- talk about awe-inspiring. I thought for sure they would fall off the mountain. They told us it would be a 45-minute hike, but we are all convinced that those were not in American minutes. They later told us those were Tzotzil minutes -- it took us over 1 1/2 hours to reach the top. And I would know because I was one of the very last people to make it to the top. :0) So much for working out! I carried 6 bench legs up, some of the others were carrying buckets of wood blocks, and many of the guys were carrying 2 or 3 1x12 boards on their heads and backs. As we struggled up the mountain, this one little Indian lady in her woolen dress (it was toasty outside) came trotting up after us, carrying a baby in a sling on her front, and 5 1x12 boards on her head. She quickly passed us up (and yes, she passed up all of our guys). Talk about humbling!!!

Once we arrived at the top, they handed us some ice-cold bottles of Coke (yes, they have that everywhere in the world, just like the old commercials show!). We proceeded to build the pews on top of the mountain, then hand-mix cement and gravel together to lay the foundation for the platform area of the church. By the time we finished that, the sun was starting to go down, so while they finished the roof, we went back down the mountain as the sun set. It was truly beautiful. And a profound learning experience -- one of my girls said, "I will never complain about anything related to being comfortable at church again. If the air conditioner breaks or if I have to walk from the back of the parking lot.....it's nothing like walking up a mountain!!!"

After a 2-hour drive home, we had dinner, made a birthday cake for one of the girls and one of our chaperones, and then collapsed into bed around 10:30 or 11:00 at night.

WEDNESDAY -- Mostly a free day! We drove about 1 1/2 hours to San Cristobal (notice all the driving hours? We added them up -- about 24 hours of driving during the week! Thus, all the singing time in the van...) We went shopping a little bit in the morning time, bought souvenirs, then went to lunch at the nicest place in town called "The Gardens of San Cristobal." Very nice -- we had fajitas again, with handmade corn tortillas. Yum. Then a little more shopping. In the evening, we drove to a nearby church to help lead a children's service. Some of our students did a puppet show, performed a skit, sang a song, and made balloon animals for the children there. It was a wonderful time of singing and learning. The children and adults there all seemed to have fun -- I know we did! They presented each one of us with a painted necklace made from seeds and everything from acorns to peach pits. Then 1 1/2 hours back home and straight to bed.

Our van driver thought the girls in our van were so funny -- they sang all the time. Although we had a couple of CDs to listen to, by far "Days of Elijah" was the most popular song. The chorus?

Behold, he comes

Riding on the clouds

Shining like the sun

At the trumpet call.

Lift your voice,

It's the year of Jubilee

And out of Zion's hills,

Salvation comes.

They sang this song over and over and over. Laughing, dancing, and purely joyful. Probably some of my favorite moments of the trip :0)

THURSDAY -- Last major work day. We drove 3 1/2 hours (yup, a long ride today!) almost to Guatemala. We painted a much larger church inside and out in a town called Socoltenango, surrounded by fields of sugar cane that were being harvested (they burn the fields). Afterwards, we went to a nearby waterfall called Chiflon, about 100 feet high (or was it meters? Can't remember). It was quite beautiful -- we hiked about a mile in and a mile out. Then 3 1/2 hours back home, singing most of the way.

FRIDAY -- Drove to Tuxtla Gutierrez (where our airport was) 2 1/2 hours away to spend the day and night before leaving for home. Had some lunch (some yummy chicken mole' enchiladas -- mole' is a Mexican sauce made from chocolate), did a little more shopping, and then took a 2 hour boat ride down the river into the Sumidero Canyon (which was gorgeous). Then, we came back to the hotel and had an amazing worship time of reflection and some awesome time of prayer before we went to bed for the night.

SATURDAY -- Flew back home!

It was truly an amazing week. We learned a lot about humility, a lot about joy, a lot about hard work, a lot about being thankful and grateful. God is so good and so big. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts to share that I've been pondering on. The students were so wonderful -- they had such servant hearts and wonderful attitudes. They were so encouraging to one another -- and to me! It was a week of blessing and learning. And one to keep thinking on.