Becoming Friends for Eternity

God gave us the “ministry of reconciliation” so that He could reconcile the world to himself in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:18). He gives us this sweet opportunity to work alongside Him and other believers to strengthen, encourage, and grow the church. This summer some of our church members were able to take this opportunity in one of our first family-friendly mission trips to El Paso, Texas. 

Kasey and Marc Reyes kindly sat down with me to share their experience. God showed himself in every detail on their first family mission trip with their 7-year-old son, Ezra. 

After Kasey and Marc had done an XPLORE Missions Class with Geoffrey, God had been stirring a heart for missions within them and they were looking for an opportunity. This El Paso trip was their first opportunity to go as a family and they were excited to have Ezra experience this at such a young age!

In preparation for the trip, they had Marc’s mother start teaching Ezra some Spanish phrases. They would listen to the Spanish Bible passage while reading along in English and even took Ezra to a Mexican meat market to start exposing him to more of the culture. They could see that Ezra was getting more and more excited as he would share often about what he was learning in Spanish and would correct his parents when they wouldn’t pronounce the Spanish words correctly. 

The full CATC team started preparing for the trip with two different team-building trainings with fun get-to-know-you games, as well as some cultural sensitivity training that resonated with the kids. 

There was a skit based on the principles from the book, Helping Without Hurting, where Vikings had come to modern-day suburbia and were throwing away computers and such because they didn’t understand our current way of life. Kasey and Marc loved how it helped shape the kid's response to approaching a new and different culture with a posture that ‘these are our friends that we are learning and serving alongside.’ 

Kasey reflected on an impactful devotional time in one of the trainings from 2 Corinthians 5, where it talks about being ministers of reconciliation. 

…there was this clear spirit of friendship that was beautiful.

“They approached the word ‘reconciliation’ in a way that helped us see it as a way to become friends with someone, which is exactly what Christ did for us. Our job is to simply share and recreate that friendship with other people.” 

This became Kasey’s theme for the trip: becoming friends with the people they would meet. After seeing the kids playing together, maybe not even speaking the same language, whether it’s soccer or carnival games, there was this clear spirit of friendship that was beautiful. 

Once they got to El Paso, their team helped two El Paso churches, Agua de Vida and Dios con Nosotros, put on two neighborhood festivals to encourage people to come back to church after a steep decline during COVID. One group did a prayer walk around the neighborhoods to hand out flyers inviting them to the festival later that day. The other half of the group worshiped with the other church before their festival the next day. 

The first festival started off with most of the adults running the games and doing all the work while the kids were running around playing and enjoying the time. But the kids really got involved with the second festival.

The adults and the leaders wanted to set the expectation that the teenagers could run their own booth while the younger kids helped them. They all totally stepped up to the challenge! In Kasey’s own words,

“It was a learning experience for the parents to hold the kids to a higher standard of why they were there, which they were eager to do. From the start, the kids were really eager to go and knock on doors and invite them to the family-friendly festivals put on by the churches.”

Marc laughed sharing how the kids would rush up there in a way where the adults didn't really get a chance to coach them through it or even do it themselves. They just ran up to the door alongside the local kids who were members of the church and jumped right in inviting people, whether they spoke the same language or not. 

Tearing up, Marc shared,

“Geoffrey tells a good story about one of the festivals when the pastor came over to him and was surreptitiously nodding to this family and that family, saying, ‘we've been praying for them, that they would come.’ We couldn't know if these were families that go to church who were already their friends. Are these people they see every day? It was good to hear the news that it had been effective and we knew people were there that [the pastors] wanted to be there.”

Praise God! Both festivals were very well attended by the surrounding communities and the churches in El Paso were clearly refreshed and encouraged by our team who were available to serve in any way asked of them.  

Marc reflected on the role of the churches and pastors in El Paso.

“It felt like hard ground there compared to our church, and that was kind of humbling. We're a very resourced church and to go and visit churches that are not as resourced financially, and then they've lost a lot of their members, not from any reason of their own, probably just because of COVID. It’s kind of hard, hard soil. It seems like it’s always going to be an uphill battle of being church planters. There is value in encouraging them and partnering with them with visits, encouragement, and through ensuring financial resources.”

Kasey had some thoughts too.

We’re not Paul, but there was a parallel in the value of going, visiting, and encouraging people in the work of the Lord

“We saw the value of daily encouragement. While I was there, I was reading through Acts on the church’s Bible plan, and one morning I was thinking about how Paul was going and visiting all these churches and encouraging the leaders. We’re not Paul, but there was a parallel in the value of going, visiting, and encouraging people in the work of the Lord, and seeing that it is beneficial to the kingdom that is coming.”

Our team was constantly interacting with strangers that may or may not speak English. They were engaging people from different places and different cultures. All these things might be intimidating and force separation, but there was so much joy in knowing that they were fulfilling the mission God gave them.

Kasey and Marc were encouraged that their son, Ezra, was able to experience this trip alongside them. They saw him learning how he can share Jesus with people in different places. He was able to see that it’s not scary or foreign, this is what Christians are empowered to do. He can start building eternal friendships with people all over the world at a very young age.

When asked about the pastors in El Paso, Ezra said, “they were joyful.” Marc and Kasey added how they obviously loved their community, and they were sustained by the joy of the Lord in how they served and loved other people.

After the festivals, both El Paso churches gathered to share testimonies. It looked like something they do regularly and they invited our team to join. Members of the church stood in front of the group and shared what the Lord has been doing in their lives and share any prayer requests as well.  Kasey shared,

“When they said that we're having a testimony night, none of us really knew for sure what that meant. When I think testimony, I think you're gonna stand up and share your testimony about how the Lord saved you. But this was about how the Lord is constantly saving you. We're constantly needing the Lord’s help, and His grace is fresh every day. We need it every day to save us from our sinful hearts… It was really cool to see there were several people from the oldest lady on our trip (who was a grandma and had her grandkids there) to some of the youngest kids on the trip - all were standing up and also sharing testimonies about how much this trip meant to them and what God had taught them.”

Most of them had a similar story about how God, in bringing people who were strangers, displayed his glory. The kids kept repeating, “these are our brothers and sisters in heaven.” There was this awesome unity of the Church as one family, united in Christ. They understood that despite the different socioeconomic statuses, languages, cultures, and expectations, those are their brothers and sisters in Christ and rejoice that they are going to see them in heaven. Kasey was clearly encouraged,

“Seeing them rise to the occasion, and be able to understand at their own developmental level was so encouraging to me as a mom and as a person who loves Jesus. It was a renewed fervor to believe in these kids and to pray for them. It was encouraging to see their perspective of the world begin to change... It was just awesome… I don't know if I expected God to be so kind for us to see their hearts touched and changed.”