Mexico Day 1

Day One

Flying over the Florida Keys

On Tuesday, February 10th, our team of Vince & Vickie Sevenski, their grandson, Isaac (11), Lonnie & Debbie Yarbrough, and myself met at the church around 8:45.  It was freezing cold and rainy and the warm temperatures of Mexico were sounding pretty good.  Our pastor made sure to come out and pray with all of us, as we all tried to huddle under one umbrella.  We said our goodbyes - Shawn and Amelia came to see me off - and then packed into the Tahoe to head for Raleigh.  

The drive to the airport and flight to Miami was uneventful….until we got off the plane.  One of our team members thought that we had to go pick up our baggage and go through customs there.  So, we all followed, since he's a frequent traveler, without any questions.  Once in the baggage claim area, we quickly realized there were no bags coming around and that we'd made a mistake.  We weren't to go through customs until Mexico!  And now we were through security and had to make our way back upstairs to wait in that long line again.  As we started to go through security, they informed Lonnie that his carry on was too large, and even though he had already carried it on the first flight, they made him check it in Miami.  Lesson learned!

Another short flight into Cancun and a quick and easy trip though customs and we were finally there.  Doug and Darla Millar (the missionaries we would be assisting all week) were there to pick us up.  She warned us it had been cool at night and to bring a jacket, but the mid 60's temps felt great!  We loaded up our luggage and headed to dinner.  You might think we headed to a Mexican restaurant, but no, we ate at a place called The Burger Stop.  

Another 45 minute drive and we were in Paamul.  Paamul is a very strange area, but I wouldn't find that out until the next day.  It is a guarded community that houses covered RV homes, a hotel, palapas (huts we stayed in) and other thatched roof homes.  There are a lot of people that live there permanently, but most live somewhere else the other 6 months of the year….and most of the residents are from Canada.  If you want to see it better, you can go to www.paamul.com and watch their video.  It truly is a beautiful area and we were lucky enough to be only a few steps from the beach.

By the time we got to our palapas (I had my own), it was around 9pm.  Pretty tired from our travel day, we all went to bed, ready to see what we would be doing the next day.

The reason I used 1 Corinthians 13:13 as my blog title, is because I wanted to describe what this missions trip meant to me.  I believe that by being there, we are offering the Mayans, who do not know Jesus as their savior, "faith, hope and love".  Maybe their faith and hope is only in us "Americans, who have come to love them", but hopefully they'll come to realize that we are there for them because of Jesus.