Norris Family News

Este Mundo No es Mi Hogar

The first outreach team of the year was at the end of January. Although we were not involved with the team except in a support role, it was very special to us because there were several families on the team that we know very well and who are very dear to us. We were able to go into Mexico with them as helpers and as extra team members. The team went to one of our favorite colonias, Granjas del Desierto (Farmers of the Desert), which is adjacent to the Agua Viva rehab facility. The first day in the colonia we went around inviting people to activities at the neighborhood church to occur the following day. We met Tomás and his wife and their four small children outside their house and invited them to come. Tomás was wearing the bright red t-shirt seen in the photo to the right. The next day the church was packed! We had lunch and separate bible clubs for the children, the women, and an unusually large group of men. Tomás was there with that cool shirt again and after the meeting he asked me if I wanted his shirt! The team was giving out shirts with John 3:16 on them in Spanish, so he took the red one off and put the new one on.

Tomás, his wife, and their four children live in a tiny, one-room box with no windows and a dirt floor. And yet Tomás is very enthusiastic about his faith in Christ. He has an infectious joy and was eager to tell me about his Lord. The shirt says "Este mundo no es mi hogar" which translates "This world is not my home" and Tomás clearly believes it.

Down the road from Tomás' house we spent some time with a woman and her children. One of the children has a cleft palette and is in the process of several surgeries to correct it. God has brought about various helps and medical care to make the repair possible. We chatted with her for a while and asked her if we could pray for her. She asked us to come in her one-room house to sit down on the only furniture; two beds. The woman poured out her heart and told us, through tears, of her difficulties. She spoke of how the enemy has at times been able to discourage her greatly, even to the point of almost taking her own life. But she said that at that moment God caused her to see her sleeping children and to take heart. Our dear sister Elvia was with us as a translator that day. She has a wonderful way about her and began to comfort her. Then the woman said, "I know I have indescribable riches in the Lord Jesus, and it is His joy that keeps me going. But sometimes life is so hard." Then she said, "When groups like yours (there are many different ministries that visit that place) come, it is so encouraging. I know that God loves me and has not forgotten me because He keeps sending people to remind me and encourage me. Thank you so much for visiting me."

Tomas' simple gift to me has been very profound. I think of it constantly, "This world is not my home." With each person I meet, and each new situation, similar phrases from the Scripture echo in my mind. "Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven..." "For our citizenship is in Heaven..." "...having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." "But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them."

There is nothing romantic about living in a poor colonia or being a former addict at Agua Viva, nor does God require us to pursue asceticism. But the thought keeps coming back to me that when all is done at the End of Time, it would have been better to have lived in a cardboard box and know the Savior, than to have lived a life of wealth, or peace, or comfort, or to have made great cultural accomplishments. On the other hand, to have lived in a cardboard box, facing all the strains and disappointments of life without any hope...

--Thaine