A Tribe Called Whitlock

Tori Lynn got back from her Mexico trip safe and sound.  She also came back with a huge smile on her face and a love in her heart for the people of Santa Cruz.  Below is the letter she shared about her trip.

I am home from Mexico!  Thank you so much for your prayers and support for my teammates and I during our missions trip.  I learned so much about the character and heart of God and how that shapes the call for my life.  I also made many friends, learned a bit more Spanish, and got to experience and amazing community that reflects the love of Jesus.

During our trip my teammates and I helped run a summer camp for kids at a community center in Santa Cruz with an organization called Armonia.  It was founded by Senor Saul and Senora Pilar out of God’s calling on their lives to walk along side the poor and through Jesus transform poverty into life.

At the Santa Cruz community centre we worked with children from Santa Cruz itself and two other nearby slums.  In the indigenous tribes, education often is not available past elementary school.  So many of the older students were from the tribes in the mountains and came to the city on Armonia scholarships to study middle and high school, and to on to the University.  Hearing their testimonies was an amazing reminder of of who our Father is, and how precious we all are to Him.  It was also a challenge to myself and the other 29 college students around me to not be a generation of apathy of the injustice going on in our own neighborhoods and worldwide but instead a generation rising up against it.  Through the scriptures I saw just how heavy God’s heart is for the marginalized, the widowed, the sick and the poor.  I learned that they are the heart of Jesus and in loving and serving the poor in Mexico and the marginalized in my own neighborhood at home I am loving and serving my Papa God.  Love in Jesus, Tori Lynn.