Dalhousie Church - Day 6

Today was an incredible cultural experience! Sadly we are coming to the end of our trip, and our adventure back to Calgary is inevitable. We have been making the most of every moment we have here in Mexico. This morning we had an important devotion session lead by Scott, Jeremy, Colton, and Dane about how we can apply the things that we’ve learnt and the skills and courage we have acquired to continue the mission back home. Just because this is a mission trip doesn’t mean we can’t spread the word of God at home. We brainstormed some ideas together, including keeping each other accountable with questions like “How did you demonstrate to others that you know Jesus this week?” or “Who did you tell about Jesus this week?”. Tony led us in some worship music before we prepared for our cultural experience. It was also just a fun day to celebrate everything we have done and learned this week. 

The cenotes we visited this morning were breathtaking and stunning! The cenotes were definitely the highlight of our day, and we think that everyone enjoyed it. The four cenotes that we visited were close together and were all very different in special ways. On the way to the cenotes, we drove past some small villages that included buildings in the style the Mayans used to live in, with clay walls and stick roofs. We also drove past some ancient Mayan ruins that was in the middle of the town. Such cool architecture, culture and history. We learned that the cenotes were formed by the meteor that hit this region hundreds of years ago and most of them are located at the edge of the impact zone. The Yucatan State has no above ground water, and all of the water is located in underground rivers and caverns known as cenotes. The cenotes were the centre of life for the Mayan people. They used the water from them like a lifeline, like God is our lifeline and we can’t live without Him. So we need to start sharing the Gospel so people can get to know God and have a relationship with Him. That is why it is so important that we are sharing our faith to as many people as possible. We swam for a few hours at the cenotes, jumping off platforms and even passionately singing camp songs in a cave under a waterfall.

On the drive back to the hotel, we stopped at Hacienda Teya, which is a huge property with many buildings that were built in 1683 for the production of rope. It was so cool to see some of the history. The buildings were gorgeous and covered with tons of greenery. In one of the courtyards they even had Mexican deer! Everybody was sleeping on the way home. 

This evening we had a worship session that ended in group prayer. Afterwards we all gathered to pray over specific requests. Today we really saw how strong our relationships have become as a team. We are able to laugh (A LOT) with each other and support each other through challenges. We ended the fun culture/history filled day with some group games. One of which was even created by Gary himself!