Mayer Lutheran High School (MLHS) brought down a team of high school students and parents for their 18th mission trip through Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM), which always starts halfway through the last week of the year and ends halfway through the first week of the new year. Many of these high school students start coming to the Mexico Mission Trips as freshmen in high school, continuing into their senior year. This has allowed for many relationships to be built and nurtured with every trip they made back to the Anapra area, where they have been serving since the beginning.

Dave Lane, retired teacher, and basketball coach, of MLHS, shared how it all got started back in 2005. The original leader of the team, MLHS’s Spanish teacher, was unable to come but the students were eager to spend a week practicing their Spanish in Mexico. Dave was asked if he would step in, and though he wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing, he agreed to lead the team if he had a few more adults join them.

“That first trip was all it took,” Dave shared one evening after the team’s devotion was done, “I was hooked. This is my sixteenth trip. I’ve brought my wife and my kids with me many times, and it’s been life-changing for so many of us.”

Dave shared multiple “stories of significance” with the 2023 MLHS mission team, but not just about the people they come to serve in Mexico. One such story, of an international exchange student from Vietnam, showcased the amazing glory of our God.

“She wasn’t a believer,” Dave explained, showing pictures to help put faces to the story, “But she came to one of our mission trips through YLM. It was during that week she was found by Jesus. At the end of the school year, she returned to Vietnam, where none of her family members were believers. She kept in contact with me and called a month or two later -her mother believed. As time went on, her family became believers of Jesus Christ through her witness…and she met Jesus at the one mission trip to Mexico she went on.”

This year’s missionaries came with joy and eagerness to love and serve God and people. Working at two separate locations, they built homes for two small families, spending time playing with the kids and enjoying the home-cooked food their families offered them every day.

These teenagers have always been a wonderful testimony to what love in action looks like, and as Dave shared story after story each night with them, it became evident God’s love has always been in action through these mission trips. These students not only change lives through their labor, their attention, and their dedication to God’s people, but their own lives are greatly impacted by their experience through YLM.

What a joy it was for all to see these young people so invested in their faith-walk, faithfully giving of their time, talents, and treasures to put their love for Jesus and His children into action!

Want to experience God’s amazing love through mission work? Contact us at (915) 858-2588 or send an email to luz.soto@ylm.org for more information on how your church, your school, or your family and friends can change lives, yours and others, through YLM’s Servant Event mission trips!