When Mission Doesn't Go as Planned: Finding God in Mexico

12 hours ago

5 min read

Sixteen young adults traveled from New York to Mexico to share their faith. Between thunderstorms, flat tires, and unexpected challenges, they discovered that sometimes the greatest transformation happens within the missionaries themselves

Sixteen young adults from New York answered the call to serve, bringing faith, friendship, and hope to communities in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Finding God in Mexico

This past August 1-10, I was able to do something I always love doing. I was able to bring a group of sixteen young adults from the parishes of St. Peter and St. Denis in Yonkers, and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in the Bronx, to Quintana Roo, Mexico, for a door-to-door evangelization mission. The mission was organized in conjunction with Juventud Misionera (Mission Youth) and was supported in part by Catholic World Mission.

Why do I love organizing missions?

The truth is, they can in many ways be a pain in the neck. Going into a mission, one already knows that any number of random, unforeseen, annoying things are going to take place. And that’s fine. It’s part of what makes a mission a “mission.”

A mission, in reality, has two goals. On the one hand, we are going somewhere in order to share the faith with people in a different part of the world. It’s not that the people in Quintana Roo aren’t Catholic. Of course they are (for the most part)! We’re not going there to proselytize anyone. We’re certainly not going because we think we’re somehow superior to them. We go because we want to share our own experience of the faith with the locals, and organize moments of prayer and liturgy together. When missionaries go house-to-house, they will inevitably encounter people who are away from the Church, or unable to go to the Church. They will hear stories of pain and loneliness, and will listen to them. They will bring a message of hope to those who may feel abandoned by God or Church. And, of course, there are those powerful moments in which we bring the Sacraments to people who may have been away from them for decades. It’s always amazing to see the miracles God works in the places where we do missions.

However, the primary goal for organizing missions is for what God does in the souls of the missionaries themselves. This is principally why I organize them. In the case of my young adults from New York, I wanted them to have a totally new kind of experience of the faith.

Learning to Give, Not Just Receive

Many of them had experienced retreats, or praise & worship, or perhaps healing ministry. They have been to the big Catholic youth events, and heard the big Catholic speakers. All of that is great. But a mission is about giving more than receiving. Or better said, it’s about letting Christ use us, and letting ourselves simply be His hands, feet, tongues and hearts.

As such, a missionary doesn’t need to be a Bible scholar or a theologian. It’s nice if they are, but that’s all “extra.”

A missionary is simply someone who gives God what they have, and lets Him use it however He wishes to reach souls.

Sometimes, sharing Christ's love begins with something simple: knocking on a door and listening to someone's story.

A Mission to Mexico Full of Surprises

We arrived to the Cancún airport the afternoon of August 1^st, and the adventure was already beginning. Our time was budgeted so that we would be able to drive to the Shrine of Mary, Undoer of Knots (Santa Maria Desatanudos), celebrate Mass, pay a little visit, and then drive one-and-a-half hours to the town of Solferino. So, of course, our baggage took over an hour to arrive. Then, when we got to the parking lot to pick up our rental vans, one of them wasn’t working. We eventually did get it going, of course, but by this point, we were well behind schedule. We got into town a couple hours late, to the concern of the people in town who had been waiting for us. We were then able to set up shop at the school which would serve as “home” for the upcoming days. Everyone looked for a patch of classroom floor which they could claim as their own for the week. There were only two makeshift showers for the sixteen of us, so everyone had to learn to work around each other.

The following morning, we had unseasonable torrential rains, which apparently have to do with it being a “La Niña” year. That prevented us from doing much until the Sunday Mass at 4 pm. Finally, we got to meet the townspeople!

The following days were highlighted by almost daily “unusual” lightning storms, replete with downpouring rain; more car breakdowns, a couple of flat tires, a few bad stomachs, power outages, loss of water at the school, and a missionary getting bit by a dog. Which is, of course, precisely the way God wanted it.

Finding Joy in the Unexpected

The beautiful thing in all of this was to watch my missionaries roll with whatever came their way. They never lost their joy. They got creative, and they found ways to make things work. And that’s really why I love to organize these sorts of missions. Adversity brings out the missionaries’ native qualities. It inspires initiative. It transforms them into apostles. Finally, in the case of these missionaries in particular, the mission gave them a taste of the Regnum Christi charism being lived out. None of them were Regnum Christi members, and none of them really knew much about RC. But a mission such as this gave them a window into the beauty of the charism.

And yes, there were many a beautiful mission experience. The missionaries were able to organize games and catechism for the kids on most afternoons. We organized Mass, Rosary and Confessions in the local Church each day. We anointed the sick and prayed with the lonely. The missionaries had some powerful moments among themselves. And there were not a few tears shed by both missionaries and townspeople when it was time for us to leave.

So, in the end, this mission was rather a “Comedy of Errors.” But it was a Divine “Comedy of Errors.” And that, as Gerard Manley Hopkins would say, has made all the difference.

Father Eric Nielsen, LC is currently serving as Parochial Vicar at St. Brendan the Navigator Catholic Church in Atlanta, Georgia tbrendansatl.com. In this role, he is part of the parish’s clergy team, assisting in pastoral care, faith formation, and community ministry.

Help More Young Catholics Answer the Call

Mission experiences like this remind us that evangelization begins with a willingness to serve. With the support of Catholic World Mission donors, young adults have opportunities to bring Christ's love to communities in need while growing in their own faith.