Hello! My name is Hannah and I will be serving in Mexico City with United World Mission for two years starting in March 2020, ministering at a refuge home for teenage survivors of sex trafficking. My desire is to be part of their healing journey and to share the gospel with them in word and deed. Please pray with me toward this end, for their salvation, and that I would know the Lord more deeply through this season.
Dear Future Goer,
As I reflect on what God has taught me over the past two years of cross-cultural ministry, these are the major themes that come to my mind and heart:
1. God is sovereign. I was terrified to agree to move to Mexico City. In March of 2019 I spent a day in the mountains, ruminating on the decision and going back and forth, back and forth. I was looking for a sign in the clouds. I did come away that day planning to take the GoCorps placement, but I was still afraid. I was scared to say yes because of all that could happen and change, be hard and painful; and I was scared…
Read more >>
Culture shock doesn't ever go away completely. I recently went through a week or two of sadness, homesickness, and plain exasperation with the way things are here. However, each time a wave of culture stress surprises me again, I come out of it appreciating this culture a bit more.
A beautiful realization I’ve had is how much "history" I already have in this city. One Saturday I visited Azcapotzalco, the district I lived in the first six months in Mexico City, to have breakfast with old neighbors and celebrate a birthday at my old host family's house. It was the sweetest thing…
Read more >>
I want to write this blog more like a journal entry, as lately I’ve been donning masks of pride and insecurity. I pray whatever I write brings Him glory and draws you, reader, closer to Him.
I first became cognizant of my constant striving for approval and accolades from others in high school, when it became obvious through my battle with anxiety and depression that I had built my self-confidence, security, purpose, and identity on the shifting sand of being seen as the “perfect little Christian girl” who had everything together and was available at all hours of day and night to rescue…
Read more >>
How quickly I forget the gospel! I’ve been warned of the memory lapse I, with all believers, continually suffer Sunday after Sunday, but building the habit of reminding myself of it so as to not forget is much easier said than done.
Each month with Avance we are assigned a book; this month’s is “Gospel Fluency: Speaking the Truths of Jesus into the Everyday Stuff of Life.” I highly recommend it, especially on audio read by the author. Avance is going through a series of teachings about our identity as children of God, adopted, heirs. These gospel resources and my reflection on them (the…
Read more >>
Dear Fellow Griever,
I am naturally terrible at change. From childhood, I’ve avoided or fought against the unexpected, the unknown, and the new. I find it ironic that God has led me to cross-cultural missions, because missionaries constantly have to deal with all of these things, and even embrace them!
Over time I’ve grown in my willingness to adapt. I lived in Nicaragua for three months, Uganda for ten weeks, and moved here to Mexico last year, expecting to stay two years. Because I’ve had all this past experience with cross-cultural ministry, I didn’t expect to struggle with the…
Read more >>