Written by: Meg Mersman
 
It is hard to resist the fact that the Lord is moving here! We began the day with breakfast and coffee gathered at a local restaurant within walking distance of our hotel. There is such beauty in walking by the water and seeing the amount of people with their bibles open, taking notes and reading so diligently to begin their day. We also find such happiness in beginning our mornings together drinking coffee at the restaurant with the owner's dog sitting with us. After coffee we loaded up the materials we needed for lunch and hit the road down to Camp Baja. 
 
As we were traveling down the dirt road to the camp in our church bus, we came to a stop in the middle of the road. All I could see through the side windows were a man in his mid 20s holding a dog on a leash. Before I knew it, our leader Pilar, was opening the side of the bus doors allowing this hitchhiker onto our bus with his dog. We all kind of went silent and looked at Pilar thinking "Girl, what are you doing letting this strange man on our bus?!" Of course, he only spoke Spanish, so Pilar was able to translate what he was saying. Turns out it was his day off work, and he was wishing to go to the forest down the road with his dog. He usually bikes but he did not have it that day and was willing to get a ride as close to the forest as possible. Pilar made sure to ask him if he would like to join us for the day at Camp Baja. Understandably, he chose the forest over a bunch of random American girls he didn't know and left the bus when we were turning down the camp road. When he left and we asked Pilar what she was thinking letting this stranger on our bus she made sure to let us know, "He had a dog, I trusted him." This just seems to be recurring evidence of the Lord's love on this trip. The way that the Mexican culture is so welcoming to complete strangers, sharing the gospel is incredible. We need to be more like them. 
 
The excitement only increased from there when we pulled up to Camp Baja. We were greeted with multiple other church vans unloading children and a few of the church elders. Going into today, we were very much told that the number of children we were going to be entertaining could range from 20-85, so we went into the day with an open mind, willing to be flexible. Instead of splitting off into groups to play different games like planned, we all generally stayed together in a large group playing games. 
 
Entertaining those from the local churches, as well as ourselves, consisted of multiple camp drills that we play at the Lipscomb volleyball camps, along with dodge ball, Knockout, and of course a local favorite, soccer. It was so amazing to see everyone interact without really being able to speak the opposing language. We were able to find common ground among sports and a love for the same Savior. We all then sat down for lunch prepared by some of us. I am one to split my lunch with quite literally whatever dog I see around me. Which is exactly what I did to two puppies that live under the security trailer on the camp land. As I sat crouched in the dirt, feeding these hungry pups that just needed a little extra love, I turned to see the scene of what lunch was for others. What I saw was a beautiful mix of our group sprinkled in with others from the local church. I could hear the attempt of conversation amongst the varying groups and was just in awe at the attempt of communication on both sides. After a delicious lunch, we went on a walk through the wetlands creeping up from the ocean lagoon towards the camp. We caught lots of crabs and laughed as our shoes squished in the mud when we jumped over the ravines of tiny creeks. 
 
After returning from our walk through the wetlands, we all heard an extremely enthusiastic "Vamos a la playa!" through a megaphone. We then loaded up the church bus to head to the beach for a busy day of play and baptisms. Our local church friends loaded up their vans and joined us at the beach. As we arrived at the beach, we drove directly onto it, Daytona Beach style. We all unloaded ourselves and began a few hours of play and lots of discussions. At any point, you could look up and down the beach and see so many intentional conversations between our group. There were so many one-on-one conversations that made my heart so happy to know that they were discussing the love of the Lord that everyone had felt throughout this trip. 
 
About 2 hours later our local church friends left and it was just our group at the beach. We stepped into the time of baptism and began by praying over all three girls that were being baptized. After praying over them, Delaney Smith was the first girl to enter the water with Caroline Stogner, who was the one baptizing. They shared a beautiful moment in the water and Delaney was dunked in death and raised in life! She ran out of the water, and we all greeted her in the surf. We all gathered around her, laid hands on her, and began to pray over her. This process was repeated two more times when Courtney Jones entered the water with Caroline and Addi Pelham who were baptizing her. After Courtney was baptized, Berkely Mischler who was the last of us to be baptized entered the water with Kailee Bass who was going to baptize her. Three new girls devoted their lives to Christ today and we could not have been more thrilled to be waiting for them on the beach, praying for them. We then sang The Blessing and prayed one more time before loading the bus and leaving the beach. 
 
We came straight back to our hotel and walked next door to dinner where we have coffee waiting for us every morning. We continued great conversation, challenging each other in our faith and asking each other tough questions. After dinner we refreshed before we returned to our common area to share what we witnessed for the day. We listened to each other as we heard where one another saw the Lord and saw how He was working through every one of us. Our friend Logan Gish then shared a devotional from Luke 18. I am so grateful for this group that was selected perfectly by Him to come on this trip. I personally cannot wait to see the way the Lord works through us on our few remaining days on this trip as well as how we are going to continue to spread His word when we return to our homes on Monday.