A life changing Journey: Two Teens Experience Mexico Mission Trip
When teenagers Brooklyn and Jilly Ann boarded a plane to Cancun, Mexico, they weren’t heading for the tourist beaches. Instead, they were answering what they both described as a surprising but undeniable call from God to join their church’s mission team. “It wasn’t necessarily that I had a want to go,” Brooklyn explained during our recent podcast interview, “it was that I had a need to go.” This distinction between want and need would become a recurring theme throughout their experience.
The mission team from First Baptist Church in Boerne, Texas, comprised 42 people – one of the largest groups they’d ever assembled. For both girls, this represented their first mission trip and, for Brooklyn, her first time leaving the country. While many Americans visit Cancun for its resorts and beaches, these teenagers were about to experience a completely different side of Mexico, where concrete homes with dirt floors and outdoor bathrooms are the norm.
Much of their time was spent at Kingdom Academy, a school established by YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in Kunamaya, a former squatter’s village where property ownership remains complicated and precarious. The school serves approximately 30 youth, selected through a lottery system, providing them with education, faith formation, and even U.S. high school diplomas that could open future opportunities. What struck both girls immediately was the overwhelming joy they encountered despite material scarcity.
“Something that stood out was that all the kids they were just so happy,” Jilly Ann shared. “You would think they wouldn’t be as happy because they don’t have as much, but they’re happy despite that and they just trust in Jesus so much.” This observation also deeply impacted Brooklyn: “I don’t know how all these people are so happy when they have nothing. They have a home that’s made out of concrete with a concrete floor and no windows and no doors.”
The team’s projects included conducting Vacation Bible School events, mixing concrete by hand to create a patio outside a church building, and making home visits where they were invariably welcomed with surprising hospitality. “The minute I walked in, I was handed food,” Jilly Ann recalled with amazement. “But in America if you go to someone’s house, like a random person’s house, they’re like ‘why are you here’ and kick you out.”
Perhaps most impactful were the home visits, during which they observed families living in single-room dwellings with hammocks for beds, outdoor bathrooms, and minimal possessions. Yet when the team offered to pray with community members, “not a single person turned us down,” Brooklyn noted. They all wanted prayer, and they all needed prayer.”
The contrast between their experience in Mexico and their comfortable lives in Texas created what they called a “disconnect” – especially during their “recharge day” when they visited beautiful beaches. “It didn’t feel right in the moment,” Jilly Ann admitted, reflecting on the stark differences between tourist Cancun and the communities they’d served.
Both teens acknowledged the challenge of maintaining this perspective once they returned home. Their strategies include consistent prayer for the children they met, looking at handmade bracelets as reminders, and sharing their stories. “Every single day you’re going to be tempted to forget about it,” their missions pastor warned them. “There’s nothing about your world here in Boerne that will remind you of that if you don’t discipline yourself to think about them.”
As they reflect on their experience, both Brooklyn and Jilly Ann express deep gratitude for the opportunity and encourage others to consider similar trips. “Go for it and don’t hold back,” Brooklyn advised. “I’m not someone who likes change. But the second I got there, I was volunteering for everything I could.” Their transformation exemplifies the mission’s central message – that God blesses his people not just for themselves, but “so that” they can be a blessing to the world around them.
