Transcript:

He mentioned how often when God wants to change the world, he will call a teenager.

Intro:

Hey, my name is Karen Bates and in May of 2023, my family and I sold all of our stuff in our home and came out here to the jungles of Mexico to start a school in our refuge for youth. We lived here for about a year and then we went back to the United States to do some fundraising for the next phase of this project.

And I am here preparing for a group that's coming to volunteer to do some buildings. So thanks for being on this journey with us.

Getting to Work

Week one was an emotional rollercoaster for sure. We spent the first few days just pretty much cleaning nonstop. And then I realized that we weren't going to get everything done that we needed to do if I didn't get some help. So I hired a friend to come and help me clean, and she worked really hard and really fast.

That was a huge help. Such a blessing. Then we went to Cancun to get some more of the tools that we needed in order to be ready for the group. Dalling fumigated. That was amazing. So grateful for him That started helping with the mosquito problem.

Okay, you guys, I gotta show you what a real hero looks right there.

And then I started just focusing on, on building relationships with the community, the people. I believe we're here to gather all the good that we can and there's a lot of good in the community already. And so just to like join forces. So I started meeting with some of the business owners in the community to see if we could build like a Solferino page so that people would know when they come across this little town, what there is to do.

There's an incredible amount of things to do here. There is this place you go to where you kayak through these ancient corkscrew trees that's just so beautiful, and there's tours of like how to use yucca trees and not what they're used for and how they grow. And, uh, cacao leaves as well. There's bird watching, there's our ropes course.

There's really, um, delicious restaurants and beautiful places to, to stay and unique places to stay. And so, you know, people go through, it's like this dinky little town. I. If you knew what there was to do, I think a lot more people were gonna come. I started gathering a little group to see like, how can we do this?

And also just getting to know the people, right? So I started going to a group that plays pickleball, which is super fun. I'm not good at it, but I'm learning and they're teaching me. The people that have play pickleball, most of them are not from here. And so it's been good to see the reasons for them coming and what attracted them to this place and what they're doing here.

Also, reconnecting with our friends that we had before, especially those who are in the Hebrew roots community. They invited us over for Friday night, that they do often on Friday nights, to celebrate the coming Shabbat. They're just so good people and so fun to laugh with and learn from and to hear of their goodness and their desire to serve God.

One of the nights, one of my friends invited me over for some herbal tea and I got to talk to her and her husband and to share with them some of the struggles and I cried. They're just so good at helping you feel cared about. And then they prayed for me and as they were praying, tears were screaming down my face, and then Susie, my friend, came around and just hugged me as she prayed. It was such an uplifting place to be and exactly what I needed to feel at that moment of, of just like, I don't know, kind of this feeling of aloneness and like, "What are we doing?"

I think I've struggled a lot with, with doubt about this... not about doing the work we're doing, like I know that's going to move forward....I've seen God's hand in it so much that I know that he's gonna be taking care of it, but like...my part in it and my kids' parts in it, and what's best for them and, and how often to come, and just those kind of ideas like, well, how do we move forward?

And, and then feeling those arms around me and remembering that God is in this. He's not gonna leave us alone, was beautiful. And then a few days later, my kids came home and were talking about some of their friends and some of the paths that some of them have chosen and, you know, the drugs and alcohol that are prevalent here.

And uh, at first, like my reaction as I was going to bed that night was, "Do I really want my kids around this?" You know, I mean, it's everywhere. Regardless of where we live. They're gonna have drugs and alcohol are everywhere, but like, it felt closer to home, you know? And so I was kind of thinking those thoughts as I was going to bed.

And in the morning I woke up, I was listening to a podcast as I was getting some things done. And in it (again, unshaken Saints, one of my favorites) he mentioned how often when God wants to change the world, he will call a teenager. Like we see that with Jonah of Ark, Joseph Smith, Katie Davis, who's doing work in Africa right now. Booker t Washington, one of my favorite people. He was very young when he started doing his work, and it just reminded me, "Oh yeah, like we're not here to get something out of this experience. Obviously that's a side effect that I hope will happen for my kids, and I believe it will, or I wouldn't have done this, but we're here to inspire those youth, to give them those opportunities to change the world and to, to use their gifts and talents for good. And some of them don't even know that that's an option. They see this life and they think they're, they're kind of stuck in this way of life and they don't see all the opportunities and maybe not even have them or they haven't been presented to them.

And so to be able to do that for some of these youth that want to change and want to make a different life for their future family than what maybe they experienced or have seen, and, um. I don't know. That again, motivated me, picked up my heart and I was like, "Oh, that's right. That's why we are here," to stop thinking so musch about all the problems we're seeing, but what can we do about them.

That's what brought us to this place. And so I think my mind's been doing this little shifting moment from this feeling of like, despair and what are we doing and are my kids okay? To jst feeling love. They are seeing the problems too, and they wanna do something to help and we can do this together.

And we're not alone. We have this group of incredible people around us. And, and together, like as we keep gathering these incredible ideas and truth and goodness....something really cool is gonna happen here. Like these people aren't all here on accident. And so I'm excited to see what that will be.

And obviously the people from our own church, like such incredible pioneers of just getting out here where it's so rare. Nobody's heard about our church, reall or what they've heard is really odd. And to be willing to step forward and do something so different. Sometimes people will shun them or, or even disown them and still they move forward with faith.

That's so inspiring. So. I just feel honored, honored to know these people, honored to be here and to be a part of whatever Heavenly Father's doing here. It's, it's really a blessing.