mexico to mexico

The first time I ventured to Mexico was a 2-week whirlwind that swept me up into the desert mountains of Queretaro. I was awestruck by the unique beauty of God’s character that is so reflected through Mexican culture. The warmth, the creativity, the community mindedness. The dancing and the music, the food and the passionate prayer. The laughter and the somehow both relaxed and rhythmic chaos that makes sense when it doesn’t feel like it should as it sweeps you into itself.

These precious echoes of the Father’s original design for humanity and the invitation to commune both with him, and each other, washed over me as I engaged with those around me. The Holy Spirit impressed upon me how much I could learn from these people that he so loves. And in the same vein he showed me his heart for their continued restoration and the ways that he so desires to keep leading them into wholeness.

It was holding these revelations that I then returned to Mexico at the beginning of 2019 to work as a missionary with YWAM. This season with YWAM allowed me to grow in my understanding of how God desires to walk with us and work through us. I was challenged by the call to kingdom culture and was invited to live in obedience as I served the vision to ‘know Jesus and make Him known’. This moment in missions ended (in my mind) prematurely due to the pandemic. And I returned to Australia overwhelmed and hazy about the future, however still with some underlying whisper from the Spirit that everything was going according to plan.

My relationship with Mexico obviously doesn’t end here. However, for the sake of painting a complete picture let’s digress for a moment.

Let’s talk about human trafficking.

Anti-trafficking work is something that was placed on my heart when I was young and is something that I have been discipled in within my childhood home. From the ages of 2-7 years old my family lived in southern Thailand. This experience opened my parent’s eyes to some of the realities of modern slavery and forms of trafficking. This inspiring them to educate themselves and find ways to support anti-trafficking work from afar when we returned to Australia.

As my parents, particularly my mum, engaged in advocacy and educating themselves and others about human trafficking, the same fire lit in me against this widespread injustice. That fire has sat there, smouldering quietly and surely as I’ve grown and stretched into adulthood. For a long while I wasn’t sure what to do with those flames and consistently asked God the question ‘What could I possibly do to help?’.

In some ways it felt like I woke up last year (2025) and realised I suddenly had something to offer this space. I’m an arts therapist who has specialised in working with trauma and vulnerable individuals! However, to look at it truly, the suddenness falls away to reveal the years of ministry, missions, art therapy training, and personal growth that God has utilised to equip and prepare me for the here and now.  

My journey to El Pozo De Vida (The Well of Life) is still a bit too fortuitous for me to believe it’s happened. If my feet weren’t upon Mexican ground in this moment, I might tell you it couldn’t be true.

Benny and Janice (the directors of El Pozo De Vida) tell me how at the start of 2025 God had been giving them a new and rich vision for El Pozo’s future. With prophetic words about reclaiming the arts for God’s glory and using creative avenues for healing of trauma throughout their projects and beyond. They say that while they were amazed at this vision, they told God that he would have to provide the people and art therapy skills somehow because at that point they didn’t have the time or resources to become art therapists to fulfill this vision. Within a few weeks of asking God about this, they received an email from a random art therapist from Australia who was interested in meeting them and hearing about El Pozo De Vida… coincidence? Surely not. It has providence lovingly painted all over it.

Benny and Janice shared this with me when they took me out for lunch the first time I met them in April 2025. I’d reached out to them in pure obedience as God had led me to say yes to him again even though I was scared he was going to ask for everything. (Which he did by the way)

Hearing about Benny and Janice’s vision and how God had been preparing them, I felt like God was answering questions I’d been asking for years. Where I hadn’t been able to see a future in Australia no matter how hard I tried… suddenly I was seeing a long path before me that was lush and adventurous, that was beautiful and hopeful and had been cultivated by his hand with me specifically in mind.

From my perspective, I’d been feeling immensely dissatisfied with the 9-5 lifestyle after a few years of trying to settle into life in Australia. While my heart was yearning for something deeper and MORE, I simultaneously found myself too scared to ask God what he was doing behind the scenes in case he asked too much of me. I eventually came to a crossroads where he asked me to surrender and let him tell me his heart, even if it was scary. So, while shaking in my boots, I opened my hands to him and he said so clearly that I couldn’t deny ‘MEXICO’.

Approaching this word suspiciously and holding it lightly I prayed and said ‘Okay Lord. I’ll be open to returning to the mission field if you open the door to me somewhere that has these 4 things.

·       Mexico (or at the very least Spanish speaking)

·       Art therapy (cos that’s what he’s equipped me for)

·       Faith based (I don’t want to do it without him)

·       Fighting human trafficking and bringing restoration to victim survivors

You see, in my own searching and exploring online I had found organisations around the world that had one or two of these aspects but had yet to find one that fulfilled all four. Amazingly, a few days after that prayer, I saw El Pozo De Vida post on social media about some art therapy activities they were doing with their beneficiaries who had survived human trafficking. To me, at that time, this was such a clear invitation from the Lord to walk in the direction of El Pozo and see what happened. So, once again my knees knocking in human fear, I emailed Benny and Janice and asked if I could come to Mexico City to meet them and see what they do.

I came to Mexico in April 2025 with no conscious idea what I should be preparing my heart for. I was holding an amalgamation of 6 years of confusion, fear, longing, and worry about the future. My spiritual eyes were hazy… however the minute my plane touched down in Mexico for the first time since 2020, God began speaking with clarity. Of course, hindsight affords us the opportunity to see how laughably obvious things are once we’ve passed through them.

After spending time visiting some of the projects at El Pozo, and after having lunch with Benny and Janice, it was obvious to me that God was calling me into deeper surrender, faith, and obedience with both my life, future, and gifts for his purpose. The offer was there for me to return with El Pozo and align with their vision of implementing art therapy within their fight against human trafficking. Peace covered the whole thing.

God gave me a glimpse of his heart burning with justice for the people impacted by human trafficking in Mexico City and beyond. The growing impact of the work El Pozo does humanises people from every angle. From the women and children being trafficked and exploited, to the humans accessing sex workers due to their own loneliness. From the boys growing up in environments that put them at risk of becoming traffickers, to the people liking posts on social media about how everyone deserves to be free regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, or skin colour.

I saw that I had an opportunity to offer whatever time, skills, and faith I may have to give to be part of something important.

So that’s the long story. I returned to Australia after meeting El Pozo in April 2025 to begin preparing, knowing God was holding my hand and lighting my path.

The best part about a life with God is that he is using this story to continue restoring ME to wholeness alongside whoever I get to meet and share in this next season with. Whatever I have given up to be here, however confusing or terrifying moving countries as a single women is, and whatever expectations I have about life that I’m trying to hold with open hands; God is using all of it to keep me creating with him, to keep dreaming with him, learning with him and ultimately healing with him.

Thankful to be here.