Kaycee Kaba... Missionary to Mexico!

10 ten years ago, I did not see it coming.

Kaycee, Chelsea, Becca and Jacqee in 2006 in Ensenada 

The year before, in 2003, I was contacted by a friend and asked if Adventures in Life would be able to host a group of students from the Asian American Christian Fellowship [AACF] at UCLA for a week of mission in Ensenada. Little did I know then how far what my friend Asher Sargent calls the ripple effect would extend.

That first year with AACF was amazing. They did nothing. Really... nothing. Nothing at all, except reach across cultural lines, and love on people as if they were Jesus himself, which of course for that week, they were. Never before, and never since, had I ever seen a group so able to put their wishes and needs aside, step outside themselves, and serve quite so selflessly.

It truly cemented the idea I had that mission, and short-term mission [STM] in particular, could be about something more than just building stuff. What I saw that week, and year after year with AACF, was STM being about people and relationship.

The next year they returned and a young woman named Kaycee was on the team. If I was to look back at that particular team, some of the people who became leaders were obvious. More than a few of that group have gone on to make a significant Kingdom impact around the world.

But Kaycee was not one who was on my radar. 

At least not at first. But then, she kept coming back. Year after year she served with me in Ensenada. Then one year she joined our intern program and found herself with us in Oaxaca, hundreds of miles from her little comfort zone of Ensenada. Soon she was leading a team each year to Guadalajara to serve alongside Pastor Raul and our ministry there.

Donde esta Kaycee? Inside the AIL Ministry Scooby Van years ago with her AACF Team

That’s when I began to wonder if maybe Kaycee would join the ranks of some of those other AACF team members and step even deeper into the mission field. I decided then to began a deeper conversation with her about her future.

I kept coming back to her, always with my trademarked “hard” questions, finally ending, a couple of years ago, with a “why not?” Why not step out, follow your heart, and Jesus, and serve long-term in Mexico?

Today, Kaycee joins me on mission Mexico. While she will be working directly with mission partner Rod Fry in Mexico City, Kaycee will also be working alongside AIL Ministry as her schedule and ministry permits.

10 years ago, Kaycee arrived a little scared, for a week of ministry with folks she still serves to this day in Ensenada. Over the years, she has been stretched and grown into an incredible woman of God with a gigantic heart for the people of Mexico. Now, because of that heart for God and Mexico, and a willingness to listen to His leading, she is stepping out in faith, trusting in a way unimaginable that first year she came with AACF.

One day Kaycee told me she wanted to eat her way across Mexico... here she is with me, off to a great start!

From a week long short-term mission trip to Ensenada, to Oaxaca, to Guadalajara, and now to Mexico City, Kaycee’s ripple continues to move and have a Kingdom impact.

Please join me, and the Adventures in Life community, in welcoming Kaycee Kaba to the long-term mission field, and make it part of your mission to pray for her, not just today, but regularly, as she seeks to build the types of relationships in Mexico City that will become bridges to Jesus for a brand new ripple in her life.