Tuesday and Wednesday...

Alright, so I'm a little bit behind! As we'll see over the course of the next few days, Mexico is the land of extremes! When it's sunny outside, it's extremely hot... When it rains here, it pours!! When you get sick here, it's awful (I, Chad, got really sick this week)... You work hard, you play hard, you eat until you're full, and you sleep like a rock...

So in order to catch up we'll start with Tuesday... Tuesday we went to a new children's home called Rayitos de Luz (Little Rays of Light)... This children's home was started by a couple who lived in the Rio (the poorest of the poor, the ones who build their homes out of garbage)... For years they couldn't have children of their own, so upon praying about their situation they felt like God was moving them to take in kids who needed a place to go... So they took their entire life savings and bought a small house in the city... They initially took in 5 kids who were all of the same family... Shortly after that they added 13 more! They all lived in this little cinder block home that was pretty beat down... Then a grandmother of one of the kids came and kidnapped him, telling the house parents that the living conditions were unsafe... So the family moved down the street in a rented house...

This is where we worked on Tuesday... They needed a little more bunk space and a little more organization to their new house... All 18 people slept in 2 rooms (2 queen beds, 2 twin beds)... And remember, this situation is way better than where they came from! Some people worked on shelving (moving old shelves and building new ones), some people organized the kitchen, some people played with the kids, some people fortified the front wall (they already had their TV stolen), some people folded and restacked their laundry, some people worked on the roof... It was a busy, busy day!

Here Mark and Paul are working on securing the post for the new front wall... Currently there's just a half front wall, and pretty much anyone can hop over and take whatever they want... This will make it nearly impossible for anyone to get in or out without a key...





Slick Vic and Quick Nick worked on sealing the ceiling... The Sello (sealant) keeps out water and bugs, and it's white to reflect the sunlight making the inside cooler... These guys were working pretty hard! You can hardly see up there because the light reflecting off the sello was soooo bright!

This is the bunk bed that I (Chad) worked on most of the day... Hopefully this will help ease their sleeping situation problems a little... They really need about 3 more of these... at least... But now instead of 18 people sleeping on 4 beds there will be 18 people across 6 beds... Cozy!

After working we got to take the kids to a movie! This is a pretty rare treat for these kids, so they were super excited! We saw Shrek Tercero (todo en Español)... Jen got to take Jose, who absolutely loved the whole experience!



That evening, after saying goodbye to the kids, we came back to LDM (that's the place we're staying - Lugar de Misericordia - in spanish it means Place of Mercy)... We had dinner and then Debriefing... For Debriefing we worship and then sit in a big circle to talk about our day... We start off by sharing our Picture of the Day, which is the one thing we don't want to forget about each day... We all see and experience so much while we're down here, and the Picture of the Day helps us to sum our experiences...


Wednesday!

Wednesday started off with the SMCA Groundbreaking... SMCA (Smicka) is the Sierra Madre Christian Academy, and it's where the kids of the missionary families go to school... This is a huge deal for the families here! Mexico is a very, very relational culture, so it's really important for the people who come down here to stay down here... The longer the families can stay the deeper their impact while they're here... One of the main things that forces the families to move is education... Parents want their kids to have a good education and it's hard to find down here... There are very few International Schools down here, and the parents would have to spend a lot of time and energy just transporting their kids to and from school... It's hard enough to live down here, pouring your life out to the people you serve, to worry about anything else that might otherwise drain your energy...

So, they need a school for their kids... A proper school building with resources (computers, books, study areas) for the kids will make a huge difference in a family's willingness to stay for the long haul... Our community at Northstar got together and raised enough money to build a schoolhouse for the families here... It is basically a three-room structure with bathrooms that can be used for many purposes... There are 2 classrooms, and the room between the classrooms will be used as a computer lab/study area/project center... In the summer when the kids are not in school this space can also be used to house more teams to come down... All the space at LDM is currently maxed out!

So the SMCA groundbreaking is a huge deal for the families down here... We had a ceremony where kids from SMCA introduced themselves, quoted Scripture, and gave us a picture of our investment in their lives... Todd did some vision-casting and thanked us for our help... John outlined the layout and construction of the building... Beth cried (she's going to hate that I put that in here)... And we all prayed for the building, it's construction, and it's ministry...

A big "Thank You" to Northstar for their continuing investment in the work of God here...

So after the groundbreaking we worked on the property... There's always stuff to do here, so we grabbed our work clothes and got ready to dive in... Some people worked on house 3 (the house that's almost finished), some people worked on house 4, some people worked on the new bathrooms between the big Palapa and the pool, some people worked on moving a tree, some people worked on sorting donations...

Here is a picture of the Bodega... The Bodega is a big barn a that's used for tool storage, a workshop, a place to store donations, and any other overflow storage that's needed...

On house three we worked on prepping the electric upstairs and installing shelving for the pantry... Here's a picture of me (Courtesy of Eric Weller) cutting down the shelving units to fit in the pantry...

Check out the paint job on those bathrooms! Tanya and Kathy are giving a beautiful facelift to the bathrooms by the Palapa! This is going to be a huge blessing for the kids who come to LDM for pool parties... Not to mention it will be so much better for us since the closest bathroom is a pretty good hike up the hill!

These guys were in charge of moving a tree... The tree unfortunately sat in the middle of a new soccer field, and since it's a nice tree we decided to try to save it... The new home for the tree is only about 20 feet away from its previous location, so it was a little bit maddening! But these guys worked really hard and got it done! As you can see, it was a pretty dirty job, but no amount of mud or pain or frustration could deter these guys... They were unstoppable!

After the work at LDM we cleaned up, had lunch, and made our way to PLAZA SESAMO!! We met the kids from Rayitos de Luz (who we hung out with on Tuesday) and a few kids from another childrens home and made a great day of it! It wasn't nearly as hot as it usually is, so we didn't spend the entire time in the waterpark area... We actually spent most of our time riding the rides in the amusement park area...

We went from the "rides" area of the park to the waterpark... We spent about an hour in the waterpark then took the kids to get some dinner in the park restaurant... Here's picture of Jen with Jose and Antonio... Antonio is on staff with Back2Back and is a great, great guy!

Our whole time at Plaza Sesamo it looked like it was about to storm... On our bus ride home the rains came down! When it rains, it really pours here... The streets were flooded, but the cars just kept plowing through the water...

Wednesday night, I got pretty sick... I was completely out for Thursday, so Jen is going to do the blog update for yesterday! Thanks for all your encouraging comments! It really helps us feel like there is purpose in taking our time to do this!