Last Monday the NorthStar team went to ERJ (place with the ropes course) to pour a concrete floor for their big Palapa... a Palapa is like a big, open, community hut with a thatched roof... it's a great place to congregate outside because you're out of the sun... Jen and I stayed here on the Back2Back property, so I have no pictures of the concrete pouring but I'm told it was a ton of work and that everyone did a great job!
Tuesday we went to Rayitos de Luz (home of our dear little friend, Jose)... I forgot my camera that day (trust me, I'm frustrated enough for all of us!!!), so I don't really have any pictures... But the change in their living conditions is about to be, quite literally, amazing! You can look back in the archives of this blog to learn the story about the Rayitos de Luz (little Rays of Light)... Basically the house parents spent their life savings on a house in the city... They were living in a house that should have been condemned, so Back2Back helped them rent a house down the street that they could actually do repairs on... The idea was that they would come back and build a better, larger, more well-suited house on their original property... But the Scriptures say that God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine... So, through an interesting turn of events, they are now about to move into a huge property in the country that is so much better than what they had ever hoped for! The house on the property is about 4 times larger than either of the houses in the city... There is incredibly large swimming pool in the backyard, as well as a massive court for basketball/soccer, and a huge yard where they can run and play all they want! The only place for them to play before was in a small courtyard in their house (by small I mean about 80 square feet - 8' x 10') or in the street... Plus there are really cool trees that will produce fruit nearly year-round... Unbelievable! And yet, totally believable for the God who can do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine...
Wednesday we worked here on the property (LDM)... Jen worked on VBS stuff for the kids. I helped John work on a fountain they have built on campus... The fountain is there as a symbol of God's continual blessing on this place through the people who have partnered with Back2Back to serve the people here... At this point the fountain structure was done, we just had to run electric lines for the lights and the pump...
Most of the group worked on painting house 6... 
Some of the guys worked on the clinic at the corner of the property...
After lunch we all went up to house 5 to pray over the house and for the Lail family... J.J. Lail was part of the NorthStar group down there, and he and his wife and two kids are going to move down to Monterrey in the fall to be house parents in this house with Back2Back... House parents are in charge of up to 8 teens who are too old to live in the Casa Hogars (children's homes) but who really have nowhere else to go... Back2Back pays for their education and all living expenses while they are living here... 
Soon after praying we loaded onto the bus to meet the Rayitos de Luz kids at Plaza Sesamo!!! If you haven't already, you should really look back into the archives about my original Plaza Sesamo post (last year)... This place is really great, like a real-life Sesame Street!! It has amusement park rides and a really cool (no pun intended) water park... When we got there all the kids lined and were ready for Plaza Sesamo!
Jen and I were paired up with our little buddy, Jose! So we got to spend the whole afternoon playing and swimming with him...
After all that playing and splashing and chasing around, we stopped at Tacos Fede for a little hard earned dinner... There's no better way to end a long and hard day than with a few Tacos from Fede!!!
Alright, I'm now officially caught up through last Wednesday!! (Less than a week behind) Hopefully I'll have another block soon to get completely caught up!!!
