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September has been filled with lots of celebrations. 1st the kids started school so that made us all happy to get back into a routine of activities. As much as everyone enjoys the break, we are all equally excited to return to some structure.
Then the Pan de Vida Church celebrated it's 17th anniversary of ministry. It was a time to reflect and give thanks to God and His provisions. The worship team played songs from the previous years and each Sunday School class did a presentation through skits. Dario, the Director, shared a testimony on how the church began and testified to God's faithfulness in sustaining not only the church but the Orphanage. The ladies of the church then blessed everyone with a wonderful lunch that allowed everyone to continue the praise to God and His goodness.
On Sept 16th, we then celebrated Mexican Independence Day. This continues to be on of the major events of the year. The auditorium was decorated in the Mexican colors of red, white and green. Everyone, from the youngest to the oldest dressed in traditional clothing for the celebration. There were games, activities, dance presentations and food tables. So not only do we rejoice in the freedom of Mexico but we parallel the event to the freedom we, as Christians, have through Jesus Christ. We continue to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for allowing us these continued blessings and time of fellowship.
The Pan de Vida youth group rounded up their summer with a 4 day camp as "Soldiers of the Spirit." It was based on Romans 8 challenging them both physically and spiritually.
The leaders made this a real boot camp experience for them with early morning runs, conditioning exercises, construction of forts, obstacle courses, hikes and more. As the youth transformed into soldiers, they were also divided into squads with the leaders as sergeants. The message being that they are more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:27). As soldiers, they are preparing for battle and it requires obedience to the Lord and they will encounter suffering but they will be victorious.
Their instructions came through daily devotions, prayer and messages from their leaders. After the intense boot camp, everyone felt a great sense of achievement as they persevered through the challenges. It gave them the feeling of unity through teamwork, a respect for soldiers and an understanding of perseverance.
This years football season for "The Buffalos", girl's flag and boy's tackle teams, is officially over. There was a special event this past weekend to recognize the players for all their hard work, dedication and growth. Both teams did exceptionally well with the girls winning the semi finals to make it to the championship. They ended up losing the finals but they were ultimately winners with the way they worked as a team and displayed great sportsmanship.
Another achievement this season is that the Pan de Vida on-site football field was inaugurated and is league approved and eligible to host official games. Now the kids can be active in all practices and games without the obstacle of transportation and conflicts of schedules interfering. We have a Coach, who is Christian, that is very committed to come to train the youth not only in skills of the game, but also in character of being great team players through attitude. The kids have been able to interact with other youth on different teams to exercise everything they are learning.It has also been fun to have the games at the orphanage so that the other kids, volunteers and friends can watch. We make up the biggest cheering section with our pop bottles of rocks and graffons for drums. It is a real family event and we are so grateful that people have had a passion to contribute for this to all be possible!
Daily Vacation Bible School at Pan de Vida was a huge success. This year the theme was Hidden Treasures/Tesoros Escondidos! The youth group and leaders worked very hard in preparation and God blessed the ministry abundantly with not only the children of Pan de Vida attending but also close to 200 children and parents from 4 surrounding communities. Some of the vans had to go back and forth 3 times to each area to bring everyone in.
The auditorium and classrooms were decorated with a jungle theme and each day different "treasures" were discovered. The Biblical lessons were based from Jesus' parables about The Mustard Seed, The Yeast, The Good Samaritan, The Good Shepherd, The Great Banquet, the Pearl of Great Price, and The Net, and each with a corresponding Scripture verse.
In addition to the classroom teaching, lessons were done through drama, cooking classes, crafts, games and songs with actions. The whole week was filled with excitement with each activity. Even the Moms of the children were ministered to through workshops set up for them. Each day the kids made more progress on the memorization and actions to the songs for the final presentations.
The evangelism was truly blessed by all the hard work from each volunteer that exercised their spiritual gift through service whether it was teaching classes, cooking, driving vans to pick up children, doing the sound for music, etc. Everyone worked together as "The Body of Christ" and all the glory goes to God!
