Pan de Vida was yet again blessed by the service of a team from the 1st United Methodist Church of Martin, TN. It was also extra special for Ira and me because our daughter, her fiancé and his parents were among the team members. This gave us an opportunity to not only serve together, but get to know each other better since we will soon be family.
Upon arrival, everyone was pleasantly surprised at the nice weather because there was a heat wave of over 100F temps that had been hovering over West TN. The first night it rained steadily and everyone enjoyed a much needed rest from a heavy travel day. However, at breakfast, as we all chatted and discussed the joy of sleeping to the sound of rain and the opportunity to have the windows open and feel the fresh air, Freddy arrives to tell us that the heavy rains caused the drains to back up and all the classrooms in the school had flooded. Welcome to Mexico!
The team was in no way discouraged. They hit the ground running and pitched in to empty the rooms of everything and start the work of cleaning the mud out. One of the things I have learned during this journey is, that no matter how hard the job is, if people pull together and work as a team and with a heart to serve, it can be so much fun. However, it was mentioned that as the rain fell the night before, many had thoughts of how nice it was. They now rethought it and said if it rains again in the night, they will be thinking more like "UH OH!"
The team project that Ira planned was for the roof of the school to be repaired, sealed and the outside of the building to be completely painted. Now that rainy season seemed to be showing up, we weren't sure how it would work. Ira had a Plan B in mind if needed because there is never a shortage of projects that need to be done. It turns out that we were able to stick to the original agenda and never had another rainy night for the remainder of the time the team was here.
In addition to the school project, the team did an outreach to The Otomi House in Amealco. Over 200 families of the community received food hampers and hand knitted caps and scarves that were made by women of a knitting group from their home town. One team member, who is a dentist, did a dental screening clinic and of course everyone played with the children. Afterwards, we took a scenic route home and visited a local pyramid and waterfall.
With the kids out of school for the summer, the team was able to have plenty of time to interact and play with the children. They treated them to an activity with bubbles and crafts. They were here on the 4th of July, so we celebrated the USA Independence Day with a Pizza Party, which is always a big hit with the kids. And what is a pizza party without a water balloon fight? As it was set up, you could see, in the kid's faces, a question of what was going to happen but as soon as the first balloon was launched, it did not take long for everyone to get involved. Even the adults joined in! It always brings a song to the heart to see everyone laughing and having so much fun!
On Thursday night, Becca gave the Biblical message. The team also joined the children for the Tuesday night Prayer meeting. As I write this, and reflect on all the things the team did to interact and build relationships, I am reminded how they invested so much of themselves into the lives of the children. They made every effort to remember each child's name, leave them with letters and pictures of the journey they had during the week, spend the night in their dorm rooms, play soccer, try to learn as much Spanish as they could, minister through sign language and most of all, they loved and were loved! The kind of love that only comes from a heart devoted to Jesus and His great commission!
Upon arrival, everyone was pleasantly surprised at the nice weather because there was a heat wave of over 100F temps that had been hovering over West TN. The first night it rained steadily and everyone enjoyed a much needed rest from a heavy travel day. However, at breakfast, as we all chatted and discussed the joy of sleeping to the sound of rain and the opportunity to have the windows open and feel the fresh air, Freddy arrives to tell us that the heavy rains caused the drains to back up and all the classrooms in the school had flooded. Welcome to Mexico!
The team was in no way discouraged. They hit the ground running and pitched in to empty the rooms of everything and start the work of cleaning the mud out. One of the things I have learned during this journey is, that no matter how hard the job is, if people pull together and work as a team and with a heart to serve, it can be so much fun. However, it was mentioned that as the rain fell the night before, many had thoughts of how nice it was. They now rethought it and said if it rains again in the night, they will be thinking more like "UH OH!"
The team project that Ira planned was for the roof of the school to be repaired, sealed and the outside of the building to be completely painted. Now that rainy season seemed to be showing up, we weren't sure how it would work. Ira had a Plan B in mind if needed because there is never a shortage of projects that need to be done. It turns out that we were able to stick to the original agenda and never had another rainy night for the remainder of the time the team was here.
In addition to the school project, the team did an outreach to The Otomi House in Amealco. Over 200 families of the community received food hampers and hand knitted caps and scarves that were made by women of a knitting group from their home town. One team member, who is a dentist, did a dental screening clinic and of course everyone played with the children. Afterwards, we took a scenic route home and visited a local pyramid and waterfall.
With the kids out of school for the summer, the team was able to have plenty of time to interact and play with the children. They treated them to an activity with bubbles and crafts. They were here on the 4th of July, so we celebrated the USA Independence Day with a Pizza Party, which is always a big hit with the kids. And what is a pizza party without a water balloon fight? As it was set up, you could see, in the kid's faces, a question of what was going to happen but as soon as the first balloon was launched, it did not take long for everyone to get involved. Even the adults joined in! It always brings a song to the heart to see everyone laughing and having so much fun!
On Thursday night, Becca gave the Biblical message. The team also joined the children for the Tuesday night Prayer meeting. As I write this, and reflect on all the things the team did to interact and build relationships, I am reminded how they invested so much of themselves into the lives of the children. They made every effort to remember each child's name, leave them with letters and pictures of the journey they had during the week, spend the night in their dorm rooms, play soccer, try to learn as much Spanish as they could, minister through sign language and most of all, they loved and were loved! The kind of love that only comes from a heart devoted to Jesus and His great commission!
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