Mexico Weekend

So rather than do two posts, I'm going to combine Saturday and Sunday into one longer post. Much more efficient for you all!

As I noted earlier (and shared with the parent prayer group), Friday afternoon was spent helping to nurse students back to health (including my own), and collecting photos from the various individuals who were kind enough to take ones for us all. I posted the Friday album yesterday evening. So I'm a day behind.

Saturday morning was rainy - very rainy. As a consequence, many roads were undrivable, which meant that excursions out to the various ministry areas were not an option. While it was a disappointment, in other ways it was a blessing as everyone needed to rest and we still had students recovering. Instead, we all convened in the Onion and listened to Don share. After that, Pastor Dave asked open questions to the students about their experiences on the trip to which we got an overwhelming response of sharing. It was a lovely bonding experience that ended with a fun Kahoot competition between the four colour teams.

Saturday at lunch, Orange and Green headed to one spot for tacos, while Red and Yellow made their way to another spot. In both cases, the tacos were delicious. After enjoying a taco lunch, we all met up at the outdoor market in Rosarito. Watching the kids bartering and shopping was a true treat. Ask them what they bought!

We wrapped up shopping and headed back to the base. After dinner (if I haven't yet mentioned it, let me note now that the food - all the food - has been delicious), we headed to the Onion for a session on Injustice and how to look at it from a Biblical perspective. We collected again into small groups to discuss the topic, and then the students were free to enjoy time to themselves. I spent the majority of my time with Yellow and Red on Saturday, but met up with the full group at the market. Here are Saturday's pics:

On Sunday, the teams were once again paired in two sets of teams (Red and Yellow and Green and Orange) to head to church. Everyone is back in good health, thank God. :) So we were all back in action! Today I spent the majority of my time with Green and Orange.

Again, due to the muddy roads (from yesterday), the original church Red and Yellow were meant to go to was changed, so they performed their story and shared their testimonies with each other in the Onion before heading to a 10:30 am service and then off to tacos again before coming back to the base to share some more.

Green and Orange headed off at 9:00 am to a 10:00 am service, then also off to enjoy tacos. Both services were in a more modern-style church with English translation. It was lovely to hear worship in both languages.

After Green and Orange enjoyed tacos, they headed off to visit the kids in a local orphanage. We learned firsthand exactly what happens to dirt roads after rain. ;) The stuck-in-the-mud stretch for the three vans lasted for awhile, but thanks to a local with four-wheel drive and the ability to help guide us through the mud, we made it out. It was definitely a different sort of adventure that also included seeing Mexican cowboys and a dashing photo shoot of our very own Jerry who was still donning his tuxedo from church.

So once the vans were unstuck, and we were back on track, Green and Orange spent some time playing with the kids at the orphanage. We had active games of basketball and soccer, trampoline and skip rope time, and face painting in reverse - some of the girls wanted to decorate our students instead. :)

Once back, we all enjoyed tortilla soup and ice cream, and had our pack up/clean up time. We are currently in the Onion enjoying worship time after a rousing "map" game.

Tomorrow is an early start, so we are praying that everyone gets a good night sleep and all goes smoothly with our travels. We are looking forward to seeing you all at the airport tomorrow evening. Hopefully you've all checked your kids in (and if not, hopefully this is a reminder for you!). So here is our gallery for today. Enjoy and see you tomorrow!