Wednesday

The final full day in Mexico.  As intense as this week was, it is still hard to believe that it is coming to an end.  The morning was split into teams - construction, mural and party prep.  The guys worked hard to use up every piece of drywall in the house while the girls finished the mural and finished prepping for the birthday party.
This afternoon we celebrated 13 birthdays from the kids at CDL.  We made sure each child had their face painted first and then had tons of fun with games and relay races and playing with the parachute.

What Mexican Birthday is complete without a pinata? So out came the pink elephant and there were a few close calls, but the kids managed to just hit the pinata and not each other!  After singing Happy Birthday songs in Spanish and English, the kids and staff and team enjoyed some yummy lime cupcakes and then we presented our Casa De Luz gifts - 7 new scooters with helmets and 2 new tricycles for the kids to play with while they are at CDL.

Reaching for the candy!

Parachute Games

Pop the balloon relay race!

And just to jam-pack the day, we split into two teams and headed right out to give away food hampers in the community.  There were some very impacting moments during the afternoon.  We prayed for each family that were given a food hamper and they were all so very grateful.  When you depend on God for your next meal, there is something so beautiful about your faith.  The people's gratitude and love poured out as we prayed for and interacted with them.  Seeing the poverty that some of the children and families live in and that they are still feisty, fun and joyful children is so very amazing and challenging to me.  How is it we can have so much and feel as though we have so little and these families have so little and yet possess so much?

To end our trip here, Mike's very favourite meal - Carne Asada!  We ate so wonderfully all week, but this was the crowning dinner - thank you so much to our wonderful cooks - Rosa, Susanna, and Nora!  


 Tomorrow we head to Casa De Luz one last time to say goodbye to our new and old friends and love on the kids just a little bit more...there are so many highlights it is very hard to pick just one.  I am blessed to be part of such a great church that provides opportunities to build relationships abroad and see His Kingdom Come here on earth.

Tuesday

Work Day at the Team Housing Building!  The whole team got out there and put in vapour barrier and did more drywalling for the morning.  

The afternoon was spent with the Casa De Luz Ninos playing sports, doing crafts and painting the mural.  The team set up a ropes course in the park and also made a giant skipping rope for the kids to jump in!  They loved it!

A small team went into Rosarito to buy all the food hamper supplies.  We plan to give out 20 food hampers on Wednesday.  An abundance of cupcakes were also made to prepare for the Birthday Party tomorrow!

I spent the afternoon at Priscilla's salon.  It was such a nice time to sit and relax and get my hair cut and coloured and know that I am helping her in her business.  Later in the evening, we had Priscilla come back to the compound and do pedicures and haircuts for some our team. She was able to share her story with some of the girls on the team.  I walked in and girls were full of tears.  The team was able to encourage her in all the positive changes she has made.   Priscilla was very blessed to be able to work for the evening and be a part of hanging out with the team.  Sadie, my daughter, also made a new friend in Priscilla's daughter, Dulce.  We had her come over to our room so she could sleep a bit with the girls while her mom worked.  

Wish I could have taken a picture of Abbi and her curled up together in bed!  So sweet.

Monday

Monday was a great day!  Half the team spent an early morning at the former Tijuana dumps.  They served a hearty meal of mashed potato and sausage burritos.  The other half of the team stayed back to do construction and prep for the ladies night.

In the afternoon, the team was split into three groups - dance, sports and crafts/games.  The older girls headed out for to learn a dance to share with their moms during the spa night.  The older boys went down to do some sports at the local park and the little ones hung out at CDL and made some crafts and headed for their afternoon nap.

After dinner we quickly got back to the compound to decorate for our Ladies Night for the moms at Casa De Luz!

The compound where we are staying is wonderful and spacious and the perfect place to have a spa night! It was even equipped with a massage table and massage chair!  So along with hair, nails, facials, and pedicures, we were able to offer back massages to the hardworking mothers of Casa De Luz.  Kate did an amazing job and wasn't able to get through the long list of women who wanted to enjoy the massage room! Jess was kept busy serving mocktails - Margaritas and Pina Coladas as well as a fruit platter and chocolate cupcakes.

The women also had a chance to go through the freestyle clothing and pick two new clothing items and we had a t-shirt tote bag that was full of pampering items for each of the ladies: perfume, shimmer lotion, shower gel, lip gloss, necklaces and more!  Thank you so much to all the women in Abbotsford who sponsored the gifts for the moms here in Primo Tapia!  They were greatly appreciated.

To end the evening, we brought the women upstairs and had some of the girls from Casa De Luz perform a dance that we taught earlier that afternoon. The song was called 'Bloom' and talked about how these women were born the Bloom - flourish and grow - and that God has GOOD plans for them.

The BEST part of the day for me!  There was a little girl named Karen who has some special needs and walks with a walker.  The plan was not to bring her along to learn the dance but after talking with the staff I thought maybe she could come and hold the signs that translated the songs....soon into learning the dance, we found that she would fit perfectly following our arm movements and being a part of the dance...even the focal point.  It was such a sweet moment to be able to see her smiling and being a part of her peer group and performing for her mother.

Sunday

Had a great day on Sunday.  Spent the morning at LaHermosa church joining in with Spanish worship. Three our our team members had the opportunity to lead one worship song as well which was a lot of fun to see.

We worked for an hour before lunch and then took the rest of the day off and enjoyed some shopping at Puerto Neuvo and a beach afternoon in Rosarito.  We ended the restful part of our day at Charly's Diner - for some more authentic Mexican Food.

We all came out to cheer on Cole as he finished the power washing!

The evening was spent taking one hour to tidy and organize our space for the Ladies Night and doing some night painting before packing it in for the night....well that's what I did...the rest of the team stayed up till the wee hours of the night enjoying some team bonding, singing and music playing.

Saturday

Today has been a really great day!

The team was split into girls and guys today as the boys went out to play soccer against the Mexican team.  Did they win? They definitely did not.  Much to our team's disappointment (especially Mike), the Mexicans are still undefeated...maybe Christmas?

Is this the look of defeat Cole?

Canada and Mexico!

While the boys played, the girls prepped for a lovely morning at Casa De Luz where we offered a health and nutrition class led by our RNs - Kate and Julia.  They gave the ladies of La Hermosa some fabulous information and included tips on healthy eating, including the four food groups into our meals and keeping active.  We followed the talk with tasting and demonstrating how to make a great breakfast cookie that is egg/flour/sugar free and tastes delicious!  One lady said she'll be making these cookies until her husband passes away!!

Julia sharing on the four food groups and nutrition

The ladies helping make the banana cookies

We also had the ladies help us make a healthy salad with an easy salad dressing.  Thanks to Krissi and Maddie, our demonstrators!  After demos, we headed into the other room to work up our appetites with a Zumba class.  The ladies were ALL smiles and so was I as we danced and sweat...who said working out can't be fun?

The response from the workshop was so positive from all the women that attended. They were eager to talk with Erin about continuing to meet and exercise and encourage one another.  It has been on Erin's heart to do a weekly fitness class - and so this was the kickoff!! Erin plans to continue getting together with the ladies every Saturday morning to encourage everyone in their health and wellness.  We were so thrilled to be a part of planting the seeds of health and care of our bodies into these women and as one woman responded to us, 'We are happier.'

Kate showing the ladies a serving size of rice

After our lunch, we headed to the mural wall to prep it.  We will be doing this art project with the kids on Monday and Tuesday afternoon.  We decided the paint needed to be peeled off and after a few hours of scraping, sanding and brushing, Mike came to the rescue with a power washer to get the paint off! It can be a lot of work to peel back the layers in our lives, but when their is a blank canvas, God can do whatever he wants with us and make something beautiful!!  And so it will be with this wall.  Looking forward to the final product!

The boys are over working on the team housing building as I type and I am happy to listen to the girls working on crafts for the kids this week and the hum of that power washer washing away the old paint.

Tonight, we will be able to relax a little bit more and tomorrow will be Church and team day as well as some prep for the rest of the week.

First 24 hours

It is hard to believe we have been in Mexico for only 24 hours!  We arrived safe and sound in Primo Tapia last night at about 10:30pm to a wonderful Mexican feast.  We met Christina, our host, and saw our beloved cook Rosa who happens to live right next door. 

After our late dinner, we went to work preparing our gifts for the kids at CDL.  Thanks to Rainbow Embroidery for their amazing help in embroidering each child’s name on a new beach towel.  What a special gift to give each child.  My prayer for each child in giving them their personalized towel was that they would know that Jesus knows their name.  He knows them personally and deeply and cares for every detail of their lives. 

After a late night, we were up early to the sounds of roosters and dogs in our new neighbourhood in the heart of Primo Tapia.  We got ready and headed to Casa De Luz to meet the children we’d be paired up with for the day.  We each were buddied up with one to three kids for our field trip to Las Canadas – a huge water park and camping resort.  The older children got to enjoy the pool, paddle boat rides and the toboggan waterslide and the little ones played at an amazing waterpark complete with spraying water and an assortment of slides. 

It was such a fun day…. A little chaotic at first as us white kids tried to care for Spanish speaking children…. But once we got to know our child(ren) and what they liked and wanted to do, we had a lot of fun with them.  I enjoyed watching my daughter, Abbi, interact with her partner Karol, who is also 5 years old.  Again proves that you don’t need to have the same language to have fun as they giggled and sang and played on the bus ride and splashed in the pool together. 

I thoroughly enjoyed

bonding with Karol as did the rest of the team with their children.  It was a great way to start our week here and gain their trust and build new relationships. 

Tomorrow will be another fun day as the guys head out to play soccer – it’s quite the match-up with lots of trash-talking…should be exciting to see how things turn out – will the Mexicans win again or will Canada prevail?

We will also be hosting a health and nutrition workshop for the CDL moms and La Hermosa families.  It will include some health talks from our nurses on the team, healthy food demos and Zumba/fitness class.  Then we’ll be off to prep for the rest of the week’s activities. 

Please pray for Christina, our Korean host, as she has been having knee problems and would really like to be able to participate in as much of our programs and events as possible.  We’re excited to walk with her and share our hearts and stories with her in ministry. 

3 Sleeps till Mexico!!

It is hard to believe that we have only three days to go!  Mike and I are scrambling to finish all the details and figuring out where we are going to put all these supplies!!  We are so excited for this trip.  We have a team of 21 - our family of 5 plus 16 young adults, evenly split between guys and girls.  Our team is Mike, Jocelyn, Caleb, Abbi, Sadie, Josh, Kate, Riley, Julia, Mitch, Madisen, Jeff, Trisha, Ryan, Jessica, Rod, Melanie, Tyler, Krissi, Karissa, and Cole. 

Please pray for us as many on the team are feeling tired already and we haven't left yet!  Most of the team are working right up until the day before we leave.  It's going to be a jam-packed trip and we can't wait to tell you all about it!

We also need prayer to get our supplies onto the plane for FREE or at least cheaper as we have many extra bags for supplies this year.  We could use your prayers for crossing the border into Mexico as well as Mexico has been pulling over people and charging duty on everything brought in from the USA.  We plan to pick up quite a bit of supplies and food in San Diego before we cross so we may be charged as well. 

God is good all the time and we are looking forward to joining with Him this next week!  Check us out here for daily updates on how things are going!!