Day 5 - Hamper Shopping, Painting, and Camps!

What a day!  Madisen, Bree, Toni and I set out in the morning to purchase food and supplies for 20 needy families in Primo Tapia.  We made it back just in time to catch the second set of dance classes and the chaos of crafts.... Bree was dubbed our Craftmaster and the team was out of sorts with her not there.

While we were out shopping, the rest of the team was at the reno house painting, painting and.... painting.  Amazing transformations were taking place as colors filled the walls.  I'm so excited to get in there tomorrow and hang a few pictures of the family on the wall.  We will be dedicating the home tomorrow evening.

The evening was spent playing with Bella and Lucas while we gave Toni and Erin a well-deserved break and sent them out for dinner.  We also split into teams to sort and package the food hampers and finish some more painting and hang doors in the reno house.

Of course the evening was topped off with some delicious ice cream at the local ice cream parlour.  When Toni and Erin came to pick up the kids, we had a great time hearing some stories of the the kids at Casa De Luz and their backgrounds.

 Highlights for the day - Carl and Jon set up a ropes course at the local park and the kids had a blast out there and lots of neighbourhood kids joined in to try it out.

Seeing the change in Isabell and Ramone's home take place when color was added!

And giving Fransisco his care package.  Fransisco has been making such big changes and is the only father in the program so because we were blessing the moms, we wanted to bless him to.  We gave him a bunch of new clothes, a pair of shoes and a bag of Freestyle clothes.  He eyes were welling up as we shared how we wanted to bless him as a father that is fighting for his kids.  Really cool time!

Here's a few more pics from the day...

 The kids helped unload the hamper supplies into the Casa De Luz.

Dance class, teaching Jetes - leaps across the floor.  Once I put my binder down for them to jump over, they got it!

Last full day tomorrow.  Pray for us.  We need our rest as it will be another full day of giving out hampers, finishing the house and one last camp time with the kids at Casa De Luz.

Day 4 - Boys to Tijuana, Girls to Paint

This morning roles reversed and the boys went to Tijuana to feed the poor and the girls went to the construction site and painted ceilings and the outdoor walls.

The boys had a great experience in Tijuana and Caleb even joined in the fun for a bit.  The guys spoke about the program as such an eye opener of what a sacrifice for Jesus really looks like.  These VOLUNTEERS get up every morning at 3:30am to prepare breakfast for over 250 people.  And they don't stop there; when school rolls around, there is a lunch program plus ESL classes and much more.  These volunteers have no names or faces and yet they continually give to the poor and do what God has called them to do.

It was really nice to spend some time worshipping and praying for the family as we painted and spend the morning just us girls!

After lunch, we met up for our summer camps with the Casa De Luz kids.  Makaaela and I headed up the dance classes while the boys and Madisen headed out to play some soccer with the boys.

Dance was especially fun as we brought some skirts to share with the kids thanks to Abbi and Sadie as well as Jazz-ma-Tazz!  Each girl lit up when they got to choose a skirt to wear for the ballet class.  They were all smiles dancing across the floor as their teachers cheered them on.  So fun!

The rest of the team had fun making dough animals with the kids that they will paint tomorrow, then finished the day off with hat decorating and bracelet making.

Mike and Riley got invited to a Mexican League soccer game this evening and the rest of the team is hanging out in the living room, having some much needed and well-deserved down time.

Day 3 - Day off

 The morning was spent with a Canada versus Mexico Soccer Game.  The Canadian team surprised the Mexicans with their skills.  They ended up losing but only by one point!  The match was 12-13 for the Mexicans.We headed to the beach for the afternoon where a handful of the boys headed into the frigid waters.  

Caleb definitely had an awesome time in the sun and sand!

 The evening was spent at La Hermosa Church where the team enjoyed a Spanish Service.  The youth were returning from a retreat and shared testimonies where over 40 people had been saved!

 Pastor and Daniel and Mike.

While the team went to church, the Santos' and Madisen and I and all the kids headed out to 'El Circo' for the kids' first trip to the Circus.  It was an amazing circus, a little bit scary sitting on the bleachers that were tied together with rope and a tiger 30 feet away with no fencing to keep him from the audience!  But all in all, we all had a great family time together and the kids got some much needed fun time.  Caleb suggested the next time we come to Mexico it would just be for fun! 

Day 4 .... we will be heading out this morning to paint the house (girls team) while the boys go to Tijuana, then kids camps in the afternoon.  

Construction Pics

Day 2 - Tijuana and Renovation Project

Today, the girls headed out to Tijuana to feed the poor at a breakfast program founded on the former garbage dumps.  Abbi and Sadie joined us as well as Bella and Lucas, Toni and Erin's children.  It was a really awesome experience to be able to have our children with us as we served the food to the families.

Despite our broken spanish, we were able to have small converastions with families, love on the kids and hold babies.  The breakfast program is an amazing program that feeds 250-340 people Monday through Friday and sometimes on weekends.  The population of the area is 2000, meaning that 10% of the people are being fed, sometimes their only meal of the day.  Everyone is welcome to have 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, basically eat until they are full.

Our breakfast consisted of eggs with hot dogs, tortillas and cinnamon raisin oatmeal.  

The homes on the former dumps of Tijuana

Happy kids with full bellies!!

While the girls were in Tijuana, the boys were at our house renovation.  They spent the day insulating and drywalling and finished their jobs just in time to babysit 20 kids so the girls team could host the ladies night for the single moms and volunteers of Casa de Luz.  Those guys were true troopers.  They just kept giving and giving, loving on those kids despite a full day of hard labour.

One of the boys' jobs was to paint the children's feet and make butterflies from their footprints.  We made a large banner that said, 'I believe you can fly' in spanish as a final surprise for the moms.

While the boys played with the kids, the girls team was prepping and hosting an evening of beauty.  With the help of some volunteers from La Hermosa church, we put on a wonderful spa night complete with hair, make up, pedicures and manicures, pina coladas (non-alcoholic!) and baking.  Plus, we were able to bring along some freestyle clothes so each woman was blessed with three new clothing items as well as new underwear and necklaces from Twigz.  At the end of the evening, I (Jocelyn) shared on the life cycle of the butterfly and how these women were beautiful and weren't meant to fly, to dream, to live how God called them to be.  We then handed out purses filled with goodies (to remind them of how beautiful they are) - thanks again to all those who donated to the event!

When I handed out one purse to a woman, she began to cry and said she had never had anything like this happen to her in her life.  She was so grateful and said I was beautiful.  I told her, No, she was beautiful and that is why we did this evening.  If she was the only one who received the love of God that evening, it was SOOOO worth it!   Though, I know many women were touched and reminded of how God loves and sees them.  

The banner was brought with the children at the end of the evening and the kids all shouted in unision in spanish that they believed their moms could fly and then handed their mom a butterfly craft they had worked on.  

It was such a special evening.  Not only did the women feel loved, they loved the attention and care and to be with other women.  There was lots of laughter and joy and a few moms were on their cell phones calling people to tell them they were getting their pedicures at that moment!  

A very full day, but a great one.  Thank you Jesus!

Photos of the guys work day to come...

Day 1 in Primo Tapia

Our first day in Primo Tapia was filled with fun and excitement.  The team arrived at Casa De Luz in the morning and got a chance to play with the kids and join in their daily physical exercise.

Soon enough the team got to work decorating the room for our birthday party.  We celebrated 10 children's birthdays at Casa De Luz.

The party included face painting,

parachute games,

an Angry Birds pinata

and some awesome cupcakes made by the team.

We also had the privilege of handing out gift bags to each child at the end of the day.  It was so fun to bless them with the toys and coloring books that they could take home with them.  Thank you so much for the many donations we received to make this happen.  The kids were very excited to open their bags!

The team had a great first day that ended with an amazing meal of Carne Asada made by the lovely women of La Hermosa.  Time to rest and get ready for Day 2!