Following the Father

Wednesday, July 8th

Yesterday was our first fully day in Monterrey.  It was busy and completely fascinating.  I am already wishing that I could have longer to get to know people.  In the morning we worked under the direction of Emmanuel of the Merge staff to scrape and sand the old peeling paint off in the church.  We also cleaned up windows and washed dusty curtains and décor and started putting on the new coat of paint.

In the afternoon after we got cleaned up we all went to the community where this church has set up a mission.  It is a very poor community, most homes are built out of what people in the States would consider trash and are the size of a large (or small) bathroom.  When we got there we split up into 3 teams.  Two teams to go invite mothers to the womens ministry and their kids to VBS and the other toset up the shelters for us to work under and get all our supplies pulled out ofthe trailer.  Since Milford can actually speak Spanish he did more of the inviting in our group as we made our way down the streets through the trash and mud.

VBS officially got under way at 4:00 though plenty of kids showed up long before that and jumped on the rented trampoline that the pastor's family had set up in advance. After we got things together we started the VBS by showing the farming/story time video that the Reiths had recorded and Ben help put together.  That taught our lesson for the day and all the other activities built on that.  Milford, Jordan, and Kristen led the kids in a song and then we slit them up into 3 age groups.  Each group went to a different station, either craft, games, or scripture memory.  The age groups would then switch stations every 15 minutes or so.  Milford and I were in charge of scripture memory, and though it was interesting trying to teach the kids a verse in a language I didn't know I believe we did reasonably well.  We a snack at that station for after we had practiced the verse but from now on we'll leave the snack for the end.  It is much too big of a draw to try to hand out food to one group at a time.  We believe about 90 kids showed up plus babies that were held by mothers and older siblings.  The pastor's wife, Ava was in charge of the womens ministry that took place during those couple of hours.

In the evening the church had a small service outside where our group introduced ourselves, Mike shared a small message, and we all sang a song for them.  Some kids from the church also sang I Am a Friend of God for us.  (in Spanish)

Thursday, July 9th

Yesterday was another full day of work, VBS, and a fun outing in the evening.  After another hot night without electricity (not that they have air conditioners but there are fans mounted on the wall in the sanctuary where the ladies are sleeping.) we got to work again in the church.  Anna and I were assigned to painting an iron gate in the courtyard wall.  All the iron window and gate openings in the courtyard concrete wall are rusty and the paint that was there is flaking off.  It is actually quite hard to get the paint on all the sides and in all the little crevices of the swirled iron.  Joel came out and "chatted" for awhile.  I guess you can still call it that when we're speaking half one language half another and sign language.  He's very laid back though and doesn't seem to mind much.  He brought out some of his paints and doodled on a corner outside on the courtyard wall.  I felt guilty for awhile about stopping my job to watch him draw and interact.  Then I remembered what Merge said in their handbook about people being more important than the jobs we're given and relaxed.  He brought out some canvas paintings that he'd done to show us as well.

The young ladies of the group quite early that day to get showered before lunch so that we could go to a girl's house from the church who had befriended the girls in our group. That ended up falling thru but we did see her in the evening. 

VBS at the mission was even more crazy than yesterday due to rain and a projector that wouldn't work. The kids still had fun and we're trying to communicate through the chaos that we care.

That evening our group and several people from the Spanish church and the pastors family went to a beautiful riverwalk in downtown Monterrey.  The whole area around the man-made river was lit up and there were fountains spread throughout the park.  What made the long walk so enjoyable and memorable for me though was building relationships with the people from the church.  The lights, clever fountains, green grass, and cute boats floating down the glossy water will only last for so long.  God's kingdom however is eternal, and so are the people he has created.  There is an amazing bond that crosses all cultures and languages in the world when people are in the body of Christ.  I could see it as I watched people from both churches talking with one another.  It may have taken 10 times as long to communicate one sentence as they tried to use their bit of English and we tried to use our bit of Spanish but I think we still learned a lot about each other that night.  There was plenty of laughter and good memories that I believe will stay with people from both churches for the years to come and be a sourceof encouragement.  I spent a lot of time walking with a new friend form the church named Yenni.  She's 13 and found me over and over againwhen we'd get separated on our walk. She was very patient with the language barrier as well.