North Carolina comes to Mexico!

I realize I haven't updated in a while...but for good reason! Yesterday we said good-bye to the North Carolina after a busy 2 weeks together. A team of 7 came to spend a couple of weeks helping us with our Summer Camp for children. It was a very stretching, exhausting, but incredible time! The team consisted of 5 African-American youth (ages 13-17), a female leader Stephanie, and the youth pastor Chris Eidse from Southern Manitoba (most likely my cousin!!). So, I felt like I spent as much time learning about them, their culture, and trying to understand their accents, as they spent learning about Mexico! It was an incredible opportunity, and I really enjoyed the very cross-cultural experience.

So, here's the team of NC'ers, plus the 2 girls from Calgary, our "Matthew Team", and the Colombian family (4) that pastors our church, RETO. It was truly a cross-cultural experience!

Here are some pictures I took with them. We had the opportunity to hear their life stories at the beginning of their time here. I was often amazed and overwhelmed by how much life some of them have lived already, and the things that God has saved them from! I was also struck by their courage in even coming to Mexico, as none of them have been out of the US before, or even hardly out of NC, and their church has never sent out a missions team before. These guys have so much potential, and I'm excited to see where God will take them!

So, this is Jen and I learning how to be "Gangsters"...oh, actually it's pronounced more like "Gangstas"...apparently we're not supposed to pronounce every letter:) So, what do you think? Can I pull it off?

Okay, this is me and the "dance girls". If you look closely you can see me dancing with them. I really wasn't going to, but they insisted that I join them up front! Seriously, it's been great to get to know them and build a relationship with them. Only one of them actually comes to church, and even that is not very regular. Tomorrow night Jen and I are having them over for a "pyjama party"...should be fun! We're hoping to keep building this relationship with them. Having a team of boys around for 2 weeks certainly didn't hurt!!

And here are some pictures from our Day Camp. I ran the "sports workshop", so I had a lot of fun playing with the kids and getting to know them a bit. This is the 2nd year for RETO to put this children's camp on. Last year we had just over 20 kids, and this year we were praying for 40. We received just over 40! It was a great way to get to know some of the kids and families in the neighborhood, and build some trust for future outreach. It was a lot of work, and many of us got quite sick with a virus that was going around, but God was good and brought us all through it. Our closing service on Sunday was awesome...the parents loved it! Continue to pray for us as we continue building these relationships.