Visit to Pastor Omar and Cristina's house on April 8

Murray and Cindy and Mary Jane and myself (Darrel) went for a ride on our rented scooters and decided to go to Empalme. We went to Pastor Omar's house and they were at home. We stayed for about 45 minutes and had a wonderful time seeing them content and happy in their new home. Cristina has put up flower shelves in the trees between there house and the education wing, Pastor Omar was building a work bench, and the lumber for the washroom roof was brought there. One of the families brought them some chicks (stored in the cardboard box seen in above picture). It's great to see how happy and grateful they are. Cristina brought out a photo album and with Murray and Cindy's knowledge of Spanish, we were able to communicate quite well.

Additional Photos by Wes

Here is a link for a portion of the photos taken by Wes.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/darrelwiebe/SanCarlos2010PhotosByWes

Going Home

As we (Murray & Cindy, Darrel & Mary Jane) sit here and there is no noise, or commotion, we realize that yes, it is Saturday morning and and the rest of the team is on the way home. They left here at 9:00 am after breakfast, hugs and some tears as people realized that it is back to home, work and colder weather. We pray for safety for the remainder of the trip home, and that God will remain up front with the team members, and that people at home will see a change in each one of us. There have been many great friendships built within the team, all with a common goal to work for God. Pray that they will be lasting friendships, and that we will continue to support each other in Christ.

Thursday Blog

Good afternoon everyone. Thursday again was a beautiful day hot sun, clear sky and the warmth of all the people we come in contact with. No matter where you go everyone is saying hola and Dios te bendiga (hello and God bless you). In the morning a team of ladies stayed back and continued to sew the curtains which they finished just before supper, another team continued to finish the kitchen cupboards, and another team went to the house to finish the painting, tiling, plumbing, cleaning, finishing the floor in the education wing, and just getting it finished. The rest of the team came a bit later for lunch and to get ready to have the last children's club. The excitement of the children when they see everyone is overwhelming. To see the joy in their eyes reminds us of what a wonderful God we have, no matter what language you speak you can love one another. Yet the sadness of bullies and class distinctions exists as everywhere.

For the evening supper our ladies put on a Mennonite meal of Kielke and Schmauntfat (Homemade noodles and cream gravy) for everyone at our home base. After a sharing time that we call "pows and wows" (as we do every night) some of the people went to bed, and others went downtown to San Carlos to experience the activities of Holy Week.

The Video shows Ike playing with Jonathan, one of the local kids. It also shows a good view of the kitchen cabinets that we built from scratch starting last Saturday afternoon.

Why We came

Last night was the most interesting movie night I've been to in a long time. There were crowds of people sitting on benches and standing around the edges of our "theatre". The air was full of anticipation, and then the movie started. A few minutes into "Fireproof" children were running everywhere. Shadows were crossing the screen and games were being played on both sides and directly behind the people watching. Despite all the distractions, if you looked at the faces of the people actually watching the movie it was clear they were focused on the story being told.

Hoping for a better view, a few kids took turns sitting on my shoulders, but even then, the option of play as opposed to watching a film, won out. Trying to explain different games to to me they took my hand and led me to the road. I watched exciting games of duck-duck-goose, tag and others happening around me. I sat down beside a post and literally in seconds I was surrounded by kids. They were sitting on my lap, pulling on my hands, sharing my sunglasses, and asking me questions I couldn't understand. The most precious thing about hanging out out last night was realizing that these kids understood that there was something special about us. It wasn't our white skin or my inability to speak spanish, but instead it was that our priority, more than building a house, was them! Jesus sent us to love them, and they were all to happy to give that love back.

Terry Fehr

Today we reached the middle of the week - its hard to believe that we only have 2 more full days in Mexico! Today was another day of finishing things on the house (painting doors, door frames, tiling in the bathroom and kitchen). We also worked on cementing the floor of the education wing - it looks like a welcoming, usable space and Pastor Omar told me yesterday that it will be much warmer now during the cold months. Other highlights were painting nails, playing tic-tac-toe and enjoying some amazing hot dogs with everything on them at Lapa Lapa!

We ended off the day with showing the movie "Fireproof" in Spanish. We had many people come out for this and most of the families also received food hampers that we had prepared in the afternoon. Most exciting of all was a number of people prayed to become Christ-followers and came forward for bibles. We ran out so hope to bring some more with us tomorrow.

posted by Lavonne