Another great day in the MEXIC09 adventure! Today we spent some time this morning on the campus hearing about different ways to stay involved with the ministry of Back2Back and then we had a chance to shop the "market". Back2Back picks out some of the most wanted items that you would typically buy at the market and brings them to the campus for us to have a simple, all English, no pesos necessary shopping experience. After that we grabbed a quick lunch and packed up!
We picked up kids from Casa Hogar Douglas, Manantial de Amor and Villa de Juarez and headed to a place called Kidzania. Kidzania is hard to describe but it's an "indoor amusement park" that consists of an entire town that is down to kid scale. Hospital, TV station, police office, restaurants, banks, pharmacies, construction zones, airport were just a few of the buildings in Kidzania. Every kid got a "check" that they could cash for monopoly style money at the bank and then they would have to use their money to take part in all the different fun things to do. Coolest part was that if the kids ran low on money they could work at one of the locations to sell magazines, fix cars, work in the construction zone, etc. It was great to see all these kids having such a fun time learning things that will REALLY help them in their lives! Not sure if we have anything like this back in the USA but it would be a HIT!
Tomorrow we pack everything up here on the campus and go on a field trip to Horsetail Falls where we will eat a picnic lunch and hike up to the waterfall. After that it's off to a hotel near the airport for dinner and some team hangout time before we fly out on Saturday! Depending on Friday night timing, blog may or may not be updated, so if not we'll see you all when we get stateside!
-John
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
MEXIC09-WEDNESDAY
As you can see from all the great pictures today we took a bunch of kids from the Cadereyta to a local pool to have a fun day! The team played and jumped and splashed and piggy-backed for hours and despite many probably getting tired and a little sunburned, there were smiles and laughing all the way up until we sent the kids off on the bus!
As odd as it sounds, playing with kids can often times be tougher than some of the manual labor that is done down here. Our students did an amazing job and shined the love of Jesus to these kids ALL day! After swimming for about 3-4 hours, we had a hamburger cookout Mexico style with burger, actual ham and fresh avocado! After that Pastor Jose Angel said a few words and the team handed out backpacks to all the students to help prepare them for the next school year! After each name was called that child ran through a tunnel made by the Mexic09 team with cheering and high fives! These kids were celebrated for their hard work and rewarded with some great new stuff!
Tomorrow we have some stuff on the Back2Back campus in the morning and then we're taking the kids from Casa Hogar Douglas, Manantial de Amor and Villa de Juarez on a field trip! Should be great!!!
Thanks for all your prayers, comments and love!
-John
As odd as it sounds, playing with kids can often times be tougher than some of the manual labor that is done down here. Our students did an amazing job and shined the love of Jesus to these kids ALL day! After swimming for about 3-4 hours, we had a hamburger cookout Mexico style with burger, actual ham and fresh avocado! After that Pastor Jose Angel said a few words and the team handed out backpacks to all the students to help prepare them for the next school year! After each name was called that child ran through a tunnel made by the Mexic09 team with cheering and high fives! These kids were celebrated for their hard work and rewarded with some great new stuff!
Tomorrow we have some stuff on the Back2Back campus in the morning and then we're taking the kids from Casa Hogar Douglas, Manantial de Amor and Villa de Juarez on a field trip! Should be great!!!
Thanks for all your prayers, comments and love!
-John
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Day Four in Photo's
Hey all, here's the photo's from Tuesday. Just a heads up, I've been taking a lot more photos than what's going up, but the internet connection down here goes in and out, thus timing out my Picasa uploads often. Yesterday's album got considerably short changed and we'll see how tonight goes. But enjoy...whatever gets online.
MEXIC09-Tuesday at the Cadereyta
Today the WHOLE team was together and headed out to the Cadereyta. For those not familiar, the Cadereyta is an area where the government has relocated squatters or homeless people into one area. Having been there for several years, there is just now electric lines run and septic run even though it's not all hooked up to the "homes". Back2Back has been partnering with Pastor Jose Angel who works full time and reaches out to evangelize and pastor this community.
Today about a dozen of the team did some work projects on the community center that is being built there in the Cadereyta. They worked on forming rebar to prep for a concrete pour and worked on installing electric boxes. And all of this work was done on the roof which provided for a hot day! A handful of the team prepped the lunch outreach and began serving tons of kids and families chicken tostadas! And the rest of the team jumped in playing with the kids. There was coloring and crafts, a little bit of baseball and soccer and a WHOLE LOT of piggy back rides! There was also a lot of reunions with the team and some of the kids that we worked with last year!
Tomorrow we head back to the Cadereyta to pick up a bunch of the kids and take them to a pool for a party! We'll also be handing out backpacks filled with school supplies which for most is the only way they can have supplies for school and we'll also be grilling out hamburgers. This is a huge deal for them to actually be able to eat meat, let alone two days in a row! It will be a great day!
The team is doing awesome! Everyone is pouring out everything they have and serving, loving, encouraging so well! Pictures to come soon!!!
-John
Today about a dozen of the team did some work projects on the community center that is being built there in the Cadereyta. They worked on forming rebar to prep for a concrete pour and worked on installing electric boxes. And all of this work was done on the roof which provided for a hot day! A handful of the team prepped the lunch outreach and began serving tons of kids and families chicken tostadas! And the rest of the team jumped in playing with the kids. There was coloring and crafts, a little bit of baseball and soccer and a WHOLE LOT of piggy back rides! There was also a lot of reunions with the team and some of the kids that we worked with last year!
Tomorrow we head back to the Cadereyta to pick up a bunch of the kids and take them to a pool for a party! We'll also be handing out backpacks filled with school supplies which for most is the only way they can have supplies for school and we'll also be grilling out hamburgers. This is a huge deal for them to actually be able to eat meat, let alone two days in a row! It will be a great day!
The team is doing awesome! Everyone is pouring out everything they have and serving, loving, encouraging so well! Pictures to come soon!!!
-John
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday from Team One...and photo's
Team one headed to Imperio De Amor for a day of WORK!!! We split into three teams repainting parts of their boys home. There was a fourth team comprised of...Seth, who spent the afternoon cut pipe for a new fence around their sport court and setting it into place. Everyone did a fantastic job and aaaalmost got it completely done, but we had to stop a bit earlier than we wanted to. Luckily, there will be another team there tomorrow to finish the little bits that are left. I love this team and I love the attitudes they're bringing to their work. I'm excited for the whole group to be together for the rest of the week as we head to the Cadereyta tomorrow. Enjoy the photo's! We'll catch up tomorrow.
MEXIC09-Monday!!!
Hey everyone, Johnny here and I'm excited to fill you in on all of today's happenings! First of all, DC, Kara and I were uber-pumped to arrive here finally last night and jump in with the team! It was clear to see that the team had already been doing amazing things, as you've already read in Steph and Jeff's posts.
So, today we were in two team again and the team I was on headed out to Mama Connie's house which is one of the children's homes known as Manantial De Amor. Over the past 5 years our teams have done some serious work here and it's such a cool thing to realize the lasting, long term impact that we are all apart of down here in Monterrey. Today was the last work day at this location for the summer so we got busy cleaning the kitchen, installing a new chairrail throughout the dining room and prepping and pouring two concrete projects. One of the concrete projects was an extension of a sidewalk in front of the addition being put on and the other was footers and foundation for the new property wall that's being put up. The team worked incredibly hard and got everything done that was needed and Greg, the site leader, said it was the perfect last day!
Tonight for dinner then the team made our traditional voyage to Tacos Fede! Many happy faces and full stomachs! Getting back to campus was cool to see how excited our team is to just spend time together whether it was working all day long, or eating a ridiculous amount of tacos or hanging out play Euchre, Catch Phrase or just talking! The team is doing a great job serving others and serving each other! You should be proud!
Jeff is going to hop on and post what team two did today as well as throw some pictures up from the day. Tomorrow the WHOLE team heads out to the Cadereyta to serve together! It will be a great day! Thanks for all your comments!!!
So, today we were in two team again and the team I was on headed out to Mama Connie's house which is one of the children's homes known as Manantial De Amor. Over the past 5 years our teams have done some serious work here and it's such a cool thing to realize the lasting, long term impact that we are all apart of down here in Monterrey. Today was the last work day at this location for the summer so we got busy cleaning the kitchen, installing a new chairrail throughout the dining room and prepping and pouring two concrete projects. One of the concrete projects was an extension of a sidewalk in front of the addition being put on and the other was footers and foundation for the new property wall that's being put up. The team worked incredibly hard and got everything done that was needed and Greg, the site leader, said it was the perfect last day!
Tonight for dinner then the team made our traditional voyage to Tacos Fede! Many happy faces and full stomachs! Getting back to campus was cool to see how excited our team is to just spend time together whether it was working all day long, or eating a ridiculous amount of tacos or hanging out play Euchre, Catch Phrase or just talking! The team is doing a great job serving others and serving each other! You should be proud!
Jeff is going to hop on and post what team two did today as well as throw some pictures up from the day. Tomorrow the WHOLE team heads out to the Cadereyta to serve together! It will be a great day! Thanks for all your comments!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)