It's the end of our first official "work" day, and our team is enjoying another amazing meal by the Carpenter family, albeit with a little more soreness, and a little more hunger in our bellies. Today was a phenomenal day of work, with the 11 of us joining Steve, and four of the construction team to dig in and make progress on the new sanctuary for the ICN Church. From 8:30 until 6:00 p.m., we tied wire, layed brick, formed walls, poured concrete, hauled hauled and hauled some more sand, forms, bricks, boards, and all sorts of stuff. God truly handpicked the team for this trip as each person gave of themselves today -- with joy, with heart, with patience, with sweat, and with all they had... and they're ready to come back tomorrow and do the same thing. To see this place even take further shape is inspiring -- we are so grateful to be a part of this. A mid-day rain storm only served to give more time for each of us to get to know each other and hear our stories. Thank you once again to Gary Parkin who shared a morning devotional which brought our group to a deeper level of love, trust and gratitude to the Lord for forming us and joining us.
To catch you up on the photos you are seeing, the Eagles Community center is an amazing place in the center of an extremely poor part of Atizapan. We spent from 4 till 8 on Sunday there, and speaking for all of us, we've experienced a level of poverty that rivals the most destitute in the world, as this community sits high on the hills outside of Mexico City, on a dump that has been in place for decades. The community center is an example of something that Changes this community -- it would be missed if it were not there. We had the pleasure of standing on the roof top and ringing out prayers of thanksgiving, praise, and need for all the work that is done in this place -- from missions school, to tutoring, to english courses, to women's courses, to worship and children's programs, and to outreach to help generations of children meet and know Christ and build a better future. joining a worship time with over 60 children and 30 adults, and then helping the kids do crafts. You can see in the pictures that the children loved our team and our team loved on them. Their smiles, their joy, their engagement... we were changed from being there with them. We are so grateful to the Carpenters for seeing the vision of this place -- and we are so grateful to the WCC missions team who helped them realize that vision through the contributions of the WCC family. We are convicted that this is a place that God has destined for great things and we are committed to helping it thrive.
We can't wait to see what tomorrow brings... and we've got a full supply of tylenol for the aching muscles that we're sure will be a part of it! Love to you all back home. Thank you for praying for us...and thank you for supporting us while we're here. To our families at home, we love you all.
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Glad to hear the luggage made it...nothing like some lost or in your acse, all lost, luggage to add a little spice to the trip! Amazing things going on and lots of growing together and growing in Christ it sounds like! The pictures are wonderful and I can tell and know from my own experience that each child that got to spend a few minutes or lots of time with each of you, is blessed as you represent the hands and feet of Jesus. Stay strong and I will be praying for energy, sound sleep and another inspirational day tomorrow for you all! Bless you and your hard work for the Kingdom! Shanon
ReplyDeleteOnly one day without luggage? It ain't a mission trip until you're sharing underwear (I think Tichicus said that)! I can see the 11 of you sharing meals and working shoulder to shoulder and it brings a smile. So great...
ReplyDeleteIt's so great to hear you are all being blessed by the whole community. We are praying for no more mishaps on the team (even though it was probably my husband who tripped huh?) We are also praying that God is changing lives through your presence and changing your own as well. Keep writing, we love to hear what our family is doing. Miss you all!
ReplyDeleteSuzy