Notice what the normal is for roads in this area of Mexico! Kind of like Upstate New York in the spring...
Pastor Nacho (Jehovah Jireh Church) and his son (he intreprets the Bible lesson for Vacation Bible School) and on this day... he also became skilled in the art of Oriental Trading crafts...
Here are some boys building the craft - our story on Monday was about baby Moses floating down the river. The story concentrated on the truth that God watches over us from the moment we are created. And He is with us ALWAYS!
This little girl stuck herself to me for much of the afternoon. I would guesstimate she was about 4 years old! And she was so proud of her craft (and having her picture taken).
This is Sue. She hates glue dots. If you are unfamiliar with them... they are a crafter's bestfriend, especially working with kids. They replace the use of glue guns (which are too hot for kids) and Elmer's (which takes FOREVER to dry). They work instantly, but you do need to know how to use them. Sue, here, is cleaning glue dots off the floor. She did not have an easy time figuring out how to use them. Because of that, it was very easy for her to point any out that were stuck to the floor!
Here are 2 little boys (the one on the right is Mario) who also enjoyed having their pictures taken. And they were even more excited to look at the picture after it was taken! Does anyone have a polaroid?Day 3 - Monday: Today was our first day of Women's Outreach and Vacation Bible School. When the women came, there were not as many as we were expecting - only about 15. But, it doesn't matter how many... it matters that one may be affected! We started the morning by feeding the ladies (and their babies) hot pancakes and coffee. All of the children drink 'cafe.' I can't imagine giving my kids coffee, but I know that it is different when you grow up with it!
The women appeared wary at first. They looked tired...they looked like they could use a break (especially mentally). And the language barrier was tough. Our interpreter, Sandra, was amazing though. She helped bridge the gap - Anne, a nurse that was a part of our team, did a teaching on basic first aid. There are no major hospitals in Juarez. If someone gets sick or injured, the care is left up to the family. There is a traveling doctor program (doctors from the states) that visits a clinic in Juarez, but the lines are unbearably long and they can't treat everyone or fix everything. Our team had made first aid kits for each of the women to take home. Anne also opened the floor for anyone with questions... she gave some consultatoin... but most important, she invited anyone that wished for prayer. And we were able to pray with quite a few (even our interpreter).
I was uncomfortable at first. I think it was mostly the language thing (I was annoyed with myself that I didn't spend more time at home learning spanish). But, my breakthrough was with a woman holding her baby. She was playing with the baby - the baby would drop something, mommy would laugh, pick up the toy, repeat... I picked up the toy when it went too far away and she allowed me to hold her little nino! He was beautiful and my heart melted when he smiled at me. And he didn't cringe, but accepted me willingly.
VBS - ok... I would not really classify the VBS as an actual VBS. I always think of the crazy week of VBS we have at our church with 3 hours of fun-filled stuff as VBS. This was more like a Sunday School lesson. But that doesn't make it any less important or does it mean that it can't have an impact on the kids who hear it. I was extremely nervous about what to say, how to teach, what to teach with, etc. And again, I was nervous about the whole language thing. But as I was preparing for the lesson (back home)... God kept telling me - 'just keep reading the story in the Bible, not the lesson - know it forward and backward and read deeper and you'll be fine.' Well, I like to think I'm usually an overplanner. To just do the basics, well, I wasn't real comfortable with that, but it was AMAZING! The story went very smoothly (with translation) and the kids were very responsive. Then we started the craft - this is where the day got funny.
We set out the craft at each table (it was one from Oriental Trading) and each of us went to a table to help them put it together! I learned 4 words of spanish very quickly and successfully helped 2 tables of boys put their craft together! It started out frustrating for everyone, but boy, were we all happy when we actually made it to the final product. It was an exhilirating feeling. But, I wasn't prepared for the fun I was about to have...
We didn't have enough driver's to take the kids back to the colonia. Garry asked if I would mind driving a truck to help take them home! Sure, no problem (It was a standard too... which I love to drive). If you notice the picture above that shows what a normal road looks like in this area, you can imagine the fun the kids have in the back of a truck! The pickup I was driving as a normal Chevy pickup and I had easy 20 kids in the back - in Mexico, there are no seatbelt laws or maximum capacity laws - if you have one van and 25 kids - all the kids WILL fit.
Ok, when I first agreed, I figured that I would have someone who could speak spanish and english with me - HA HA! It was so much fun working out a system with the kids that let me know where they needed to go. We drove all over the colonia and I think we all laughed the whole time (and no, they weren't laughing at me)! The kids were great! And we had orange slices for them as they left the truck... they were so thankful and so hopeful.
God tells us to be like little children - life is so much more fun when we do!
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