Beginnings

The week one team started our week off running.

Monday morning saw impromptu games with the kids while we waited for job planning.

Jared and Francisco tackled a fun yet tricky job of installing fencing on top of a wall in the back yard of the Adolescent Boys home. This took much finesse, job well done.

The rest of the team started prepping for painting at Casa Leonel. Paint was ordered and arrived at Casa Leonel to brighten things up.

Some fun activities with the little kids at Casa Cuna captured our hearts.

Dinner and some volleyball at Casa Matriz followed and was such a sweet time.

The Lord has been good to us. 

Stay tuned for more to come in the days ahead.

Sunday in Colima

Sunday started with breakfast at the hotel and then a trip to the market to get the crew acclimated to the culture.  The market is a favorite place to start our trip as the vendor's open air stalls have a very different feel to shopping than what we are used to in the US.  It's closer to a swap meet than going to the mall.

 Outside of the Mercado Obregón

So many colors and textures

Julie being attracted to all the shiny toys

After picking up some fresh mangos and avocados for our next few breakfasts, we drove to the Instituto Adonai.  This is the school where all of the kids in the Grupo Amor orphanage system attend school.  The outdoor gym holds about 300 seats and has plenty of room at the later 10:15am service.  Stephan, the foreign mission coordinator, says that the busier service is the 8am service.  But none of us in the group are that great at early mornings if we don't have to be up.

Church service held in the school gym

After church, we invited the whole Grupo Amor head staff out for lunch.  It isn't often that all the lead couples of the group homes get a chance to be together as an entire group.  We've become quite fond of hosting this time for all of the house parents to sit together and have a large meal together.  

    

It takes a long table to seat 40 people

Julie loving on a very pregnant Carmen, house mom of Golandrinas

The Entire Lunch Group

And after lunch, we took the group to tour the main house, Matriz.  There were lots of happy embraces and impromptu singing and games.  It was exciting to see the kids again and get ready for the week ahead of us.  

Week 1 Team Picture

Week 1 Starts

Our week one team has arrived safe and sound to Colima.  After a road construction delay or two on the drive, the team had a hearty dinner at a local restaurant that was new to all of us.  Now we've dragged the bags into our rooms, turned up the air conditioners, and are falling off to sleep to rest up for a busy day tomorrow.

Arrived at the airport, waiting for the van

Fifteen passenger vans fit six people very comfortably

Sitting down to a good meal

What does God have in store for the week 1 trip?  When we started planning for this first week there were eleven people in total.  Now, we have a group size of six.  Illness and bureaucracy failings have changed the group dramatically with one couple needing to bow out just one day before our departure.

Francisco and I have talked a lot about what God is doing in this place and where he wants us to participate.  What things we are here to do and what things we are here to learn.  While I can't say right now what the answers to these questions are, I do know that God has planned for us to change or transform. To become a new creation in the same way that he created us brand new at the time of our salvation.  I am not a planning wizard or an organizational guru.  Francisco admits that talking in front of larger groups isn't his favorite thing.  But its from where we are today that God will use us and allow us to do the work that he prepared in advance for us to do.  And we pray that through that process we find ourselves functioning above and beyond our expectations.  That would surely be a God thing.

Some prayer requests:

That our team would quickly form into a cohesive group that is able to have each member stretch in new directions to fill in the jobs where our original members left at home would have occupied.

Good health for each member for the duration of the trip.

For safety in all of our travels for this upcoming week.

Almost Go Time!

We are so excited to be heading off to Colima! Please continue to pray for this crew over the next two weeks as we serve, grow, love, and receive. We've had a few folks have to drop from the trip for health and family needs - please pray for them as they heal and as we all mourn that they aren't able to travel this year. And for everybody else, please pray for good health, easy logistics, and a heart that just loves being with the kids and caregivers of Hogar de Amor. 

We appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and comments so much - they sustain and connect us as we're gone. Thanks for cheering us on!