Week 1 Day 2 and 3

Great day today and yesterday! Activities are going great and there are already some awesome relationships forming between us and the kids. 

In the last two days, we’ve worked on painting the adolescentes and unrau home, Ying is mastering the wall mural, and building the wall around Leonel. Everyone is working hard and working really well together. 

Yesterday we had a party with the señorita house and tomorrow we are heading to a party at the new young adults home, Kairos, for the grand opening. 

Keep praying for God to provide energy, clarity of mind, and continued strong relationships! 

Week 1 Day 1 2025

Today we spent time getting to know and experience the global church with the Grupo Amor church. It was quite similar to our church back at home, with music and a band on stage with a lesson afterwards. 

After church we went to the beach with some kids from Casa Matrz, Lenoel, and Famoso. They were all kids graduating from one school up (ex. middle to high school). We spent hours on the beach, throwing sand at each other and eating delicious sea food and taking in the warm, perfect weather and the ocean air. 

The drive to the ocean and back was long but a perfect opportunity to connect with the kids, learn some words and listen to music together. We even watched Nick play 2048 while listening to Justin Bieber. 

All in all it was a super fun, exhausting yet wholly fulfilling day. 

Week 1: The Adventure Begins!

 

Hours of flying, hours of driving, and we are thrilled to have feet on the ground and tacos in our tummies in Colima!

Thanks for your prayers for safe travels, and please keep them coming as we start to engage with the kids of Hogar de Amor tomorrow. Pray for sweet time together, safety, and love that transcends age and language!

Adventure 2025 beginning soon!

Team Mexico 2025 (+ a few more that didn't make the picture)

This Saturday our first team will leave for Mexico.

There are so many swirling emotions… excitement, fear, joy, apprehension,

and anticipation as we near the day of departure.

We trust that God is working behind the scenes to help us through customs, with the heat, communication to others in Spanish, growing relationships with the children and house parents, health and all the while recognizing that God is working in all of it.

Anytime you travel and go to a different country, there are many potentials for problems.

Would you join us in prayer for our team, our family (that we are leaving at home), as well as the children and house parents that we will visit?

Here's a list of people that are going so that you can pray for them by name:

March 29 - April 5:

Steve, WanYing, Francisco, Abigail, Nick, Isaac, Josh, Madeleine,

Maria, Jamie, Sasha, Julie, Bianka, Raylin, Rebekah, Alana,

Aliah, Hazel, Jackson, Jeffrey, Laurie, Aralyn, Shaunda, Wesley

April 5 -12:

WanYing, Katelyn, Kristie, Kim, Alexia, Darrin, Ryan, Steve,

Dan, Darla, Scott, Marcia, Kylie, Ashlee, Lindsey, Savannah

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Supporting Hogar de Amor

We are right on the cusp of this year's trip to Colima! This year, in addition to our regular fundraising to support the kids and caregivers of Hogar de Amor, we hope to outfit a whole new home for young men in university and technical programs! This will be a home for men in their late teens and early twenties who are a bit too old to be in a regular orphanage house, but not quite ready to be out on their own yet. It's so special that Hogar de Amor continues to care for every kid in their care through high school, university, and beyond!

If you want to help support the trip and outfit the young men's home, check out https://centerpointutah.org/mexico

Reflections on serving - Dan Matheney

As I review my time spent in Mexico at the orphanage this year, I’m reminded of this verse in Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

One problem that I have is that I conform daily to this world. I get up in the same place, I go to the same job, see the same people, I even go to the same church and at some point I’m just going through the motions. I’m like a hamster on the wheel of life, just doing the same thing because that’s what I always do.

Each year I get an opportunity to break out of that cycle by leaving my world and entering into a completely different one. Each year I travel to Mexico to Hogar de Amor Orphanage. While there I do several things that are different. I wake up in an uncomfortable bed (this helps me appreciate my normally comfortable bed). I’m with a team of people that I don’t really know and some that have different values and views on the world than I do. Even though we are different, we work together for a greater good. Each day we have activities with the kids at the orphanage, we work on projects (painting and maintenance to their homes), we sit and talk to each other, the kids and the adult caretakers. Even though the days are long and the work can be hard and hot, there is time to sit and talk.

Relationships are important. Purposefully sitting with someone, talking and laughing changes the way you see the world and the way that you process life.

While I’m there, I get to see some pretty incredible people that have dedicated this part of their life to caring for the uncared for. Each day they put their own selfish desires aside and put the kids first. They cook for them, they clean, they do homework, they sit and talk with them and teach them who God is and how He loves them… They are basically superheroes that are unrecognized by most of society. 

I’m always super encouraged by looking at a child’s life and seeing the future that they have when cared for properly. These kids, that had little hope and resources in life, now have the ability and opportunity to be and become what God has called them to be. They are not stuck, they have hope for a future that is grand and full of possibilities.

As we go through our life and do what we do, we slowly become transformed by this world. The question that I’ve found that is important is: Am I being transformed by this world (what the world wants me to do and think) or am I being transformed by the renewing of my mind? Am I able to test and approve what God’s will is, His good, pleasing and perfect will?

Let’s get outside of our small little world, our small little lives, and see a bigger picture that’s not all about just us.

Dan Matheney

Reflections on serving - Alexia Bills

What this trip meant to me is that God is so much bigger then my SMALL problems. How grateful I am to be a part of something so beautiful. To have made connections with some of the children out there. God has definetly blessed my life and has given me a new perspective on what matters in life. My relationship with Jesus has grown and will continue to grow. Thank you to the house parents out there how selfless they are to dedicate there lives to these beautiful children. Can I just say WOW.