The Highlight Reel

Yeah, so we've been a bit busy.  Like more than a bit.  Our average wake ups have been 7:30am and the end of day doesn't usually happen until 10pm when the hotel turns the lights out on us.   So here's the highlight reel of the week 1 trip.

Tuesday the ladies of the trip were invited to a baby shower for Carmen.  Carmen is the house mom of Casa Golandrinas.  Julie has basically become the unofficial Casa Golandrinas mascota and would live there happily in exchange for hugs, kisses, and goofy songs everyday.  She'd probably even sleep on the floor there if they let her.  

Baby Shower for Carmen at Casa Matriz

Food and games I guess.  I don't know.  I wasn't invited.  Don't have a uterus.

Gifts of love for Mama Carmen

This cake may look delicious, but don't eat it. It's made of diapers.

Wednesday we invited the Unrau house to go on a trip with us.  Jupiter, our tour guide friend, always finds amazing places for us to take the kids to explore.  This time we hiked into a canyon after a refreshing lunch of sopes with guisado.  The boys were thrilled with the adventure of hiking over rocks and boulders.  Like our other experiences with hiking in Mexico, there were many places that were on that border of thrilling and terrifying.  Just perfect for a group of seven 11-14 year old boys and us.

Outdoor seating area directly above the canyon

Mark posing with Lunch

What is a hike in Mexico without safety ropes?

Ray and Mark pausing in the river

The steps to go down the canyon trail were more than a little steep

Here's the whole group hanging out at the overlook

Jupiter:  You like a little challenge, don't you?

Julie and some boys posing by a giant tree

All here for the adventure

And yeah, we did some stuff.  The big project after the fence was finished was to paint one of the homes a new color.  We didn't have the time to do the whole house, but we did paint one of the out buildings with the new color.  What we've gotten started, week 2 will sweep in and continue.

Francisco rolling the new color on the back of the building

Mark "cutting in" around the stairs

Julie unable to keep the paint off of her face for some reason

Finished with the first building, Week 2 paints the big one

It's good to see the kids cooperating, isn't it?

On Thursday we also had lunch at the Unrau house.  Toño and Nathy from Famoso made us lunch.  They are in town for a short while before they move to Puerto Vallarta.  I'm gonna miss Toño's cooking.  Maybe we'll have to take a trip to visit them after they move.  

Toño cutting up the stew meat to make some tacos

Naty giving the ladies tortilla making lessons

Coral pat, pat, patting

Julie was more kinda mashy squashy with her technique

Floury flattened success!

And we spent time Friday at Casa Cuna.  Cuna houses the littlest of the bunch.  These kids range from birth to five years old.  We spent the time with the littles doing a cute craft and playing with a parachute.  And we occupied them for about as long as it took to become exhausted.  For us that was around ten minutes.  These kids have got some energy!

The bumping and rollicking balls are always entertaining 

JUST STAND STILL WOULD YA'

Cute little birdie puppets

So the gang is now on the way to the airport, and I am waiting for week 2 to show up. Luckily we have something waiting at the hotel that they will all enjoy.

New mattresses!  The hotel upgraded while we were here.  

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!

Orphanage donations

Help support the kids of Hogar de Amor Orphanage in Colima, Mexico through your donations of new and/or used clothing and household items! You can bring your donations to CenterPoint Church any Sunday through February 27th or give/ship donations to any member of the team. 

If you'd prefer to give online, donations can be made at https://centerpointutah.churchcenter.com/giving (just select "Mexico Mission Trip"). All online donations are tax-deductible and will be contributed to the orphanage.

New Donations Needed

These are donations that the orphanage has requested and the team will take to Mexico in the spring. These are items that for various reasons are more difficult or expensive to get locally in Colima or they like the U.S. style of these items more.

• Dish towels
• Underwear
• Bras (all sizes, but especially 32 B and 38 C
• Boxer Shorts and briefs for young men (ages 13-18, size S-XL)
• Girls underwear (especially size 4)
• Boys underwear (especially size 4 and 6)
• Underwear for young women (age 12-adult)
• Shorts for boys ~13 years old
• Hair ties
• Hair brushes
• Cutting boards
• Belts for elementary-aged boys
• Socks for boys and girls
• Men's belts size 30-36
• School supplies
• Coloring books (English or Spanish)
• Packs of 24 Crayola Crayons
• Sets of colored pencils

Used Donations Needed

The team is also doing a fundraiser through a local thrift shop for used items. We are targeting 550 tall kitchen bags of donations and would love your help getting to our goal! As you go through your closets and drawers, bag up your clean, sellable-condition items and donate them for a good cause! Here are the items they will accept:

• Clothes
• Men’s, women’s, and children’s clothes
• Coats
• Shoes
• Scarves, wallets, ties, belts
• Backpacks and handbags
• Household textiles
• Bedding, comforts, blankets, sheets
• Towels
• Tablecloths
• Curtains
• Pillows