no.95 130803 Thank you for the two VBS

A house in Cerro del Cuatro, Mexico

Hola!

I'm at a Starbucks near the Korean church. Yay for free wifi! We have some free time until the next event on our schedule.

The VBS in Guadalajara and Santa Maria are done as of today. We finished all the activities we prepared for each location. We now have VBS left in one more place which is about 4 hours away from Guadalajara and some ministries at pastor Rolando's church and the Korean church where we are staying at. We are more than a half way in to our mission trip. It seems like I was here for more than a week. Yet, I'm sad at how fast the time is passing by. I wish I can stay longer.

The children in Guadalajara and Santa Maria are really different in character. There were about 40 kids in Guadalajara, and they were calm and gentle. In Santa Maria, there were about 70 and the children are just so rowdy. The space in SM is smaller and the neighbourhood is definitely poorer than that of G. I asked God to give me the eyes and the heart of Jesus and He did. Yesterday was the first day of VBS and especially at SM, I was pretty shocked to see how he children are. At SM, I think I felt the same way as when I volunteered for the Cornerstone ministry a couple of months ago. I saw myself acting differently in the two places. I'm not gonna lie, it was harder for me to approach the children at the SM church. At the G church, I was open to give hugs and hold hands with the children but I hesitated to do the same in SM. I should have treated them the same despite the environment they are in and how poor or rich they are. It was definitely disappointing to see myself acting this way. So I thought about this last night before bed and prayed that I would be able to open up to the children in SM. And God did change my heart today. It was hard at first, but I was able to open up my heart to the children in SM. I tried my best to communicate with the children as well. I wish I can speak some Spanish so I can actually talk to them! Although language isn't the most important thing, I really want to be prepared the next time I'm on a mission trip.

In the SM church, I was glad to be a part of the Saturday feeding program. These kids don't have much food to eat, so the church has started the program for the children. Our team prepared the breakfast today. We made nutella sandwiches. It's such a simple thing yet the kids loved it. It's sad to see that they can't even afford to buy milk so what the adults in the neighbourhood went out and brought back the cheapest drink, pop (at walmart, a bottle of pop costs about 60 cents each; the bottles here are a little bit smaller than what we have in Canada). Pop is cheaper than water so Mexicans drink a lot of coke, and that's why Mexico is becoming the country with the highest obesity. Anyways, I was happy that we were able to provide something small to fill their hungry stomach.

For one of the crafts we did, we prepared T-shirt decoration. It was my suggestion so I hoped that it was a good idea. That was my first thought, but then I kept having a second thought because all we bought were T-shirts and fabric markers. So it seemed like it wouldn't be that fun. After seeing how they live especially in SM, I was thankful for God to give me such an idea. When I saw the kids today, I realized a lot of kids wore the same outfit as yesterday. These kids not only need food, but also clothes.

I'm thankful for the completion of the VBS we prepared for Guadalajara and Santa Maria! I pray for the children that they will grow up knowing God and will know of God's infinite love for them. I pray that they will accept Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. I pray for the health of the children as well. I pray that the rest of the mission trip will be done for His glory and for God alone!