First Mission Trip of 2016

Mexico Orphanage Trip

Day 2:

    Our day started about 6:30am. We ate breakfast at 7am. Then we had our second tour of the orphanage. This time we got to see the inside of each dorm, wow!! The are really nice. The first dorm was the young boys dorm. It is a large room with two levels. The first level (where we walked in) had a large leather couch and tv. The second level (which was slightly higher then the front of the room had the beds and bathroom. They had a foosball table in the corner of the room. There were stairs on either side of the couch that lead up to the upper level. There was even a slide between the second and first levels for the kids to use!
    The second dorm we saw was the little girls dorm. It was nice on the outside, single level, nothing to extraordinary. That is until we went inside. The inside looked like a princess castle. As we walked in there were disney princess hand painted on the walls. Instead of one big room like the boys had there were 3 or 4 separate rooms. Each room had several bunk beds. Also each room was designed with a different princes.
    The third and final dorm we saw was the nursery and toddler room. Again this was another really nicely decorated room. The babies had their own room from the toddlers that was separated with a sound proof wall. They did this so that when the toddlers napped the babies wouldn't wake them up if the started to cry. The walls were painted with friendly animals and trees. Near the doors along the door frame there were tiles that had been hand painted by the children.
    At some point in the morning (can't remember if it was before the tour or after) we went to the local church. It was about 10 minutes away. As we pulled up we saw the "Fear of the Walking Dead" set. Since it was a Sunday we didn't see and zombies walking around. The church service was a bit different then services we have here. When we walked in the band was playing some music as people were finding their seats. After about 2 songs or so the pastor came up to deliver the sermon. He preached in Spanish while DJ ( the staff administrator of DOFO) translated it into english. As I looked around I noticed a few people falling asleep... I'm not going to mention any names. Even though I didn't fall asleep I did do a lot of day dreaming. The sermon was about 45 minutes long. After that they did announcements. Finally the band came on to lead us in worship. I think the band did a pretty good job. The pastor played the lead guitar really well! During worship some of the little children came up to the front of the stage and were waving different colored flags to the beat of each song. Then I noticed some of the girls from the church group that came with us were waving them too. It was a really cool thing to see. I have never seen that before.
    Then after lunch we finally were able to interact with with the children. We brought face painting balloons and finger nail stuff for the kids. I have never made a balloon animal before so this was a first for me. I tried to make a dog but kept breaking the balloons so I gave up for a bit and just watched everyone else. One of the children came up to me and asked me to make a dog for him. And so I couldn't just say no. So back to the balloons I went. It took me a few more tries but finally I got the hang of it. I ended up making quite a few dogs for the kids. As I did this more and more kids would come up to me and ask me to make all sorts of things. Eek!  So I just did my best to make it look like they wanted. Later on I met a little girl who was holding on to some bean bags. I tried to talk to her in my best broken spanish. Hola! As I pick up the bean bags. "Mira" Then I started to juggle them "Si, Te gusto?" She nodded her head and said "si!" with the biggest smile. Then I was able to show her how to juggle. She would throw one up then two and then then would all fall right to the ground. Then I showed her how to use just 2 bags. She struggled a little but to badly. Then all of a sudden she got really really excited and grabbed my hand and took me to one of the staff. And wanted me to show off my juggling skills to everyone. So I juggled and she laughed and smiled. I gave her the bean bags and she juggled a bit for everyone. This time she did really well.
    After play time a few of us went to the rodeo that happened to be in town. It just so happen to be the biggest rodeo event of the year. They have about 4 rodeos there and this one was the biggest of the year.  Originally we were going to take some of the children with us but plans ended up changing. So it was just a few of us. The rodeo was really cool!! We didn't have a whole lot of time to be there but we did see some horse riding. I don't know what to call it. But the riders had to take there horses around 3 barrels and then race out of the ring as fast as they can. I had the best mexican food!!! Thank you Pastor Carlos and Lisa for the food!! (As usual, i forgot my cash at home) We ate beef tacos and Churros. While we watched the rodeo I met a few of the locals. One of whom I still remember, Oscar. He was a very friendly man. Big smile and just seemed very happy. He said that anytime I come down I have a place to stay at his house.
     After the rodeo we went back and ate dinner. Laura stopped by and I got to hear more about her and the orphanage. She talked about coming to Christ at the age of 15 and that her parents were not believers. Very cool girl!

First Mission Trip of 2016

Mexico Orphanage Trip 

Day 1:

I can't believe I'm on a mission trip back to Mexico! Last time I did this was in 1991 with Sammash Lutheran Church.
Today started at about 6:00am. I got ready to go and head out the door at 7:00am. I met up with the Reaching the Hungry group at Pastor Carlos and Lisa's house. There I met Raul as I was walking up the drive way. Next I met Carrie, and Chloe (Carrie's daughter) inside. We got word that the church we were meeting up with was going to be about 5 hours late so we decided to pick up our van and get some breakfast while we waited. Once the other church was close to Escondido we Headed down to the boarder to pick up Mexican insurance to the churches van. We finally arrived at Door of Faith Orphanage about 3pm. Our original time was supposed to be 10am.
The weather was overcast and a bit drizzly but everyones spirits were high. As we pulled up we saw several of the volunteers greeting us. One of them happened to be Laura our host while we stayed. We unpacked and were treated to a short tour of the orphanage from Laura. Since we arrived so late we were not able to do all the things we were supposed to do (full tour and meet the children).
The orphanage was amazing! It did not look like what I was expecting at all! It almost seemed like Disney Land. Long buildings with different shaped styles of fronts distinguishing each section from another. There was a wide main street with building on both sides and colorful signs pointing you to places like the barber, dinner hall and more.
After the tour we went back to our campsite, ate dinner and prayed. Then headed back down to the cafeteria to host a movie night for the children. We had to move chairs and tables. Put together bags of popcorn and red licorice to be passed out before the movie. While setting up I met my first few kids. The first one was Jesus. I was able to talk to him since he knew english. The second child, Raul, only knew a few words in english. Raul taught me how to say popcorn in Spanish which unfortunately I quickly forgot.  The third child I met was David. I wasn't able to speak much with him so our conversations was more like... David handing me an empty bag of popcorn (more, please?) So I respond "of course! then pointing to where all the full bags of popcorn were.
The movie we saw was really good. It is called Hero 6. The church that meet up with us brought that down to use to show case how Jesus loves us and is with us where ever we are. I think they did pretty good. At first I had a hard time of seeing how they could compare. But, by the end of the movie I understood.
Once the movie was over we cleaned up, ate dinner and went to bed.