During this week, thanks to you and the support of North Boulevard Church of Christ, we will build a house in a dusty neighborhood of nearby Maneadero. We will create daily themed snacks and VBS-style crafts for the kids. We will deliver food baskets, pray and sing in the modest homes of local Christians. We will distribute clothing and toys. We will lead Bible classes, activities, games, coffees and crafts. We will renovate the kitchen in the teen girls’ dorm. We will host a barn party, decorate the cafeteria where we host the children, teens and staff to eat. We will play soccer and nine-square and jump rope and throw frisbees and laugh and cry and break down the language and cultural barriers that cannot separate us when we truly care to get to know each other. We will learn, practice and perform a four-day skit series that will serve as a metaphor about the nature of good and evil, the character of God and Satan, the desire to be cool and accepted and a part of the in crowd and the challenge to be His in a world that doesn’t know Him. There will be outlandish costumes, wacky characters, funny dialog and a load of physical humor but at the heart of it all this is a cleverly disguised prayer and plea for the kids of The City and our own teens and adults to know Him, serve Him, love Him and bring others to Him together. And we will be dirty and sweaty and tired and disparate for sleep (I can’t say hungry because we’ll be fed really, really well.) but it will all be so very beautiful, I can’t begin to describe it and you can’t begin to imagine. But hopefully, your teen, your friend, your family-member, spouse or mother or father will come home with a sliver of what happened here captured in their heart and attitude. We’ll see.
But today was about preparation. From around 3:30 to 9:30 Pacific Time after 16 hours of travel, we prepared. Learning the rules (NO TOILET PAPER IN THE COMMODES! And DON’T DRINK THE WATER!), distributing and unpacking the supplies, assigning the work, assembling and putting together the decorations and decorating the American kitchen and cafeteria as a magical big top, reviewing the food supplies and preparing the first dishes, planning the renovations here and the house in town, fixing and preparing costumes and trying them on, and rehearsing the first musical number (yes…this year we’ve elevated the skit to a musical of sorts…because how can you do The Greatest Show in Mexico in a Greatest-Showman-sort-of-way, without music?).
But in the midst of it all, we were reminded what this is all about and why we’re here. We had a short time with the teens in the courtyard of The City. We played and talked and ate local paletas together. Hugged and caught up with old friends. Met new ones. And we circled up for a prayer of thanks and strength for what’s to come.
Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for making this possible. Skid said it best, while we’re here to serve the Mexican children, teens and staff, we will receive even greater service. What we give here will be returned sevenfold. “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38. This is more than words in a book. It’s real here. What you’ve given in support of The City of Children here God will multiply and gives us back children and teens of our own that have been changed for the better by this place and the 51 weeks of service to come from this moment. Your support of our others is an investment in ourselves.
God is so good. The Big Top Is Up. Let the Show Begin…
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| David asks for a show of hands and we learn that at least 37 members of our team were asked what our shirts were about or what we we were doing as we traveled and they had the opportunity to witness. It’s not just a t-shirt. It’s an opportunity. |
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| Raising the Big Top! |
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| The reason we’ll come home from a mission trip weighing more than before! Our beloved kitchen crew. |
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| Our Joe Hat of Service Award Winner for Day 1 — Austin Smith |
