July 21, 2008
Yesterday God gave us rain. Today He gave us sun, and lots of it!! Sunscreen and water were in high demand.
Cold showers (this will be the norm all week), breakfast, and devotions started our day. We sorted tools, packed lunches, joined with our Merge staff, and headed to our individual churches. Morning was spent working on individual work sessions and VBS took place in the afternoon. Somewhere between 30 – 50 children attended at each site today, a great start for the week.
Here’s an idea of what is taking place at the work projects in your children’s churches:
Vista Hermosa – site work for a new worship center including back-filling wall trenches, mixing concrete, hauling cinderblock, and block work.
Nasario – Site work, paint ceilings and walls, wall and ceiling repair, and floor tile.
Espinosa Morales – cutting and tying of rebar, bearing load beam construction, and site work.
Dinner was outstanding (Muy Buena) again, homemade tacos were the menu tonight.
All of the kids had some “unwind” time after dinner to sit and talk, visit the local Mercado (store), or play some “futball” (soccer) with the Merge staff.
Our evening was spent worshipping God outside on the Seminary terrace. Brian led us in a time of worship through song, prayer and God’s word. Some of the songs were sung in Spanish to encourage greater participation at individual church sites during VBS. Students and staff were able to debrief their day by sharing stories of others in their group. This could have been a time of much laughter with funny stories being traded back and forth, but instead our group focused on praising the efforts of their fellow teammates. It was beautiful to hear them talk about the selflessness they had witnessed within their groups. Each studentsseemed to think that their particular group was personally chosen by Jesus because of how well they worked together. Yea God!
Brian shared from the last chapter of Acts where Paul is given the chance to speak to his Jewish accusers who have had him thrown into prison. Paul passionately presents the Gospel from morning to evening, but many remain unconvinced because of the hardness of their hearts, their inability to truly see, hear or understand. They had shown up, but they had come without an open heart or mind. For those who did come, God was ready for them to turn to Him so that they could be healed. The group was asked to examine their own hearts and consider which category they fell into; those who were here in Mexico, but with hardened hearts, or were they open to what God has for them this week and for the rest of their lives? We sang Come Thou Fount and asked God to help us to allow this week to be an “Ebeneezer” or marker in our lives. Many students were convicted and are clearly hungering to go deeper with God. After worship the students retired to their beds and crashed hard to sleep the kind of sleep that only comes when you have given everything that you had during the day. . .
Hope you enjoy the pictures, more to come.
Yesterday God gave us rain. Today He gave us sun, and lots of it!! Sunscreen and water were in high demand.
Cold showers (this will be the norm all week), breakfast, and devotions started our day. We sorted tools, packed lunches, joined with our Merge staff, and headed to our individual churches. Morning was spent working on individual work sessions and VBS took place in the afternoon. Somewhere between 30 – 50 children attended at each site today, a great start for the week.
Here’s an idea of what is taking place at the work projects in your children’s churches:
Vista Hermosa – site work for a new worship center including back-filling wall trenches, mixing concrete, hauling cinderblock, and block work.
Nasario – Site work, paint ceilings and walls, wall and ceiling repair, and floor tile.
Espinosa Morales – cutting and tying of rebar, bearing load beam construction, and site work.
Dinner was outstanding (Muy Buena) again, homemade tacos were the menu tonight.
All of the kids had some “unwind” time after dinner to sit and talk, visit the local Mercado (store), or play some “futball” (soccer) with the Merge staff.
Our evening was spent worshipping God outside on the Seminary terrace. Brian led us in a time of worship through song, prayer and God’s word. Some of the songs were sung in Spanish to encourage greater participation at individual church sites during VBS. Students and staff were able to debrief their day by sharing stories of others in their group. This could have been a time of much laughter with funny stories being traded back and forth, but instead our group focused on praising the efforts of their fellow teammates. It was beautiful to hear them talk about the selflessness they had witnessed within their groups. Each studentsseemed to think that their particular group was personally chosen by Jesus because of how well they worked together. Yea God!
Brian shared from the last chapter of Acts where Paul is given the chance to speak to his Jewish accusers who have had him thrown into prison. Paul passionately presents the Gospel from morning to evening, but many remain unconvinced because of the hardness of their hearts, their inability to truly see, hear or understand. They had shown up, but they had come without an open heart or mind. For those who did come, God was ready for them to turn to Him so that they could be healed. The group was asked to examine their own hearts and consider which category they fell into; those who were here in Mexico, but with hardened hearts, or were they open to what God has for them this week and for the rest of their lives? We sang Come Thou Fount and asked God to help us to allow this week to be an “Ebeneezer” or marker in our lives. Many students were convicted and are clearly hungering to go deeper with God. After worship the students retired to their beds and crashed hard to sleep the kind of sleep that only comes when you have given everything that you had during the day. . .
Hope you enjoy the pictures, more to come.
3 comments:
Praise you Jesus
What amazeing work you all are doing! Thank you so much for keeping us here at home up dated with pictures and your daily happenings. Reading your journal makes me feel as if I am there with you. We think of you all often through out the day and always pray for your saftey. Just wanted you to know that the phone tree worked. Someone called here, the Bourne house hold, to let me know that the hurricane will be missing you and that you will be getting more rain by the end of the week. Be sure to watch for those rainbows.
Hugs to all and a BIG one to Emily.
Sincerely,
Clare Bourne
Thanks SO MUCH for the pictures! It's great to see what you are doing there. It makes me feel much closer. Blessings to you all!
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