Safe arrival home

Most of you know that the team arrived safely home. Now that we are unpacked we will try to wrap up the trip in this last post.

We last left you without knowing how our last day was. Well, it was another great day mixed with sadness about leaving. After breakfast we went to Progreso. Construction on the church building continued with forms being made for the beams and tying of more re-rod cages (beams). This work continued all day in hopes that the cement truck would come, but last we heard it would be there Friday to pour the concrete. The next stage we think is to pour the stage area of the building.

A few more home visits were done in Progreso with the women. We also observed something new. The government has a food give-away for the needy once a month. We watched the women come to our church building site and line up to receive their "number" that they would take to the pick up location. A police truck was nearby at all times while this was going on.

After lunch we went back out to Progreso to do a short Bible school and then a block party/fiesta. With the ladies classes going on, we didn't have a lot of extra space for the block party, but we were able to squeeze in about 130 children (and some moms) for the games. We played until dark and then said our tearful good-byes to the people of Progreso.

Then we went to Emmanuel Baptist Church for a good bye dinner for our team. Many of the church members were there to say good bye, sing and share hugs and tears with us. This year in particular, we felt that we made many new friends from their congregation and enjoyed watching our "family" grow. They sang their traditional good-bye songs to us and it was difficult to tear ourselves away. But, we had to go to another good-bye party at the Panama restaurant with all the other teams from Minnesota and a few people from their churches. Three people from the mayor's office were also there to hear about our week together. Many testimonies of the week were shared and many thanks to each other and to God for making this week happen. Representatives from the mayor's office also said their thanks to us and said how much they appreciate our groups and what they are doing. They are more than willing to work with us to help make Culiacan a better city for all. They gave each of us a bag full of promotional material with the phrase: Culiacan: se transforma contingo (Culiacan: it transforms with you - or something like that) More good-bye songs were sung and the hugs began again. Each church seemed to have a fabulous week and were looking forward to coming down again.

Friday morning we met the bus around 7am. We rode the bus to Mazatlan - with a short stop at the beach and McDonalds for most of the team. (two of us were unknowingly left in the bus and got a short tour of Mazatlan instead). Then off to the airport and home.

We were tired but happy as we returned home. Ready to share with you more about our trip and how God did amazing things with us, through us, and without us! God is at work in Culican! Please pray for that city and our ministry in the future.

Don't forget to check out the photos:
http://www.quantumsvd.com/v/Mission+Work/LASBendicionesquesucedenennuestroestadomesconmes/album_006/album/
We have also seen an article in the paper and radio station (both on line). Things get lost in the translation, but they were very neat to see and exciting that it really happened.

Thank you for checking in
For the team,
Peggy and John