Pastor Idelfonso and Lizbia

Pastor Idelfonso and his wife Lizbia

VBS kids

The kids were divided into five groups, one for each color of the wordless book that tells the gospel story. This is my (Cindy) group, white, and they demonstrated how our sins are washed clean when we accept Jesus' sacrifice on the cross on our behalf. Aren't they cute? They were so excited.

Cipriano smoothing out the last section of concrete on the sanctuary floor in Progreso.

Setting up...

Pierre the paintor (Lucio) and Lizbia

Ivelisse leads a VBS session

Don leading the white group

Emily lowered through 'roof' for skit - with Shawn and Steve

All the kids on stage at the end, singing Colareame de Cristiano. Nine colored stage lights made by our team (thanks to Steve and Shawn) light them up. There were over 100 kids presenting and lots of parents and other relatives watching. It was packed and loud!

A great day!

Starting this morning, i got to the shower and turned the knob all the way open, and absolutely nothing came out (this is jake by the way). I thought i was gonna have to take a ice cold shower until, after about 5 minutes, the water finally started to flow. Breakfast was great as usual, although they did change something abiut the sweets they set out on the table. Anyway, we got to Progresso and started to lay down concrete with a large elephant trunk like tube that was connected to the mixer. Once we got most of the concrete laid out, Nicole, Randi, Emily, Ive and I left for the school to invite more children to come to the VBS at Progreso. (Nicole).. When we got there, we met the director. He was very nice. He invited the group of us into his office. We continued to talk about the purpose of our trips to Culiacán. After that explanation, he said to us "Go ahead and do anything if it's for God!" He let us go to every single classroom. He informed us that if the kids got their homework done right away at school, then the director would allow them to leave school early for the VBS. When it came time for the VBS, we sang songs, puppets and a pretty sweet bible story re-enactment. It was the story of the paralytic man getting lowered through the roof. Me(Nicole), Jake and Emily all climbed onto the roof of the church. Ive was the narrorator. As she explained the part where they break the whole in the roof, Jake and I jumped as high and as hard as we could to make it look like we were breaking the roof. Then, we picked up Emily, who was wrapped in a blanket and lowered her down to Shawn and Steve. Pete played the role of Jesus. Overall, the skit went fantastic!!! We finished the VBS and the men finished the second half of themovie courageous. I was told that the mens meeting went well. After that, we all had dinner at the Bellos house. It was delicious! Now, it is time for bed!! Prayer Requests: 1. A friend of Emily had his grandma die this afternoon. Pray for the comfort of the family. 2. Vanita is feeling much better, but Josiah is now getting sick. Pray for good health throughout the whole team. 3. Driving around tonight, we saw a guy who was hit by a car. The man was on a bicycle. Pray that God lays his hand over him and that he is ok. Goodnight!! Nicole and Jake! (:

God is a funny God!

Heyy guys!! Sorry it's been so long for the update. We have hadsome technical difficulties with the wifi in the hotel! Anyways, it should be working now... Late saturday night, we arrived at the hotel. The ride from Mazatlan was a blast with Ildefonso driving and the youth (Nicole, Jake, Randi and Emily) in the car with him. We had a short roof-top meeting and headed to bed. On sunday, we woke up and got ready for church! It was great getting to visit with everyone after a long time. We ate lunch at the church with some more visitations. After lunch, we went out to Progreso for their service. There were about 10 adults and a bunch of little kids from the neighborhood who were attending the service. After the service our group went to PAPAS LOCAS!!! Yes, be jealous!! (: As usual, it was delicious. That leads up to today.. We arrived in Progreso at 9 am this morning. When we got there, we immidiately started spreading out a huge pile of dirt. We spread the dirt so it could be compacted down. Me (Nicole), Jake, Emily and Enrique (one of the dads) shoveled probably 103 wheel barrow loads.. Give or take 7.. Lovely words of Jake! After it was all spread out, we used a rented compactor to press the dirt. By lunch time, we were filthy. The rest of the women led the womens bible study group. They went around the neighborhood inviting the women to come. In their group today, they taught the women the bible school songs, so they could lead the actions later in the afternoon. After lunch, Me (Nicole), Jake, Randi, Emily and Shawn ran to Home Depot to get a few things for a project we were working on. With all of us combined, we knew a little spanish. We were looking for big colored flood light bulbs. None of the employees knew english. All of a sudden a guy named Ruben came up to us and said "Heyy.. How can I help you guys?" We were shocked! Ruben came out of no where. After talking to him for a little while, we found out that he lived in many different areas of the U.S. for 25 years. He was a missionary based out of somewhere in Miami. He told us if we needed anything, we could just ask someone for Ruben. He was a great help. Then after talking to him, we realized that we need a small rubber maid tote the size of a shoe box. We walked all over the store looking for one. It was not found. We decided to go to a different store to get the rest of the materials. As we walked up to the check-out, Shawn looked up and said "Oh my gosh you guys!! Look at this!" He held up the exact rubber maid tote that we had just been looking for. We decided that God was playing jokes on us now!! The customer in front of us in lineturned around and asked in perfect english, "where are you from?".. We had barely been talking to her for 30 seconds, and she decided that she wanted to give us her name and email. She told us that if we ever needed anything while we were here, we could send her a message. Walking out of the store, we were amazed at how God worked with us through the complete strangers in Home Depot of all places. We returned to Progreso and went to go to the school to invite the kids to the VBS this week. They were all very welcoming to us in their classrooms. The VBS started at 4 o'clock. It included lots of songs, puppets, games and of course Pierre the painter(Lucio). Things have gone very well so far this week! We are very excited to see what other tricks God has up his sleeve. Prayer Request: Vanita, Glynae, Ulisses and Ildefonso are all sick right now! Please pray for them to recover quickly with no complications. Buenas Noches! Nicole and Jake