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

Today we saw God work in more than one way! Our morning started out the same as every other. We worked on the benches while the women did their ministry. Then, before we left to go to lunch, Lucia, Emily, Shawn, Alex (The one from Culiacan) and my self all went down to the school to invite the teenagers. We originally thought we would have about 10 kids show up, but we had about 50 join us. 15 of those kids were from the school. Pray that tonight starts a movement of the youth in the church. At the same time as we were having our youth event, the men had theirs. From what I could tell, it was a great turn out. There were about fifteen or twenty men from Progreso that showed up. Amongst all of this happening, we held a HUGE meal for the town of Progreso. We cooked hamburgers and hotdogs. We planned on serving approximately 150 people, so we got a ton of extra food. If any of you know my dad, you know how he can't cook for small groups of people. When we were done with the night, we realized that we had served well over 200 people. It was probably closer to 250 or 300 people. God was deffinately great today! Once again, we are all very tired, so I'm going to end with the prayer requests now!

Prayer Requests:
1. Jim is not feeling the greatest right now. Pray that he is strong and healthy tomorrow morning!
2. Don and Carols house was broken into today, and they have had a lot of police going in and out of their house to find some finger prints. Pray that everything will be okay and that things will be taken care of at home.

Praises:
1. Arnoldos mom was going in for a biopsy today because she had a lump on her breast. When we arrived at the church we all prayed for her because she was in surgery at that moment. Not even a half an hour later, we got great news that there was nothing there. Praise God!
2. Also, praise God for a great turn out for dinner tonight, and that there was enough food for so many people.

I am positive that there are many more prayer requests and praises for God, but if I typed them all out, I would be here for days! I guess you will have to wait until we get back to hear the marvelous works of God!!

Nicole Renee and Emily June

Today was another fantastic day here in Culiacan! We are all very tired so I'm going to try to keep this fairly short tonight! Our morning was very similar to every other day so far. We continued to work on benches. This afternoon we did the third day of VBS! We did the story of Jonah! Steve Jervis played the role of Jonah in the skit! I must say that he did a fantastic job! We created the boat out of bricks and an old play house that they had at the church. We also had a big blue tarp that was the waves. When Jonah was thrown out of the boat, the big fish (Shawn) swallowed steve up! When the whale spit him up after three days, Jonah was soaked! The skit seemed to be a great thing to keep the kids focused! We then went to the church for another fantastic meal of carne asada!! mmmmmmmmmmmmm :)

The women from our group went to the little girls house who caused the fight yesterday, just to see what her home life was like. While they were there, Egla came across a man who was possessed by a demon, watched pornography, and was an alcoholic! She started to pray for him, and through that process, both the man and his nephew came to know the Lord! Praise God!!

Prayer Requests:
-There are three different ministries going on tomorrow! The boys are meeting with the men from Progreso to play cards and just fellowship. Me, Emily and Lucia are planning to get together with the teenagers from Progreso to start a relationship with them. Please pray that we get a good turn out in both of those. We are also holding a dinner tomorrow for the whole town of Progreso. We are eating hotdogs and hamburgers. We are expecting approximately 200 people to attend the meal.
-Pete was no longer able to join us on the trip! He had to bring Debbie to the ER in the middle of the night yesterday. Pray that she will be healed and healthy as soon as possible.
-Lastly, please pray for health. More people have been getting sick. Pray for health for all of us, so that we can continue to minister to others.

Thanks for all the prayers!!
Buenas Noches!

Nicole Renee and Emily June

Let's just say that today was a long day for us, Emily and Nicole. We built every single part of the benches this morning. Don't feel bad, we let the boys use the mini hammers to pound the nails into the benches. We only let them help after continuous begging. While we and the pestering boys built the benches, the rest of the women went out into the neighborhood of Progreso to minister. We haven't heard much about it, but it sounds like it all went well. After a short pit-stop at the hotel, we headed back to Progreso. While the boys attempted to build a bench all by themselves, the women held the second day of VBS.

We went to the Bello house for dinner and they served a two course meal, which was WAY too much for us, as usual, but it was delicious. Then to top that, they served four different desserts. And yes, we all ate some of all of it! Then we went back to the hotel for a short roof-top meeting and bed time! And now I (Nicole) am here typing this.

There seem to be more and more prayer requests adding up! So what better way to share those with more people than on here? :)
Prayer Requests:
- The little boy who was diagnosed with Terminal Brain Cancer. Pray that he and his family have comfort even though it is complete chaos in their lives right now.
-Many of the children in Progreso have been fighting a lot lately. Tonight, I, Nicole again, had to break up a fight of about six kids tonight during the bible story. They were fighting over such a simple thing as a chair. Pray that they will get along and pay attention to the story tomorrow and not what chair they're sitting in!
-Pray for Lucia. As I told you before, we all ate too much food tonight. It got to Lucia. Pray that she will be healthy by morning.
-Finally, please pray for the Beruman family. They just added the next member to their family today! Josiah Antonio Beruman. Pray for great health for both mom and baby.

I almost forgot to add something! Pete should be joining us tomorrow evening. Debbie is now home and stable. Debbie encouraged him to join the group! YAYY!!

Hasta Manana! (Insert tilde above the 'N')

Nicole Renee and Emily June

So today was another good day here in Culiacan!

This morning, the men (or the boys as we called them)went to Progresso to start the process of building about ten benches for the sanctuary. While the men were doing that, the women stayed back to sort through all the suitcases full of clothes and VBS supplies. We then met back at Emmanuel to eat lunch. Then we started the journey to Progresso to hold the first VBS of the week. There were 50+ kids there today.

After holding the VBS, we were all VERY hungry! So we went back to the church and had an extremely filling meal of Carne Asada!! Be jealous!! ;)After eating, we had the opportunity to go to a families house who has a ten year old son. The young boy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer this past summer. The tumor has been growing, causing him to be bed bound. He can no longer talk or move. Our group had the chance to go in and pray over him and his parents. His dad is not a christian, but desperate for any hope left, asked us to come pray for them. The boy however, has a very strong faith. Please pray for him and his family.

We also ask that you pray for a woman in Progresso who had eye surgery a few days ago. We don't know what caused her blindness, but we hope that this surgery helps give her sight again. Also, please continue to pray for Pete and Debbie. Pray for Pete as he has to make the difficult decision to come here or stay home with Debbie.

It's getting late, so we're going to hit the hay!

Buenas Noches!!

Nicole Renee and Emily June

La Primera Dia

I know you were all so worried that we wouldn't make it through the church service, but we did. It was amazing what God did in the eight testimonies of our team members. Pam, Steve, Shawn, Cindy, Paul, Ive and Don spoke about why they come here to Culiacan. Emmanuel is in between pastors at the moment so our team provided the sermon. Almost all of our team members got very emotional when talking about how God works in such great ways and the relationships we have with these people. Yes, even the big, tough (adorable) men cried. At that time, I, Emily, turned to Nicole and Lucia and said "I love our team." Those testimonies really made me realize what the ministry has grown to and the impact it makes on any person involved.

A woman named Carol at Emmanuel had said to Carol Buckhout that the congregation is really discouraged at this time with no pastor and they need confirmation that they can make a difference. When Carol Buckhout asked  if our service had helped with that at all, Carol said that without a doubt it inspired the congregation.

After lunch at the church, we had a meeting with the women of Emmanuel about the crafts for VBS this week. The men played Cribbage. We then stopped at Walmart and went to the Templo Bautista Sion to celebrate the aniversary of the church. Many of our team members expressed how awesome it was to see people from multiple different churches all worshiping together and in one church. There were poeple from North Haven, Sion, Emmanuel, the church from Renato Vega, and few other ones that we didn't know.

We arrived at Papas Locas as the team from Worthington was finishing their meal. The new members on our team enjoyed the meal and almost everyone, as always, overate. We tried a new drink called Sorbada made with wheat and vanilla. It tastes like chocolate and caramel. It is delicious!

While at Papas Locas, Ulises told us that he, Lalo, Julio, Abram and some other men from  Emmanuel were going to play a game of futbol at a field a block down on the church rec team. We stopped by and watched the game for about 45 minutes. When we left, the score was 3-2, us.

When we got back to the hotel, we discussed the day during our daily rooftop meeting along with cathing up with some of the Worthington team. We had some major prayer requests and very good reportings of the days.

Prayer requests:

A women at Emmanuel told Cindy that her 10 year-old nephew was diagnosed with brain cancer last summer. He is not confined to his bed, not being able to speak. The woman said he has much faith and believes he will be healed. This father, however is not a christian and is compeletely devistated. She asked that we come to see her son and give the family encouragement and pray for a miracle.

After our morning service at Emmanuel, a women came in off of the streets asking for help and money for her "medicine" we were informed that she is addicted to drugs. Egla, from Puenta de Vida, he this women on her mind all day and requests that we pray for her, as she is imprisoned with this addiction.

Nicole Renee and Emily June

Warning: Satire Ahead

So the old folks want this to be a serious matter, but we're teenagers, so expect some slight exaggeration.
After nearly dying seven times and losing all of our bags, we finally fought off the customs officials and boarded our dilapidated rental bus. Hours later, when we arrived at the hotel, our reservations were nowhere to be found. As the team waited for Don and Steve to clear up the sleeping arrangements, Buddy got involved in an old-fashioned gang shootout. Let's just say Shawn doesn't have a roommate tonight. We were only able to snag two tiny rooms. One for the women and one for the men. So the ol' wise ones want us to go to sleep, so we will update you tomorrow, if we make it through the church service. ;)


Ok. Ok. So we were joking, but you probably believed every word of that, right? We arrived perfectly safe and transportation and customs went fine. Cipriano, Arnoldo, Dani, Ulises, and Gadiel met us at the airport in Mazatlan and rode with us in our very nice bus here to Culiacan. We stopped at a grocery store on the way and picked up stuff to make bologna and cheese sandwiches. Once we got to the hotel, we got settled in our rooms, had a short meeting on the rooftop and are now heading to bed to savor the few hours of sleep before church in the morning.


Please pray for a good nights rest and that God will work in marvelous ways in the week to come. Also, pray for Pete's wife, Debbie, who is still in the hospital for pneumonia. Pete is expecting to join us on Tuesday after getting Debbie settled back at their home.


Emily June and Nicole Renee

Adios!

Well, we leave for Culiacan tomorrow afternoon, Saturday Feb 4, 2012. The plane doesn't leave MSP until 4:10, which is nice, but it means we won't get to our hotel until about 11:00 pm.  The plan for Sunday is for Don Buckhout to give a short sermon and than several of the team will say something short about what this ministry means to us and why we go.  Then we'll have a meeting with members of Emmanuel church to plan the week in more detail. The team members from North Haven Church are Emily Johnson, Nicole Treague, Lucia Alle, Steve Jervis, Paul Christianson, Shawn Treague, Buddy Anderson, Cindy Johnson, Carol buckhout, Jim Tjernlund, Pete Marcaccini, Don Buckhout, and Pam Jervis.  Ive Guzman and Egla Martinez are going from Puente de Vida church and there are small teams from Worthington and Hastings also going to work at their sister churches in Culiacan.  We'd sure appreciate prayers for our trip and especially for Pete's wife Debbie who is hospitalized with pneumonia in TX the last I heard so I don't know the status of Pete going. Nor do I have the other churches' team members' names at my fingertips.  Sorry about that.
Thank you all for your support for this mission!!!
Cindy, for the team

6 VBS, 72 Hrs, 140 Kids

Wow, 6 Vacation Bible Schools in 72 hrs!!  Only 4 more & block party to go :)  I am beginning to think a "working" trip might be easier.

 

But the 140 kids we shared the miracles of Jesus with yesterday make it all worthwhile.

 

We saw our own fishes & loaves experience as we handed out flip flops to kids at Progreso...amazing, down to the very last pair.  No child went without!

 

And, a father in Progreso, Javier, was temporarily blinded while welding.  The Dr told him he would not see for 4 to 10 days.  Pete & Cipriano prayed & he was able to return to work one day later!

 

Pray for continued strength, focus & energy as we serve along side our friends of Emmanuel.

 

Blessings & thanks!
Kimberly  (aka Princessa)

 

VBS: Photos, Wind, Rain, and Blessings

Here are just a few photos from our first two days of VBS at Emmanuel and Progresso.  God has been good and we feel blessed to be sharing this time with our brothers and sisters in Mexico.   The weather is hot (mucho calor) and it has been raining, we just experienced a !wind, dust and rain storm during VBS in Progresso, but were able to finish singing and presenting the bible story before having to take shelter.  The children are excited to see us and we have definitely been enjoying interacting with all of them!   Keep the prayers coming, as we are seeing the Lord conquer the obstacles that are put in our path each day.   

Love from all of us!

Heartwarming Hospitality and VBS

We are back at the hotel for almost two hours of rest, prep and/or shopping, depending on personality and age.

As usual the people here are so welcoming and their hospitality is heartwarming.  Ismael Bello from Emmanuel Church said that many teams come to Culiacan to help for a week but the groups from North Haven are like family coming and we mesh together so well.  How wonderful to hear that!

Our first morning of VBS at Emmanuel went very well for a first go at it.  21 kids came, most in the 8-11 age group.  Ivelisa, from Puente de Vida church, has put together an amazing program for the week.  The lessons this week are about Jesus and today's was about his birth. There were new songs, puppets, and a drama with kids acting as shepherds, the wise men, angels and innkeepers.  Our team played Joseph, Mary, a shepherd and an angel. Ask Pete to demonstrate his flying style. Kimberly made an enthusiastic pitch to the kids in the closing activity, promising special prizes to those who bring friends tomorrow.  We were told to expect about 40 kids but some kids don't get out of school until Thurs.

Around 4 we leave for Progreso for this evening's VBS there.  We were there last night for their weekly church service and saw that the building has new trusses up for the roof and they have 30 pieces of metal lamina ready to put on it.

Thank you for all your prayer support!!!  There have been a few attempts by the enemy to cause problems (nothing serious: scrapes, wet VBS materials and headaches) so please pray for God to prevent Satan from hindering the work for His kingdom.

Muchas gracias y Dios los bendiga!
Thank you and God bless you!

Cindy, for the team.

Sunday, July 3

Hi everyone,

We are here safe and sound. Praise God!

 

Ulises, Arnoldo and Octavio picked us up. We made it to the hotel around 9 last night because we stopped at the church in Renato Vega first.  They were celebrating their 8th anniversary!  I can't believe they've been an independent church that long.  They had a collage of pictures showing their history and many of them were of our teams. They were fun to see.

 

Also, last night it was raining a little with lots of lightening so we didn't go up on the roof for our usual meeting.  Octavio and Arnoldo said it was the first rain all year!

 

We are off to church now so I'll write more later.

Cindy

 

Wrapping it up

Well, you probably know that our team is home and back to work or school for most of us.  We want to let you know how the rest of the week went and some impressions along the way.  Thank you again for following our blog and supporting us throughout the week.


We spent our last day in Progreso (Friday) with some more home visits for the women, wrapping up construction projects and finished sorting clothes.  A small group from our team walked down to the school and found the principal and teachers outside with the school children.  We were warmly welcomed and we presented a copy of "Tu Eres Especial" (You Are Special) to the teachers.  The principal spoke English so that was great for translation.  They thanked us many times for our part in the beginning with the school and said we could come back anytime!

Our afternoon block party had around 100 kids where we had games, face painting, music, crafts and prizes given away.  Then there is the goodbye to the children of Progreso which is the hardest part.  The fiesta is always a highlight and a good ending point to celebrate with the kids and display God's love for them.
The team ended their night with a Valentines/sweetheart dinner with friends at Emmanuel Baptist Church.

Saturday was a free day for fishing, shopping, river walk and time with friends, concluding with a traditional good-bye dinner with sharing from both teams.  Sunday afternoon was spent in Mazatlan with lunch at Ponchos and some time on the beach for walking, shopping or para-sailing.

It is difficult to sum up a week long trip that is part of a ten year plus adventure with our friends in Culiacan.  Many exciting things happened this past week, so we want to try to paint a picture of some of those here:
1.  It is exciting to see that God is at work in Culiacan, Mexico!  and in our own lives as we were spiritually challenged and encouraged.
2.   It is always a humbling experience working with our friends in Mexico.  We are enriched by our cross culture experiences, with four cultures or more coming together.  These mingling cultures are: suburban St. Paul, Culiacan, those living in poverty  and an area of 2% population consider themselves Christians. We bless each other and work together for a common goal.  We have much to learn from each other as it is not a one-way exchange.
3.  We saw the commitment of our sister church, Emmanuel Baptist Church, to continuing work in Progreso. Cipriano, Arnoldo and Gaby are very involved in the work there along with Esperanza and others.
4.As a result of some meetings last week, it seems there are exciting new possibiiltes of connections with officials (city, state and country) and the school in Progreso.
5.   Our opportunity as well as accomplishments of displaying Christ's care and love for us all was like a wonderful display of color in the drab and dirty area of Progreso.
6.  It is always a challenge when we return from these trips that we carry the experience and our reactions into our daily lives.  It is our desire and prayer that the work continues and lives are affected long term, not just for a flash.
Thank you again for your love and support for our team.  May the growth and work carry on...

Friday and Saturday and Sunday

Hola.  Just a quick note to let you know that we will finish the blog when we get home and settled. 
Friday was basically preparation for the afternoon block party where we had over 100 children attend.
Saturday has been a free day and Sunday evening is when we will return home really really late. (actually Monday morning).
There is more to tell, so  you will have to wait.
all around it has been a great trip with a great team.
Until then,
P&J

Thursday

Buenos dias.
News flash and updates from Progreso:
1.  Progreso school - its always good to walk down to the school where our work first started in Progreso, so a small group from our team did just that.  The original school had 3 walls made of tar paper, two rooms, and a dirt floor. We patched walls, poured a cement floor and fixed up the desks.  This caused the government to take a look at what we had done and they acted and start building a nice school, and it has grown and improved each year.  It now has 6 buildings with a large patio inbetween, along with a nice fenced in school yard, and a new large, roofed cement slab play area.  Things are clean and have bright colors and the kids wear uniforms.  It is a happy place to visit. 
2.  Last night there was a meeting that included Pastor David, Marco (president of the Baptist Churches in Sinaloa) and some Mexican officials from the city, state and whole country.  There was much discussion of how the churches could be involved in the school and encourage positive activity for the students and also to have a presence in the prisons in the area.  To make a very long and very exciting story short, the city official was a women whos first project was the colonia of Progreso, so it is dear to her heart.  When she heard that Pastor David and the church (including North Haven) has been working in Progreso and  helped with the school and are now building the church building, she was very excited and said "what do you need?  I can get it for you!  Do you need land, radio time, etc?"  Well, David and Marco were jus overwhelmed and wowed by what God is doing here.  Stay tuned for exciting future developments!!!
3.  The agricultural crisis as mentioned in an earlier blog has resulted in about 90% of the crops being destroyed which means employment crises, price increases, and other economic issues because Sinola produces the major amount of the crops in Mexico.  The President of Mexico will be flying into Culiacan tomorrow (Friday) sometime to have a press conference to sign some type of a welfare proclamation to fund the agricultural crisis.  (probably disaster relief equivalent).  This should be very interesting with his security detail.
4.  We distributed more food bags today and spent time with the people of Progreso.  Another afternoon children's program included a fabulous skit by Angel (Linda), Prisoner Peter (Randy), some tough looking prison guards (Trey and Bob) with the dramatic reading by Paul.  This was followed by an evening evangelistic service.  Our team sang a song (in English) for the crowd/.  They did not ask for an encore!

We spent a lot of time on the roof tonight after our day was over, discussing our week and its impact on all of us.  We all agree it was a great week that went too fast.  Seeing the needs of others really shocks us out of our own little comfort zone, and puts lifes issues into priority.  Knowing that God has the whole world in his hands and loves us all so much, gives us the reason to come to Culiacan.  We have been blessed by the people here, and also our teammates have blessed each other.

We will be wrapping up our week with a Fiesta Block Party tomorrow afteroon.  Please continue to pray for our team and our final days here.

Muchas gracias,
P&J

Wednesday

Wow - what a day......
Wow because we were able to see past the "projects" and focus on the people.  We enjoyed the journey,not just the tasks.  A very full day with similar activities as mentioned in the previous posts.  Our team seemed more seamless today - we moved together well.  We distributed the food bags today to many homes.  The families really appreciated the food, especially one who's husband has just lost his job.  Some of us walked up and down the streets stopping at homes visiting, inviting them to the services tonight and tomorrow night.  The Mexican people are so warm and friendly and often invite us to come into thier property and sit and chat for a bit.  It is so heartwarming and enjoyable to sit with them in their humble abodes and share life stories and encouragement from the Bible and our life experiences.


For the childrens Bible school Pam and Steve shared the story of the boat twice owned.  We all sang He's Got The Whole World In His Hands with the motions, and even tried it in Spanish, but that didn't go over too well.  Yoko taught us the Oragami folds to make a boat for a craft.  The puppets made the kids squeal with joy as always.  Another event that the kids enjoyed was the clown that came tonight to share his talents and enthusiasm with the kids, weaving in bible stories.  He held their attention for a very long time.
The highlight for us all was the evening service.  The church  at Progreso, House of Hope, is still under construction, yet we had our first real service in the "sanctuary".  The city donated a stage which was set up, the Three Amigos musicians were on stage, and we had an awesome sunset as the backdrop.  Two members of our team shared how Jesus has changed their lives - transforming them, after some very low points in their lives and struggles with addictions.  Pastor David preached with enthusiasm and passion.  It was a great night to remember, especially for those of us who have worked here in Progreso since our first time here. 
We are lacking in sleep a bit, but that's usually the norm.  Everyone seems in good health and usually remembers to put their sunscreen on. (Yes, the SUN is shining).  Have we mentioned the food is really good?  :)

For the team,
Peggy and John

Tuesday

We began our day Tuesday with an early breakfast in Progreso with 36 kids at the church site.  We served up a warm breakfast of eggs and ham, tortillas, beans, fruit, tamales, and OJ.  It was fun to see the kids eating breakfast on the tables covered with tablecloths that the kids from North Haven Wednesday night club had written sweet messages on.  Once breakfast was over, the kids from Progreso wrote on tablecloths that will be returned with the team.  Great idea!

The construction work continued on the walls and chairs. The numero uno bano was finished and the inaugural flush was done.  We all say GRACIAS!!!!  We spent a lot of time with the children and playing with them.  We ordered bread from the family next to the church who have a brick oven in their back yard.  Mmmmmm good - fresh yummy homemade bread.
Octavia, Pete, Cindy and John went to the wholesale market in town to purchase food to fill food bags to give out to families in Progreso who are in need and have a relationship with the church.  Money was raised at this years Gala particularly for that.  We put together bags of food to be given to 30 families.

VBS story "David and Goliath" was acted out by Shawn and Lexie (guess which one was Goliath?) while Cindy read the Bible story in Spanish.  Music was led by Emily, Glynae read a poem in Spanish about Jesus is our Shepherd, and Nicole told the story of the candy cane:  the shape is a shepherd's staff, or turned up side down,  a "J" for Jesus, and the (red) stripe represents the blood of Jesus and the (white) is Jesus' pureness.

People from a bordering neighborhood were invited by a group from Emmanuel to attend the Wednesday and Thursday evening evangelistic services at House of Hope.  One group spent an extended time with Maria.  Please pray for her, as she acknowledged her need to be right with God and take that step of faith.

We wrapped up the day with carne asada dinner at Emmanuel Baptist church.

Thank you for your interest in our trip.  We covet your prayers and ask that you continue to pray for our team.  We are really having a great time!

For the team,
Peggy and John