Friday Part 2 & Saturday

Yesterday afternoon we had the privilege of serving a meal to the kids here at the orphanage. We also got to sit with them and enjoyed the time of fellowship. Jesus breaks through the language barriers!

Last night the team worked around the orphanage some more. Several of the team members helped to pack up over 200 plastic bags containing school supplies and candy. We also made some sandwiches which we took with us this morning for breakfast because we had to arise at 6am and leave the orphanage at 7am for an hour-long ride outside the city to a small rural village. Unfortunately when we woke up this morning, many of our team members had stomach aches, including yours truly. Friday afternoon we all ate a delicious Mexican soup called Posole. It is incredible, and, with the exception of the tacos, it was everyone’s favorite meal to date. Ironically, the one meal they all enjoyed and pigged out on was not free. It had a small price tag … you guessed it … stomach aches. So Immodium and Pepto-Bismol was being passed around, and a few of us had to dip into our Cipro. Emilio pointed out that tiredness combined with the altitude difference compounds these types of problems. This explained the general wooziness of the team. The good news is that mostly everyone is now feeling much better. We took it easy on the food today, and everyone was very happy to just have cereal and bananas for dinner.

Anyways, back to our day. After our hour-long ride, we arrived at a small rural church in the town of Texcoco where about 30 children were sitting awaiting our arrival. As soon as we got out of the van, everyone made full use of the baños. They then teamed up 3 gringos with one local and went throughout the town inviting people to join us for our service. It wasn’t long before people were coming from every direction – mostly children, but many adults as well. By the time we started there were about 200 people there. I opened the service with some calisthenics to get everyone loosed up and excited. We then had a time of worship led by the church members. We then did our dance “I Now Live.” I followed it with a short message, and then the team did their dance to “Who Am I?” After that I did an altar call and many people prayed with me to receive Jesus. After the service, we were asked to form two human walls to fill in the open areas. This was a funny idea, but the reason we did it was so that the people from the church could distribute the bags we put together the night prior as well as some clothes we had brought, and we could ensure that once the children received their bag they did not come back to get a second one. After everyone had received their bags, we were able to hang out with the children for a while. When everyone had left the church, we loaded up our vehicles and drove down the bumpy dirt road to a very nice house in the area where a family had set up their home like a restaurant and we were served a great meal of whole chickens stuffed with cactus. It was very tasty, and several of the team members were surprised at how tasty the cactus was.

After another long line to the bathroom, we loaded up again and headed out for another 30-minute drive to the Aztec pyramids in the town of Teotihuacan. This lightened everyone’s spirits, and they were all excited about climbing to the top of the tallest pyramid which we did. It was awesome! We were on top for just a few minutes when a black cloud rolled in and it started to rain. So we descended in the rain and several of us quickly bought rain ponchos. The rain did not last long, and we were able to do some souveneir shopping for about an hour. Great times! We then drove back to the orphanage and this evening we are just chilling out. This is much needed, and everyone is in good spirits to just be able to rest or play a bit.

Tomorrow the plan is to do the church service here at the orphanage, and then go for a tour of Mexico City. Can’t believe we’ll be home in just two days. Thanks for your continued prayers!

Friday Part 2 & Saturday