We have been just as busy as ever the last week or so.
Circle of Concern, a non-profit that has been a foundational part of La Fuente's prayer and financial support, came down last week. They were only here for 2 days, but those days were jam packed! They had a team helping with the construction and another team doing painting in the dinning room and the new offices upstairs.
Pouring the footings for the sanctuary columns
New paint!
They also helped the pastoral staff at La Fuente run a children's program in a new school in a nearby town called San Vicente. The schools in this part of Mexico often have two sessions of classes in a day. One group of teachers and kids come in the morning from 8am-1pm and another group comes in the afternoon from 1pm-5pm. We did a program for both sessions of kids. We had crafts, dancing classes, relay races, class photos, and teaching about character. There were also some dentists who held a free clinic and an eye glass station that gave free glasses away to the adults who came. We had about 500 kids participate in our program in San Vicente.
Craft
Free dental clinic
Class Photos
Team activities
Learning a dance
La Fuente has a mission (church services and kid's programs) that operates in San Vicente twice a week. The mission had its one year anniversary about a month ago. That area has been recently developed. Hundreds of families live there but there are no churches. La Fuente has been praying for land to build a church in that area longer than John and I have been here. It was really exciting to spend some time with the kids of that area.
The next day, Saturday, We did had medical clinics and kids' programs in San Ignacio in the mission that John and I work with. The town is very small, about 300 people. We did not have the same number of kids, probably 50 all in all, but a lot of them were kids I hadn't seen before which is exciting. Lots of people turned out for the medical clinic. They had a pediatrician, three dentists, and a team of doctors from the state. They also had an eye clinic and an opportunity for families to have photos taken together. They would print and frame the photos right there. The team was also sharing the gospel at the clinic and giving away Spanish Bibles. I saw several people praying with and talking with team members through out the morning.
Watching a drama
The drama
Teaching about the fruit of the Spirit
Learning a dance
Eye glasses clinic, and the waiting room for the doctors & dentists
Ministering to those who came
The government also sent a medical team to the San Ignacio mission
That evening, we had an outreach in the town square in Bucerias. We had some balloon animals and face paint for the kids and showed the movie Soul Surfer. It was a really fun time. We had a lot of people come out for the movie, which was great.
Watching Soul Surfer in the downtown square in Bucerias
Side Note: downtown is a dangerous place for John Mark because there is a churro cart that makes chocolate, caramel, sweet and condensed milk, and strawberry filled churros. This particular evening I believe he had FOUR. He has made it a tradition that we stop for churros after mission on Tuesdays and whenever we happen to be downtown.
One of the young couples on the team had lived here in Bucerias and worked with la Fuente two years ago. They were really interesting and fun. John and I got to spend a little bit of time with them. It was great. One of the things that we really miss when we are here is having friends who are close to our age and stage of life. We know a lot of wonderful people who live here, but all of them are 10 years younger, 20 years older, or have two kids. It was fun spending some time with a couple near our age and who understand the dynamic of living in Mexico. We are happy to have met them.
Over all things are going well. We will be going up to Tepic for a couple days next month to learn how to use a website template which we will then implement. It sounds like it will become John's job to keep up the website, which he is excited about. I hear that Thanksgiving is next week :) We don't have any specific plans, but we have decided to have fish at a nice-ish beach side restaurant or to go the the local sushi place. Basically fish or fish for thanksgiving.
Please pray for the San Ignacio mission. There have been some miscommunication and shifting around of leadership. We are talking about making some big changes. Please pray that those in charge now do not get offended and that we will have enough teachers to cover our kids' classes would be very much appreciated. We need more help.
Thank you so much for all of your support.
Blessing & Love,
Moorea
