Christmas Tea and Baseball

The second Thursday already!!  It is really hard to believe how the time has passed so quickly, and then again it seems like we have been here for quite awhile and done so much!  Funny how time always seems to work that way.

During devotions today we read from Ephesians 4:1-3. It speaks of  keeping the bond of peace by exercising humility, gentleness, patience, and love while we walk in what we are called by God to do. As Dave said, this is a very timely lesson when you have just spent so much time together as a team. I really am amazed at the unity on this team but I will say that I think we are all starting to know each other well enough that we know how to get under one anothers skin. Despite being in the same small group for years (except our replacements Bev and Garry) it is without a doubt that we still all know a lot more about one another now than we did when we left on this trip!  That is a great thing but the devil would love to use that for his purposes.  We need to work at not letting that happen and let our love for one another help us to not use our closeness against one another. I know I need to commit myself over the next three days to exercising humility, gentleness, patience, and love to my team members. 

Today was an unique day for the ladies. They played a huge role in preparing for a ladies Christmas Tea that they all participated in tonight at the church. It likely wasn't what they all may have pictured as ministry here in Hermosillo, but I think they played a huge role in partnering with Shelly and being a source of encouragement to her as they baked goodies and decorated the church for this event. I'm sure they were also wishing they could get the painting finished at the kids home as that would give a good sense of accomplishment. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow for them. But today was about a Christmas Tea and who knows how God may use that to reach out to some of the guests that attended. It sounds as though about 25 ladies attended tonight. 


The men's day was another one of heavy labor at the kids home. Today we poured a concrete floor in the living room area with Francisco and his team of Mexican workers. It was sweet to see that floor done as it provides them with a home where they no longer need to walk through a dirt living room to move between the kitchen and the bedrooms. Hopefully it will help decrease the amount of sweeping that needs to be done. 


We also back filled dirt around two sides of the home to give it a neater appearance and help slope the ground away from the house. The shovels and wheelbarrows got a good work out today. 'Shovel Camp', as we have learned to call this trip, lives on!!  You will have to ask any of the team the funny story about how we settled on that title for it. We still have some work to do to complete breaking up some concrete floor. That task didn't get completed due to a broken sledge hammer, but we hope to do more on that tomorrow.  

A couple neat things about today where meeting two other families from Phoenix that drove down to come celebrate and bring all kinds of gifts for the kids. It is good to meet Christian friends who have a heart for the same ministry. They are such a blessing to Pedro and Zoila. They have known them since they were orphans in a different home, and then reunited with them years later after Pedro and Zoila where working at this orphanage. Hard to believe that wasn't a 'God thing'. 




The second neat thing was to have our pictures taken with the construction team. We have worked several days with these guys and Greg doesn't believe they are Christians. It was cool to see how we grew closer together in these few days and we pray that we have been some kind of light that would lead them to Christ, even though we could not speak enough Spanish with them to share Christ with words!






A few interesting points to add from the day:

-watching the real Pedro smile while he watched a couple of his kids playing in the yard. He was amused by how well his one boy was 'playing dead' while the girls were trying to wake him up. 
-having Barbara, who peed on Terrace a couple days ago, give me some of the greatest hugs I've ever had, other than from Crystelle and the girls. Then having her later in day, when she had peed herself again, climb onto my back for a piggy back ride when I didn't expect it!  That was not what I was squatting down for. 
-having this unique construction zone that has no barriers to keep kids out. Your constantly steering your wheelbarrow around small children and right thought their home. The kids seem completely used to this. Not even one kid stepped on the wet concrete!
-how quiet these kids seem to be. Usually 5 Canadian kids in a room equals huge noise. They have up to twenty here and the kids are all busy doing things, but there doesn't seem to be an appropriate amount of noise for that many. It seems very stress free!


So because of the Christmas Tea for the ladies us men had to head out for supper and stay away for awhile. Greg along with Ed and Jack invited us to have supper and then go to the professional baseball game. Our choice for supper was to go for the hot dogs again. Seems to fit well with baseball too. So we spent the evening at their beautiful stadium for the Hermosillo Nananjeros (literally Orange pickers).  They won 5-4 in a come from behind victory. It was quite an experience watching the fans and their different style of passion, as well as just enjoying hanging out as guys and only needing to pay 75 pasos ($7) for the ticket. Possibly the best part of the evening is having Greg drive us to and from the game while his Mexican friend gave direction on how to get there fastest. Traffic was brutal and after experiencing this 'sport' of Mexican driving I know I have a long way to go to become a Mexican driver!!

Dwight