Thursday -- A Day of Dedication and Raising Stones in Memory of What Happened Here

What an incredible week. Can't believe it's coming to a close. We got to know so many children, ourselves and the Lord better.  We stretched ourselves and got out of our comfort zone to bridge culture and language and age. Well, we didn't do any of this really.  Our daily devotionals emphasized that this week wasn't about doing our best. It was about giving up and giving in and letting Christ live...in us. 

Jesus again rose from the dead this week in a small port town on the Baja Peninsula of Mexico in the area surrounding Ensenada and Maneadaro. In this place, hundreds of children laughed and were loved and learned that God isn't finished with them. He has big plans for them if they'll just be still and allow Him to do His work. Twenty families were given food boxes that will feed them for many weeks.  Several hundred hotdogs were served and consumed in the shadow of a small church on a dusty dirt road that stands ready at all hours to feed the soul of all those who enter in. A home was built and the keys given to a young couple pregnant with their first child. If only the walls could keep record and speak to us, what an amazing story they would have to tell us years from now of a house built and given in the name of our Savior, the risen, living, laughing, loving, healing, child upon his knee, unfettered by convention, undimmed by the decades Lord Jesus.  The toys and cloths you collected were distributed.  A Gaga Ball Court was raised and played in.  Puppet shows performed, coloring pages filled, Lego cakes and Minion Twinkies decorated, crafts created for the Mamas and coffee brewed for the Papas, gifts given to the staff, soccer balls kicked, games won and lost, scripture read, all in the name of Jesus. 

On Thursday, there was still much to do. The lipdub was practiced, filmed and debut to an exuberant audience of hundreds.  The young men dressed up and honored the women of our team and of the City by serving them dinner. The final presentations were made to Ricardo and Patty and Tom. Our new Mexican teen friends, who we now know by sight and name, were hugged goodbye. The mideano boys and girls were tucked in for bed. Then we walked to the amphitheater to offer the week up to God, uttering short phrases, just a few words to capture significant moments from the week, some funny, some heart-wrenching, some shared by a few, some shared by all, the little and the big -- all the moments God smiled and interacted with us on this 52nd week of last year and the first week of our new year.  Ask a teen.  Ask an adult.  Ask anyone who went what their memories of this trip are and let them again raise up a few memories, stacking them before you like the stones stacked in Bible times to mark a place and a moment as special and to remind the people for all time that God did something speacial here.  And so here we raise our Ebenezer.

Papa Joe spoke to us, the elders surrounded Skid and his daughter Daisy in prayer and we circled in a final word of thanksgiving for our week.  And then we all left the hilltop to head down to the heart of the City and clean up, put in order and make ready the place we called home for this week to be home to another crew of Americans and their service to the children and the people of Ensenada.

Thank you to our family, friends, sponsors, workmates who made donations, prayer warriors who got down on their knees to lift us up from ours, all of you behind the scenes who made this week an extraordinary witness and masterpiece completed by the hand of God.  

Men Serving the Women of Our Team and the City

Celebrating Relationships in Christ

Here's to Ann and her new son Kevin and the amazing relationship they forged in a few short days and without the benefit of knowing the others' language. They were an inspiration to all of us.

Here's to friendships strengthened and renewed.

 

Here's to the many parents and children who came to serve together. What an amazing gift this is to work side by side.

Here's to the parent and child relationship undimmed by the years.

Jeff McClain's grandson Caeden decided because it said Mexico on it to give one of his favorite toys to Skid to give to the children without any toys in Mexico. So Caeden's Rey Mysterio boarded a plane and made the trip to the City of Children.

Look, Caeden, Rey Mysterio is in Mexico with some children who love him just like you did. They all wanted to tell you thanks so much for sharing with them.

Here's to the City on a Children. "Your are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14