As promised yesterday, this entry will give more details as to what our team has been up to in the last one and a half days. After successfully landing in Hermosillo and making it through customs without any worries on Monday, June 8, we soon got settled at the church. Our lodgings are comfortable and wonderfully air conditioned, so the team is sleeping well.
Yesterday, June 9, was extremely full. During the morning we had our team orientation with the workers down here. There was also a team training exercise that led to our first (very minor) wounds with a few scrapes and cuts. Don't worry, everyone is fine. The meals have also been amazing, as the volunteers from the church are taking great care of the group. We look forward to every meal time! Well, at least I do, and in this instance, I'm sure I'm not alone. Yesterday afternoon was full of trying to get ready for the first day of the kids club at the church. There was a ton of preparation to do, from putting up posters and balloons to learning skits and puppetry to setting up craft stations. When the dust settled, it was time for the kids to arrive and the fun to begin. The club ran from 4 - 6:30, and it was great to see the kids come out. It soon became apparent that the language barrier is always a factor, and it can be discouraging when getting to know some of the little ones. One of the most encouraging things to see was how passionately the Mexican youth jump into the kids club. Many of their youth and young adults are helping run the club, and it is lots of fun to partner up with such willing servants. Hopefully as the week goes on our team will be able to break down some more of those language and comfort barriers and be able to build solid relationships with the kids and the youth. After the club time, our plan was to go to a Mexican hotdog stand; but it started pouring rain! This almost never happens in Hermosillo, but we experienced quite the storm. Rain was coming into the church building from lots of different areas, so our team helped grab towels and keep everything dry. In the end, we were able to go to a hot dog stand run by a parent of a youth from the church, and they had covered space available to sit and eat. These hot dogs were amazing, and it was one of our teams first cultural experiences that remind us we are indeed in Mexico! After a short time of worship, we all went to bed.
Today has also had a full schedule, but that will be a constant theme throughout our time here. We just finished lunch after visiting an orphanage just outside of the city in the morning. Our team members did a great job of spending time with these kids that live in a less fortunate area. At one mention of soccer (or football, here), and half the boys were running around outside. I had a hard time keeping up with the kids in the heat, which is definitely substantial today. Some members of the team went and picked up some donated clothes and bought Rubbermaid containers to hold them in. We sorted the clothes at the orphanage, and they will be greatly appreciated. The orphanage is in the middle of expanding their building, and some of the boys were able to pitch in with a few odd jobs. Mostly, we were there to love the kids, and our team did that in spades. Plus, we bought some ice cream, which made everyone happy on a warm, humid day. Lunch was again fantastic, and we are now about to start our prep for another evening of kids club.
As I stated before, there should be some pictures of these activities on the blog soon. Keep coming back for more good stuff!
Great post - so glad that everything went well through customs and you are all there safely and well into the club and kids and reaching out/serving! Sounds fantastic...funny, yesterday Darrell and I were waiting for a blog update that you had made it and he was googling Hermossillo and he said "it's raining there" and then, you had that in your blog. Keep the posts (and pics) coming. It is such a great way to keep in the know of the team. Continuing to pray for all of you,
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