WOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Today was another GREAT DAY! The team did SOOOOOOOOO well again today despite another HOT HOT DAY!
We started off on campus working for about 2-3 hours. Most teams that come to Back 2 Back spend one day helping out with the campus expansion. B2B has been building homes as part of their Hope program. Once children hit 15 or the 9th grade they are done with the public school system as well as the ability to live in a casa hogar. So the Hope program consists of these 6 homes (2 unfinished) that house 7-8 former residents of the casa hogars, through funding that comes into B2B, is able to send these students to high school and college while providing housing and food here on campus with a host family (like the Cooper's) who love and encourage and teach and pray and do everything possible not only to care for these kids but to show them Jesus and help them take steps. The program is seeing HUGE success as the first couple students are preparing to graduate college and enter the work force.
Here's a little perspective, only about 5% of the Mexican population is college educated. So that means two things 1) these students will have a GREAT opportunity to escape the cycle and provide for themselves and a future family and 2) the Hope program will be graduating 40-50 college educated students in the next few years who more than likely are following Jesus that will enter all fields of the workforce and will be influencing culture, government, politics, business, education and every other field they are entering! That is PRETTY AMAZING!
Ok, so that's the back story to what we were doing today! We were helping work on the last 2 homes. We had a team doing ThermoTek on the roof again, a team doing painting on the inside of one of the houses, a team painting outside, a team sorting and preparing backpacks for a back to school donation day in the Cadereyta on Thursday, a team digging a trench for some irrigation work, and teams building shelving and cleaning windows in the new Medical Facility on campus. The dream of that Facility is to have a place where the 400+ children in the casa hogars would have an opportunity for wellness check ups and all the normal shots and immunizations that we're used to here in the states! The team went crazy fast and got a TON done in the short time we had to work. The reason time was short was because the kids from Manantial De Amor were coming over for a pool party and a cookout!
The girls had the first turn in the pool while the boys started off playing soccer, games and legos! After that the girls hopped out and were playing games and spending some great time together while the boys hopped in the pool and had a great time! After that it was time for a cookout Mexican style consisting of cheeseburgers which include a slice of ham and guacamole! We had a great time!
Tonight then was the traditional B2B staff versus groups basketball game! And WE WON! Something tells me it may have helped having DC on our team....
We had a great evening at worship and team debrief and now the team is hanging out playing cards, laughing and having fun together! Know that you are all loved!
-Johnny
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
More Pics
Hey guys, DC here, not sure if you guys hopped over to my blog to see any of the photo's I've been taking so I'm going to put the slideshows on here too.
FYI: I'm not a great photographer YET, but I love taking photo's and my goal in snapping photo's is to give you an opportunity to see what your students is doing throughout the day. Jeff is our official PROFESSIONAL photographer so expect greatness from his shots. I try to take as many photo's as I can of each kid as they are down here being the hands and feet of Jesus.
Also if you want to hear my thoughts on the day, hop over to my blog by clicking HERE.
-DC-
(There are a lot of photo's so to see all of them quicker just click on the slideshow and it should send you to my public gallery. If you're having trouble leave a comment and i'll give you the direct link.)
107 pics from the plane ride and first day:
370 from Sunday at the Cadereyta:
376 from Monday at Manantial De Amor
FYI: I'm not a great photographer YET, but I love taking photo's and my goal in snapping photo's is to give you an opportunity to see what your students is doing throughout the day. Jeff is our official PROFESSIONAL photographer so expect greatness from his shots. I try to take as many photo's as I can of each kid as they are down here being the hands and feet of Jesus.
Also if you want to hear my thoughts on the day, hop over to my blog by clicking HERE.
-DC-
(There are a lot of photo's so to see all of them quicker just click on the slideshow and it should send you to my public gallery. If you're having trouble leave a comment and i'll give you the direct link.)
107 pics from the plane ride and first day:
370 from Sunday at the Cadereyta:
376 from Monday at Manantial De Amor
Monday, July 28, 2008
Mexico Day Three (Monday)
Today was an amazing day. Just in a word to say how great our team is...I really wanted to put the camera down and work on something that would work me harder because the attitude of our team is..."I want to work." So DC and I both put our camera's down at one point and dug in with all we had. Good stuff today. Then tonight at Taco's Fede was a special moment. I have never laughed as hard in my life as I did tonight at Dinner and during debrief. I am LOVING this team in this trip. Let's press on! Keep the prayers and the comments coming. The kids are absolutely loving the comments you all are leaving.
Love
-Jeff
Love
-Jeff
MEXIC08-MONDAY!
Today was PHENOMENAL! Today was our "typical" morning schedule starting off with breakfast, quiet times and small group! It seemed like the team got a great day's rest and was ready to go!
We headed to Manantial De Amor to spend the day working and playing! The team broke up into work groups and got after it! Here's what the teams tackled:
-Finished painting some of the walls and buildings at Manantial
-Applied ThermoTek to the entire roof of the main building (imagine 5 gallon buckets of
marshmallow creme getting spread over an entire roof with deck
brushes...look for the pictures later)
-Played soccer with some of the kids
-Tore apart, removed, jackhammered, wheelbarrowed and dumped an old sidewalk that is on the back side of the main building. There have been some erosion problems causing the sidewalk to cave in. This team cleared ALL of it out
-Built wood forms to build a new retension wall where the sidewalk was
-Assembled rebar grids for when the concrete pouring begins on the sidewalk
-Played board games, card games and more soccer
This team GOT AFTER IT! And that whole "language barrier thing" is officially out the window! It's pretty amazing to watch our students and some of the kids from Manantial playing Uno and other card games and board games without ever speaking the same language.
It was another HOT day, but the team did great and hydrated like crazy! Tonight we're off to Tacos Fede for a FEAST! Pictures to come later, Jeff and DC have somehow been taking hundreds of pictures as well as working like crazy and they're uploading and checking all the pictures right now so I'm sure we'll get some good ones uploaded tonight!
Thanks for all the comments and love from home! The team loves hearing from you all!
-Johnny
We headed to Manantial De Amor to spend the day working and playing! The team broke up into work groups and got after it! Here's what the teams tackled:
-Finished painting some of the walls and buildings at Manantial
-Applied ThermoTek to the entire roof of the main building (imagine 5 gallon buckets of
marshmallow creme getting spread over an entire roof with deck
brushes...look for the pictures later)
-Played soccer with some of the kids
-Tore apart, removed, jackhammered, wheelbarrowed and dumped an old sidewalk that is on the back side of the main building. There have been some erosion problems causing the sidewalk to cave in. This team cleared ALL of it out
-Built wood forms to build a new retension wall where the sidewalk was
-Assembled rebar grids for when the concrete pouring begins on the sidewalk
-Played board games, card games and more soccer
This team GOT AFTER IT! And that whole "language barrier thing" is officially out the window! It's pretty amazing to watch our students and some of the kids from Manantial playing Uno and other card games and board games without ever speaking the same language.
It was another HOT day, but the team did great and hydrated like crazy! Tonight we're off to Tacos Fede for a FEAST! Pictures to come later, Jeff and DC have somehow been taking hundreds of pictures as well as working like crazy and they're uploading and checking all the pictures right now so I'm sure we'll get some good ones uploaded tonight!
Thanks for all the comments and love from home! The team loves hearing from you all!
-Johnny
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Mexico Day two photo's via Mr. Myers
I'm loving this trip, I'm loving this group of students and leaders like none other. I'll let D.C. give you the low down on the day, but I will say that this week got off to a great start today.
Love
-Jeff
Love
-Jeff
MEXIC08-SUNDAY!
Today was a GREAT day!!! The started off a little earlier than usual today so we could pack a few extra things into the schedule.
We started off like we will everyday having some personal quiet times and then some small group time. Back2Back does a great job putting together a devotional guide that we use all week long that is Biblically based and helps lead us through what we are experiencing!
We then got a tour of the Back2Back campus so we could see and hear about all the amazing things God has been doing down here! It's amazing to see how fast stuff is being built down here, students that were here last year couldn't believe the difference and for Jeff and I who haven't been here in two years, it looks SOOO different!
We then loaded up the bus and headed out to the Cadereyta. The Cadereyta is where the government has located several hundred families that were former squatters and given them each a small piece of land to call their own, although they still don't have any plumbing, running water or electricity. The team broke up into 3 groups and spread out through the community to invite residents to lunch and a church service at the under construction community center. It didn't take long till there were kids coming out of everywhere! Soon everyone on the team was carrying a kid, giving a piggy back ride and playing like crazy! It was over 100 degrees and the whole team was going non stop loving these kids even when their shoulder got tired! We fed the whole community a hot dog lunch and had some ourselves and then jumped back on the bus to head back to base.
After some quick showers the team got dressed up to take part in a Quincienra, which is a girl's 15th birthday party. Traditionally in the Mexican culture turning 15 is a big deal and many families will go "all out" on the celebration. She was presented with several gifts including a watch to remember the time that she has, a ring to remember the continuing love of God and a Bible to be able to stay in the Word. It was a very cool thing for the team to get to be a part of! After the ceremony it was time to celebrate with a big feast, dancing and Quincienra cake! It was great!
We're getting ready to head down to evening worship and then team debrief time where we will share all of your love and encouragement and talk through today! We'll try and get pictures up as fast as we can, but the internet can be "interesting" sometimes!
-John
We started off like we will everyday having some personal quiet times and then some small group time. Back2Back does a great job putting together a devotional guide that we use all week long that is Biblically based and helps lead us through what we are experiencing!
We then got a tour of the Back2Back campus so we could see and hear about all the amazing things God has been doing down here! It's amazing to see how fast stuff is being built down here, students that were here last year couldn't believe the difference and for Jeff and I who haven't been here in two years, it looks SOOO different!
We then loaded up the bus and headed out to the Cadereyta. The Cadereyta is where the government has located several hundred families that were former squatters and given them each a small piece of land to call their own, although they still don't have any plumbing, running water or electricity. The team broke up into 3 groups and spread out through the community to invite residents to lunch and a church service at the under construction community center. It didn't take long till there were kids coming out of everywhere! Soon everyone on the team was carrying a kid, giving a piggy back ride and playing like crazy! It was over 100 degrees and the whole team was going non stop loving these kids even when their shoulder got tired! We fed the whole community a hot dog lunch and had some ourselves and then jumped back on the bus to head back to base.
After some quick showers the team got dressed up to take part in a Quincienra, which is a girl's 15th birthday party. Traditionally in the Mexican culture turning 15 is a big deal and many families will go "all out" on the celebration. She was presented with several gifts including a watch to remember the time that she has, a ring to remember the continuing love of God and a Bible to be able to stay in the Word. It was a very cool thing for the team to get to be a part of! After the ceremony it was time to celebrate with a big feast, dancing and Quincienra cake! It was great!
We're getting ready to head down to evening worship and then team debrief time where we will share all of your love and encouragement and talk through today! We'll try and get pictures up as fast as we can, but the internet can be "interesting" sometimes!
-John
Saturday, July 26, 2008
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