A Bunch of Little Niños went to the Market

We went shopping. We had debriefing. We are tired. We had an excellent meal at a Mexican restaurant in Mexico...wooo...See you tomorrow.

Carnival!

After breakfast, our leaders had a short leaders meeting (nothing unusual), but in the very short absence of our leaders a terrible thing happened...a cult formed within our group. This cult spread quickly among those of weak faith (TJ, Jeremy, John and Allen). As far as our analyst (me) can tell, this cult involved wearing your bedding as a robe and "chanting" (although very few words were intelligible) various things. Certain objects were worshipped for a short while (such as a balloon animal and a ball) before they were sacrificed to their gods. We know little about their gods and their ceremonies as the cult only lasted about 20 mins. Eventually their focus turned to "sacking". Colin was taken for the purpose of this ceremonial sacrifice and barely escaped...it was then that one of the clan leaders (Jeremy) prophesied that Colin would feel the wrath of the gods and that on the day of the full moon he would be sacked. Religious order was shortly restored upon the return of our leaders...so no big deal. (Note: None of the cult members actually have weak faith and we will choose to ignore this lapse into culthood)

Next...all of us went to site #1 to do the regular VBS. After the VBS was finished we set up for the CARNIVAL. The kids really loved the games or just enjoyed being with people from our group. We had many games like marble toss, rubber band guns, sponge throwing (at Marc and Amanda), frisbee toss, soccer shooting and bowling to name a few. We really enjoyed making the kids happy and seeing how much we meant to them.

We said goodbye to many of the children after we had given each a prize of some sort. We were sad to leave and wished we could have done more, but it does feel good to be finally done. It was a tiring week.

Tomorrow is our day off. We will possibly go shopping (this is not a promise that I will bring you anything) and do other things on our own. We'll see. Our work is done here, and a good work it was.

Until then...

Sunday...Domingo

Today we were able to sleep in as breakfast was only at 8:30 this morning. Afterwards we cleaned up the building as quick as we could for church. All of our stuff was moved to an office, the floors were swept and washed and chairs were set up for the church service (which was, of course, in spanish).

We were able to have our own (english) sunday school beforehand led by Stacy (Sandra's coworker) which went quite well. For lunch we had pizza ordered in...which reminds me...
I don't think that I had yet mentioned that the meals are a little different than back home. (And, I don't just mean the food) We eat a common breakfast...nothing very different there. Lunch is at around 2 o'clock (or so) in the afternoon and it is usually the largest meal of the day. Supper eaten at about 9 in the evening...this may be a little different, but we've been able to handle it so far.

In our down-time some of us played some more volleyball and then finished preparation for tomorrow's carnival. Jobs were assigned etc.

We also set up for an evening coffee house that the church is hosting. Colin and Allen will sing a set list they have prepared, Nicole will do a dance that she had previously choreographed and a group [Nicole, John and Jeremy] will do a skit as well that does not require too much translation. In addition, Jeremy volunteered himself to be MC of the event (we'll see what happens...oy). Others will help serve and fill in where needed. The leaders said that they may expect around 50 people to show up. We shall see.

yes yes...

prayer requests

Praise:

• the little boy who got hurt is recovering well
• the family is grateful for our help and not angry... understand it was accident
• cloudy weather has kept us from sun burn and extreme fatigue/sun stroke
• lots of group who have been sick have got better... and then got sick again...got better... so we are learning to cope with it and carry on the work

prayer:

• coffee house tonight will be encouragement and blessing to local youth
• last day at site #1 will have opportunity to bring kids closer to Jesus
• carnival will bless the Purepecha community

NEWSFLASH!

It appears that as soon TJ did not injure anyone (not that he ever tried to do so) his popularity skyrocketed.

Both morning groups went well today. We have tomorrow off as far as the camps go, but we have to prepare for a Coffee House we are doing in the evening. As well, Monday we will do a carnival for children from both Camps #1 and 2. So, we are planning and preparing things for that day. Stands etc. are being built/painted for the games that are planned for the Carnival. We will be doing this both this evening and tomorrow. Many kids are coming to the VBS (etc.) we are doing and they seem to be overjoyed that we are here. As a result, we are beginning to feel their enthusiasm, relax and really enjoy spending time with them.

mhm...

Niño...A Short* Introduction to Mexican Healthcare

I was able to go to Camp #3 in the evening yesterday and it was good to see yet another group of Purepecha children. We were once again able to play some games which the kids really enjoyed (both before and after the injury). After this we had a snack and a story told by Daniela (a local youth).

As Mike mentioned yesterday evening, there was an injury at Camp 3 in the evening. To console the parents (especially the boy's mother) Sandra decided it would be best if we took him to the hospital to get checked out. Relations with these people are somewhat fresh so we needed to show that we cared and wanted to all that we could to help them. It appeared that the boy may have hit his head on the ground, but the injury was not obvious.

A group of us (Eric and I with Sandra and some of the local Mexican youth - David, Alfonso and Daniela) went to the nearest Hospital with some the Purepecha family members. Some tests were done and another doctor will decide what needs to be done this morning. Sandra and some others will visit the hospital to check on the boy and his family at various times today.

On a happier note, while all these other events were taking place, group 2 was able to do their amazing race. After this, everyone (well, I guess not everyone if some of us were at the hospital) went out for tacos...that seemed to sit in interesting ways in many stomachs, especially for those who were already not feeling so well (yes, there are a few who are not 100% well), but today is another day.

I trust that God will help those who are sick (and help all of us [group listed above] who went to the hospital and had quite a long night). We shall see.

Today (yes, it is now today...) both group #1 and group #2 will be going to their site again, as per usual and group #2 will head over to site #3 this evening.

Until next time...

Rain, rain, rain, rain...

Also yesterday...it rained so hard that it hurt on bare skin, but that won't stop us:

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! Woooooooooooooooo! Arrrrrriiiiiiiiibaaaa! Ok then....

It rained a lot...in a very short time.

Not Enough Time

Sorry I was not able to say anything yesterday...I was somewhat occupied.

Yesterday I went with group #2 to the 2nd site. From what I've heard they were quite the exciteable bunch on the first day. After making the rice-filled balloons, the children were very quick to find joy in throwing them at the members of our team. Oh well, the second day (when I was there) went very well. They were able to make confetti balloons, sing some songs, have their snack and play a game of duck, duck, goose (o Pato, Pato, Ganso).

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

This evening some of our youth went to Site #3 to do VBS in a new area... 1st time outreach to them. While we were playing games and having LOTS of fun a little boy fell down and others fell down too (playing flying dutchmen). AS a result of the accident, the little boy was quite hurt and he is currently being tested in hospital for head injuries. please pray:

• doctor will discover any injury and take good care of him (Purepecha are not socially accepted)
• God will use this negative circumstance to bring something good

1. Healing for the little boy (emotion, physical, etc.)
2. To his ppl group and the ministry to them will grow stronger through this difficult circumstance
3. The youth will stay focused and continue to serve to the best of their ability... if anything get more focused
4. Wisdom for Oscar and Sandra's mission groups as they seek to be Jesus in all this and need direction for this week and future ministry.