http://www.box.net/shared/16rkyks33l

Blessings,

Mat, Pam, Drew, Daniel and Alex

Next we were off to a local pool where we met up with Karen’s Kids.  She runs and orphanage called Sofonias, where she is the mother of children who are left with her or are sent to her by the Mexican government.  Karen is originally from New York.  What a testimony she has.  At the pool she had 17 of the children that are currently with her.  Five more were not there because they were in other places.  Each person was assigned a younger child to spend time in the pool with. Our job this day was to spend time with these children who do not have parents (exept for “Mama Karen”) in their life and to make them feel God’s love through us.  A quote from Daniel…he asked his buddy Brandon if he had any brothers or sisters here….his response to Daniel….”You are my brother” Daniel was adopted by Brandon.

These children are amazing.  You can not walk away from a day with them and not have tears in your eyes.  They come from all over and have experienced things that no child or adult should have to experience.  Some were living in and getting there food from a garbage dump and from other places and circumstances which we can’t share.   They range in age from 2 years old to 17.   The wonderful thing that Karen does because of God’s love poured through her is that she provides order and discipline and just pure love to these children who have not experienced it  before. They were damaged, but are being healed through His love. She shares the gospel with them and then helps the kids grown in confidence and poise by performing gospel related dramas to share the gospel with others.  They all preformed dramas for our group which they perform on the street for others.   A couple of them shared their testimony with us and our eyes could not stay dry.   I (Mateo) was assigned Julio.  We had a great time swimming and talking together and I almost had to pry him from my sunburned neck when we had to leave.  I didn’t want to leave and I wished that I could just wash away all there pain and tears and pain, like we read about in Revelation 21:4.

On our way to Sofonias – where Karen lives and cares for the children we passed along the river border where the Rio Grande separates the US from Mexico.  We drove along a fence that had crosses on it.  All the crosses represent those who tried to cross the border but didn’t make it because they drowned.  This gave us a different perspective on immigration.

After a lot of dramas, socker, and songs learned together, we cooked the children a hamburger, which they don’t get much because of the cost of meat and for dessert had chilled watermelon followed by a very dignified watermelon seed spitting contest and a good job water cooler dumping on our fearless leader Lee.  By this time the sun had gone down and we had to head quickly for the border.  I wish that I could express completely how blessed we are to live in the United States, but I think that you have to experience the other side of border once in a while to realize again the blessings.  It is a blessing to see the love of God flourish even in difficult circumstances.

Today we went back to Blanco Navidad, the small very poor communnity in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico to do the second part of our Vacation Bible School (VBS).  Today we had over 80 children come and participate. We did a Bible lesson, craft, games and taught them a new song and movements.

It was great to see so many of the kids come back that had been there previously on Wednesday.

We purchased items for Pastor Pedro’s church members (who struggle with obtaining the basic necessities) and delivered them to pastor Pedro.

In the afternoon we went to Pastor Pedro’s other church located in Los Artistas, another very poor community with no running water, electricity or phone service and did a VBS with a Bible lesson, craft and song.  Because of the time we were not able to do games.  We had a great time with all the children who were very poor, but beautiful and ready to learn and participate.  ”They learned the scripture in Romans 5:8 “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” We had about 5o children attend this VBS and many parents also heard the lesson in spite of the 100+ degree heat in the church with no roof or windows (see below). The other structure (shack) below is the previous church which is now used for there children’s church. It has a dirt floor and holes in the roof.  Also below you will see the water tank for the community where water is shipped in.  You will see people chatting in the shade of the water tank.

For dinner we went to a local Mexican restaurant to celebrate the days success and honor Pastor Pedro and his wife Lourdes for their 25th anniversary.  It was a wonderful time to get to know them better and hear his testimonial as to how he came to pastor the church in Blanco Navidad (White Christmas).  There of course is a story for another day…

We came home at around 9 p.m. to a special treat by our hosts of an ice cream party.  The picture below is the host families daughter Becca and Barbara from our team.  Vaya  con Dios (Go with God).  Until next time…

Some of did painting inside.  We were working on a men’s bathroom as well as some other interior painting.  Others worked on an existing trench that will allow Stepping Stone to have water directly from the city.  Currently all their water is brought in by a very large truck one day a week….thus we have 1 shower a day that lasts no more than 3 minutes.  Needless to say you can still get clean in 3 minutes.

This afternoon we went into Nuevo Laredo Mexico to a Bible College.  They do drama ministry as well as many other things.  We went with them into the neighborhood – or the Colonia Los Olivios and went door to door inviting people to the park (loose term for what we would call a park…it is a wide open field that has a football field (soccer for Americans) with no trees.  We were inviting them to come and watch some dramas, play games, listen to music and hear a spirtual message as well as give away some beans and rice.

We had over 275 people come.  54 adults made commitments to Jesus and many more children.  This group from the Bible College do this in different parts of the city several times a week during the summer.  It is their goal to reach 1 million souls with 1 million bibles.  We all did the drama skits and wow….we will definitly be doing more of these in our local church.  We found we have some great talent from our teens and they really got into it.  And the best part is that the gospel message is behind all that we were doing.  Thank you for your cotinuing prayers. We are off Friday to do 2 more VBS classes at separate locations, lunch with Pastor Pedro to help he and his wife celebrate there 25 year anniversary and then a chance to stop at a mercado (Mexican market). Thank you for your continuing prayers.

We also did so many other things today, like teach a VBS at a Blanco Navidad, a small, very poor (palette city) neighborhood in Nuevo Laredo.  About 54 children attended. We taught them a scipture,  created a craft, played games and gave them “salvation” bracelets.  Daniel got to use his Spanish language skills checking the children in and translating for all of us in our various responsibilities. He did a great job. Drew did a great job of teaching the children songs, and Alex excelled in organizing games.   We all preformed the songs with hand movements and the children joined in with Lee’s encouragment.  We are finding that it is difficult to take the time to keep up the blog as it is very time consuming and we don’t get back to our home base for dinner until 10:30 or later. It is now midnight, so goodbye for now.  Thank you for your prayers and for your support.  We are changing lives, theirs and ours.   

These pastors are so appreciative of what they receive.  The lumber yard is owned by the same man who you will see later that does the homeless meals ministry.  This man (Randy) is a wonderful example for us all.

We also helped clean up all the trash from the pallets and the items that are damaged.

Next we prepared items for VBS which we will be running in Wednesday in Blanca Navidad.  It took the afternoon to get everything ready to go.

In the evening we headed of to serve the homeless.  This experience was amazing.  Our young people inspired us all.  It was exciting to see some of them have a heart for this ministry.  To see them praying for total strangers, and interacting with them was truely a blessing for us all.

As you can see it was an exhausting, but blessed day.  We returned back to our camp site at 9:30, had dinner, chapel and then off to bed.

Tonight we had a great session of worship while getting to know each other.  Of the 15 here 9 are what they call newbies….first timers to Crossing Borders.  Thank you for your continued prayers.  We can feel them already.

We will post more updates as we are able.

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New Hope Christian Fellowship donated 5 suitcases of items for us to take with us to Mexico.  Thank you to everyone.  We know that these items will be a blessing to everyone who receives them.