Mexico Day 5

So, wednesday!
We woke up to the pleasant surprise of not having to paint. (Well, not all of us. The boys and some girls painted, while the rest of the girls stayed behind to clean.)
So I spent the morning with Spanish Hillsong music, making everyone's beds.
Then we did some laundry.
Sarita saw me and ran over for me to hold her.
She helped me carry laundry and hang it on the line, and then put more laundry in the washer.
All of our team's khakis were in a pile and we had to wash them.
Sarita picked up a pair and shouted "Mi amiga!!!" and hugged them.
She. knew. which. khakis. were. Faith's.
SO SWEET.

Later in the day we went to the city orphanage.
Let me give you an idea.
Barbed wire, all around.
Half the size of Bethel, but with twice as many kids.
The kids stay inside all day, and a few years ago, they almost stopped allowing groups to come because they made the kids "too happy".
There is a room full of cribs, some 2-3 babies per crib.
There are 50 some kids there, and sadly, not enough staff to individually love on each child.
The kids in this orphanage are taken from their families by the state, basically for the reasons a child here might be put into foster care.
You have to get a special permit to go there, and you're only allowed in for 45 minutes.
Not 46.
45.
And you're not allowed to take pictures. (Sorry everyone)

So basically, when you get there, Ken and his wife Juana do a short Bible lesson of some sort with the kids,
and then we play with them.
You basically have a half hour to try and spend time with as many kids as you possibly can.

While we were praying, a little girl tapped on my shoulder. I looked up and she said, "Gianna?"
Completely in shock, i said yes, and she said "You're Gianna!?" I said yes again and she gave me a huge hug.
WHAT?!
It was so crazy because apparently, last year, in the midst of the chaos trying to get to as many kids as possible, I somehow managed to make somewhat of an impact on her life, which seems almost unbelieveable to me.
The fact that she knew my name and was so excited to see me was just... wow.
There are no words for that.

I brought spiderman, butterfly, and heart shaped stickers.
They were a hit!
I had to peel stickers so fast I thought my fingers would fall off.
I literally peeled 125 stickers.
I'm not sure I even breathed.
Kids were jumping on top of each other, sometimes I had to break up little 6-year-old fights,
for stickers.
They were yelling at each other "HAZ COLA!" (make a line)
But none of them were.
I had kids hanging over both my shoulders and 3 or 4 at a time in my face,
some crying,
cause they were all so scared they wouldnt get one.
It was so heartbreaking.

Ken said "Okay, 45 minutes are up, say your goodbyes and we gotta get out of here!"

We said bye to the kids and started to walk out.
Right when we did, something caught my eye.
The curtains were opened just enough to get a peek into the baby room.
There was one baby in there who grabbed my attention.
He looked to be about 9 months old, but I could be off on that one.
Chubby little baby boy with thick black hair.
He was so sweet.
He pulled himself up to stand in his crib, and, for a moment, our eyes met.
He smiled so big when he saw me,
like he wanted me to pick him up.
He just wanted someone to play with him.
But we weren't allowed, and our 45 minutes were up, so we had to leave.
He reminded me so much of the baby boy I babysit.
Their worlds are so different.
There arent many workers at that orphanage to care for all the babies,
so, most likely, the only time he gets interaction is when he is being fed.
He doesn't have a mom or a babysitter or a grandma or an aunt or a dad to run in, scoop him up, shower him with love, and take him out to play.
Did you know if babies don't get enough stimulation (love, attention, physical touch, colorful toys, etc),
their brains actually do not form right.
That kills me.
And he was so happy to see me.

But I had to walk away.

Leaving him in there broke my heart more than words could ever say.
It's one of those things where all you can do is be SO thankful there's a God,
so he has hope, and pray for him every single day with all you have.

Words cannot explain.

Our group split up after dinner, half went to Manuel's church and half to the Oasis Bible study.
I didn't go to Manuel's church, so ask someone who did to tell you about it because I heard it was incredible!

I went to Oasis Bible study. Faith gave her testimony and Ashlee preached.
They. Were. Awesome. :)

I got to see Ricardo again, gracias a Dios :)

This one's kinda short, but nonetheless an amazing day.
Love you all!

Mexico Day 4

Okay, Mexico Day Four! Tuesday, if you lost track!

We got up early again. As in, super early. As in, 4am.
Today was like, the day of the fumes.
And cockroaches. I saw four.
We painted. And painted. And painted.
Our project for the entire week was 8 classrooms. I'm pretty sure we painted 18.
God = cool.

Day 4 was the day I went to the shut ins. Shut ins are basically people who are too old or sick to leave their homes. We go to their houses and pray for them and give them beans and rice.
I'll tell you a little about each house we visited.
Get out the tissues.

First we visited Maria.
She was super old and little and cute.
She had arthritis in her hands so bad her fingers were completely bent out of shape in crazy ways.
Ways fingers should never be bent.
She cant pick anything up or do anything and she is almost always in pain.
She sits on a bed by herself in a little room all day long.
The room has no air conditioning.
There is a fan, but the fan blows hot air on her.
All day long.
I had the honor of praying for her. She was so happy and so grateful for the prayer, beans, and rice.
I was amazed.
She lives constantly, day by day, hot and alone and in pain.
But she was telling our group that she would be praying for US.
Us!?
She kept thanking us for coming.
And she'll be praying for us.

The next person we visited was Luis.
Luis lost both his legs to diabetes. He can't walk, he can't work.
His wife has a little store outside their house. She barely makes enough to keep them alive, but she was, again, so happy.
You can so plainly see how much she loves Luis.
She carries him from his wheelchair to the armchair, because she doesn't want him to get too hot.
She smiles at him.
She talks to him.
She feeds him.
She keeps him alive.
And you know what? He loves her too, so much.
But he can't tell her.
See, in addition to losing both his legs, Luis also had a stroke.
He can't move.
He can't talk.
He cried so hard the entire time we were there.
Bawled.
I can't even imagine.
He knows what he wants to say, but he can't say it.
He wants to take care of his wife, but it's the other way around.
He wants to feed himself.
He wants to feed his wife.
He wants, so badly, to tell her how much he loves her.
But he can't.
He's had to lay down all his pride.
It's so hard to see a grown man cry.
The next time you're talking to someone.
Remember how lucky you are to be able to speak.
Remember how precious every word is that we are able to say.
Remember that telling someone you love them, is a gift.
Not everyone can.
Something so simple.
His wife was telling us how she recently sold 3 pairs of shoes, and made $6.00.
She was SO excited.
When was the last time you were excited about six dollars?

Next we visited Consuela.
She's a widow.
Her husband was killed in a car accident, and it was too much for her to handle.
She ended up having open heart surgery.
She can't do much at all now.
She can't lift heavy things, she can't work, she can't even walk for long periods of time.
But despite this,
she greeted us smiling, begging us to get out of the sun, and sit down.
She was SO happy and SO nice.
It was incredible.

The last house we went to had a man and a woman.
The man was in his 80s and the woman was in her 50s.
The man could barely walk.
He had no shirt on, but one around his neck.
His pants were too small and he had two different shoes on.
He looked like he needed someone to take care of him.
But the girl was mentally retarted.
She would just repeat the same word over and over.
There was no way she could take care of herself, either.

She was his daughter.

He has taken care of her for her whole life.
50+ years.
Fifty. Years.
He loves her so much.
This man can barely take care of himself.
He barely has any food.
He can hardly walk.
But that's his baby.
That is the best example of true love and dedication I've ever heard of.
And to see how he still smiles at her,
he still loves her,
he still never gave up after all these years.
Wow.

The shut ins were COMPLETELY amazing.

Later we did village ministry again.
It was a place we went to in 2010 and 2009 too.
We did our dance and the program just like last time.
I saw the same shy lady from the night before.
She remembered me and ran to say hi.
I got to give her my spanish Bible.
She was so grateful and it meant so much to me to be able to give it to my friend.
We played with the kids again like the night before, once again, the parents loved it :)

 Amazing day, once again!
Keep reading!
Dios te bendiga :)

Mexico Day 3

Okay, the fun stuff! :)

We got up around 4:30/5ish to get dressed, grab breakfast, and head out to the school where we were painting!
We painted the basketball court, volleyball court, bleachers, and playground there last year, but this year we painted the actual classrooms.
It was an exciting time!
Warning: If you're looking for a serious ministry story, you might want to skip this part.

If you have never experienced Mexican oil-based paint, oh it's lovely ;)
The fumes are like super intense so we had to make sure to take breaks every once in a while and drink lots of water.
The rooms had air conditioning but most of them weren't on, so we had some pretty shady fans in there while we worked :)
After a while I was super hot so one of the leaders took me to get some water. There was an orange water jug identical to ours, so, assuming it WAS ours, that's where I got my water from.
I started chugging it, because I was super thirsty, like, I was gulping it down man.
Then someone yelled "THAT'S NOT OUR WATER!!!"
Ummm, WHAT.
So I just drank Mexican water, yum! :)
(For those of you who like to know gross things, I was quite sick when we got back to America, but I'm over that.)

When we were done painting, I went to the bathroom (as in, the Mexican school bathroom).
And I went to wash my hands,
right when I reached for the thing to turn the water on,
a giant cockroach SHOT out of the drain.
I almost had a heart attack!
Woo!
I love Mexico!! (For real I do)

Anyways, despite all the morning fun, we headed back to the orphanage around lunch time, had lunch, and played with the kids for a while.
One of the littlest girls, Sarita, was laying on the ground.
I asked her if she was tired and she shook her head yes.
I held out my arms and she snuggled up and fell asleep.
So so sweet.

Apparently while holding Sarita I lost track of time, majorly.
I heard our trip leader, "WHOEVER IS GOING TO THE DRUG REHAB LET'S GO NOW!"
What!?!?
So I hand Sarita to someone else,
and head off to the rehab center in my disgusting paint clothes, with no water bottle.
Woo!
Adalberto (one of the most amazing men in all of San Luis) told us that the drug rehab is about 80% Christian, just because of groups coming down!
I think that is something to praise God about!
Anyone who has been on a short term mission trip who thinks one week cannot have a huge impact on a community, you can officially think again!
Megan and Lauren did their testimonies, and they rocked it.
Ladies were crying and clearly touched.
Adalberto spoke, awesome as always.
He talked about how Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven.
His words were so incredibly powerful I can't even begin to explain it.
When he asked if anyone wanted to ask Jesus into their hearts,
many ladies stood up.
I counted 10 the first time, 15 the second time, 13 the third time :P
Everyone was moving and I was sitting in the middle so it was hard to really count,
but numbers don't matter at all compared to the fact that
lives were touched and lives were saved.
One of my favorite things ever in San Luis is when we get to pray with the ladies at the rehab who want to ask Jesus into their hearts.
The lady I prayed for, Betty, held my hands so tight and cried the whole time we were praying.
I prayed for her in English and Spanish, and she turned out to speak BOTH!
How awesome is God!?!??

There was a lady in the rehab, sitting close to the back.
Her face was completely emotionless and expressionless the entire time we were there.
She was a bigger lady and I could tell she had a lot of walls up in her heart.
Nothing in the service seemed to affect her on the outside, but I know seeds were planted.
She didn't raise her hand to ask Jesus into her heart. She didn't stand up for the prayer.
But God put her on my heart the whole time.
She needed an actual touch, a physical touch.
I was determined to give her a hug and tell her God loves her before we left.
When we were done, everyone said bye and waved and headed out the door.
But I couldnt go.
I hugged one lady, and everyone in her row of seats reached for a hug too.
I had to hug every single lady in that room.
Everyone stared at me like they were so desperately hoping I would hug them too.
Except that one lady.
But I was determined.
Our whole group was gone and I was getting worried but that was the devil,
and I had to get to that lady.
I finally reached her, and instead of looking like all the other ladies, she almost looked disgusted by me touching her, but I couldnt stop now.
I gave her a big hug and told her "Dios te bendiga".
So simple, but she smiled.
And that smile meant more than a thousand words ever could.
The moment lasted no more than 5 seconds but it was a 5 seconds I will never ever forget.
Lesson learned: If God tells you to do something, no matter how simple, do it.
It'll be worth it.
God doesn't tell you to do things just for fun.
There is always a purpose.
So I ran outside as fast as I could because I knew everyone was leaving but a lady stopped me.
She was a lady who worked there.
She thanked me so much for coming, she hugged me over and over as she wiped tears away,
and she told me the ladies look forward to groups coming and she just kept hugging me.
I thanked her for letting us come and told her God loves her so much, she hugged me one last time before she said goodbye and that she hopes we come back soon.
I got outside right when everyone was getting in the vans,
perfect timing thank you Jesus!

We had dinner when we got back to the orphanage (enchiladas = best things ever)
and then headed out to the village for our first night of village ministry!

I saw this church on the way there.

They have services Tuesdays and Saturdays.
It says "Mission. "Voice crying in the desert."
Wow. Think of that compared to your fancy church.
Eye opener?

Clearly God was all over this, because so was satan!
One of our vans got stuck on the way there. That was fun!
Some Mexican guys came and helped, but what satan wanted to be a disaster turned out to be super funny and those Mexican guys got invited to our program!

Well, after driving around for a while, we made it to the place where we were going to have our program.
It was so amazing.
One of my favorite things about village ministry is getting to sit with the kids.
Something about Mexican children: They are gorgeous.
Haha but for real, they are. And they're so sweet.
Village ministry is one of the times where you realize how different America is.
In San Luis, you can ask someone to hold their baby, and they smile and hand the baby to you.
They are so trusting and loving and just genuinely happy, though they have less than half of what we have.
People know each other. They talk face to face. Families are close, because family is all they have.
It makes me wish we had less sometimes.
There was a little girl who reminded me so much of one of my cousins.
I don't remember ever seeing her before, but she ran to me and hugged me and I picked her up and she just stared at me, smiling.
It was so sweet.

Here's how the programs usually work:
Ken introduces us, we sing Yo Tengo Un Amigo Que Me Ama, a song every single person knows in San Luis.
People give their testimonies, (Yeah Ally and Chiarina!) Ken preaches a little, we do a dance/ministry skit, we pray.
We give out beans and rice to the parents, candy to the kids.
They love it :)

Funny story: Everyone was praying, and I felt something pounding on my back. It was a dog like attacking me :P How scary. I didn't know what to do cause we were praying! Thankfully it got bored and ran away.

Anyways, we passed out beans, rice, and candy to the parents and kids when the program was over.
Usually this is when it's over, and we leave.
But this year was different.
Everyone stayed longer, played with the kids, talking to the people.
The kids were running everywhere, screaming and laughing. They had so much fun.
And the parents LOVED it!

I met a lady standing with her kids, she was really shy but she had a beautiful smile and beautiful kids.
She told me some of them were her kids and some were her nieces and nephews.
She also told me that her littlest daughter didn't get any candy.
So I went to see if we had any more, and, how great is God, we had one bag left :)
She was so grateful.

A couple of us brought Spanish Bibles to give to people.
We had them sitting on this like.. wood thing on the ground.
I noticed a man walk over and pick one of them up.
He opened it and started to read it.
It had "Jesus te ama" and "Dios te bendiga" written in the front, so I knew it was Christina's.
I watched the man read it for a while.
When he saw someone coming, he hid it behind his back.
When they walked past he would take it back out and read some more.
I watched him do this a few times, and I went over.
I asked him if he had a Bible. When he said no, I told him he could have that one.
For me? he asked. Si!
He paused. "Muchas gracias."
He read where Christina had written "Jesus loves you" and "God bless you" in the front cover.

He looked at me and asked, "Is God love?"
I said yes.
He asked, "Does God love ME?"
I said yes again.
He stared at me in amazement, then at the Bible, then at me. "Muchas gracias."
Before he left he gave me a kiss on the cheek.
He was such a sweet old man.

Part of my journal entry on day 3:
"We ended up gving out 4 Biblias, lots of frijoles y arroz, and lots of God's love. Giving and getting actually. What an amazing night."

That pretty much sums it all up. I hope you are enjoying hearing about this awesome trip, keep reading!
Love you all :)

Mexico Day 2

Sunday! My favorite Mexico day!

Okay, I have to start out by telling you about Ricardo.
Short re-cap of the past three years for those of you who haven't known me that long:

My first trip to San Luis, three years ago, we got there at night, right before the kids went to bed.
I played tag with a bunch of the boys, but only for a short time and it was dark so I figured none of them would remember me in the morning.
But I walked outside the next day, was walking around, taking pictures, when I heard, "Amiga!"
I turned around and there was Ricardo, the only one who remembered me. He ran to me and hugged me and then didn't leave my side the rest of the week.
My heart broke when I left him but we wrote back and forth for over a year until I could go back and see him.

The second year I went to San Luis, he remembered me, grabbed my hand, brought me to the shelves where the kids keep their backpacks, and showed me every letter I'd ever sent him, every picture, every little toy.
Again he didn't leave my side all week. We walked all around with his hand around my waist, just like the year before.
He is also my sponsored child, and I feel so so incredibly blessed to get to see him every summer.
Okay so that's Ricardo!

2009

2010

Alright. Unlike most days in San Luis, we actually could sleep in until 9ish.
But most of us were up by 7 anyways :)
I woke up in a fantastic mood, I knew I was gonna see my amigo today :)
So we ate breakfast and played with the kids for a while,
they are so cute in their church clothes.

Then church!!!!! We were sitting in church before the service started, and the boys from Oasis got there.
I saw Ricardo and I was so excited! I went up to him and tapped on his shoulder.
He turned around and when he saw me he gasped and said "Gianna!!" and gave me a huge hug.
I could have cried.
We sat together in church, just like last year.

Nina and I did our testimonies.
Oh my gosh, if I tell you how great Nina is, this will be the longest blog post you've ever read.
But her testimony was so awesome. If you don't know Nina you should because she is just so great and everything God has done in her life is so great and her love for Him is insane.
Then I did my testimony, and Ricardo took a video of part of it but I had to delete it for camera memory purposes.
But it turned out that the verse I used, and what Nina and I talked about, was exactly what Ken had already been planning to preach on that morning.
And we had no idea.
God is so great!

After church I talked to Ricardo for a while. I overheard him talking to some of the girls at the orphanage and he said "She was Ruth's best friend."
Tears!?!? If you don't know who Ruth is, there's a blog post about her from back in June, read away :)
We hung out in the back of the church until he had to go.

Then a little girl came over to me. She just stood in front of me and stared at me. I knelt down and started to talk to her, but she didn't say anything back except for that her name is Mili.
She just kept staring at me, so I held out my arms to see if she wanted me to pick her up.
She walked towards me and put her little head down on my shoulder.
So I picked her up, and she just kept staring at me.
She saw my necklace I was wearing and was fascinated by it.
She played with it forever.
Then a woman came up and told me they had to go.
I asked if she was her mother, and she told me no, her grandmother.
She said their mother was gone but I wasn't sure if she meant she was away, or gone gone.
She told Mili to give me a kiss, so she wrapped her little arms around my neck and kissed me on the cheek.
When the grandmother tried to take her she clung to me.
It was sad and sweet at the same time.

Later we went to the boys' home.
When we walked in Ricardo was sitting at a table playing with a toy I got him.
He gave me a hug the second he saw me.
I'm so glad he's there, loved and safe and taken care of.

Later we went to the taco stand, but as far as ministry, today was more of a relaxed day.
Stay tuned for tomorrow, getting up at 4:30 to paint ;)
No but really, Sunday was amazing and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Thank you to everyone who helped me go to Mexico and I hope you all keep reading!