Guest written by our niece Jeanette.

Tuesday night I was blessed to be invited to attend the kindergarten graduation of a young lady named Areli.  Areli is the middle child of Pastors Rey and LuLu here at Getsemani Church in Galeana.  She looked beautiful and did an excellent job walking the stage to receive her commemorative diploma.  Afterward, we were all invited to attend a wonderful dinner at Rey and LuLu’s home.

Wednesday morning dawned as being relatively dry, but the afternoon brought more rain.  The morning was spent starting all the preparations for our Thursday trip to Canoas.

First, we started out by going to the local bulk food store to obtain the contents of the Blessing Bags.  No, you cannot even begin to picture what this store is really like.  When we say bulk food, you immediately picture Costco or Sam’s, don’t you?  Well, you have it all wrong.  This is simply one room (about 30 x 30 feet) with pallets of flour, sugar, rice, beans, coffee, etc. stacked all around.  However just like in America, the store buys in large quantities so the price is slightly lower.

After assembling the Blessing Bags, Stephen, Lori and I drove about 8 miles out of town to a local cenote for a little tourism…“Turista”.  The cenote, called Pozo del Gavilán, is about 196 feet wide and about 260 feet deep.  It was definitely an interesting natural phenomenon to view.

Next we headed to Puente de Dios…or the Bridge of God.  Here we were treated to a spectacular view of a naturally occurring rock arch carved by many years of flowing water.  Slightly further down the road, a large cave contains a waterfall and abundant ferns.

Soon after , we quickly returned to Galeana in time to attend the uplifting Wednesday night services at Getsemani Church.  Tomorrow we make the trek to Canoas, which is about a two-hour drive deep into the mountains.  Until tomorrow, Dios te bendiga…God Bless You.

 

This week we have a guest writer, our niece Jeanette who is here visiting and helping with the ministry.

Monday, July 10^th marked the one year anniversary of Marcos 10:14 Kids Club and my daughter Lori and I had the privilege of attending.  The local pastors and teachers created a magical atmosphere to celebrate the milestone. The festivities included a petting zoo, pony rides, and many games which were all surrounded by a western theme.  There were more than 100 children in attendance.  The children also performed several Christian songs that they had been practicing for weeks.

One thing is for certain, the children were extremely excited to be at the fiesta and truly grateful for all the food, cake, prizes, and love that they received while there.

Today was also Stephen’s Birthday (a.k.a. Esteban), and the Marcos 10:14  teachers prepared a special surprise for Stephen where the children sang “Happy Birthday” in English while holding paper letters that also exclaimed Happy Birthday.  After his birthday song, Stephen was gifted with countless hugs from the children and handmade birthday cards.  Afterward, they promptly served him an excellent cake…yes, as you can see from the pictures he narrowly avoided getting his entire face pushed into the cake. To top it off, Patty put together a video celebrating Stephen’s Christian walk/ministry. It was so thoughtful and brought tears to all of our eyes.

I can honestly say what stood out to me today at this gathering were two things… joy and love.  You can see that all the pastors and teachers truly love these children and that the children experience great joy in being at Kids Club.  Smiles and hugs abound here.  After attending this event, my hope is that each one of these children carries the love and joy of God in their heart and may Kids Club continue for many years to come!

“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” Mark 10:14

P.S.  Feliz Cumpleanos Tio!