Day 4- VBS

It was a fun afternoon with the kids for VBS.  The theme for today was Courage and the bible story was David and Goliath.  We started with songs led by Jay (Jesus loves the little children - Christo ama a Los Ninos todas ninos del mondo) and Jesus es la luz (Jesus is the light).  There is part of one of the songs that has a boom boom boom part to it where the chicos and chicas compete to sing it the loudest.  The chicas won today :)

We then told the bible story "kabuki style", with 3 people playing "puppets"  of Saul, David and Goliath.  They could only move when their puppet keepers moved them.  It was pretty funny to watch and got some good laughs.  It was kind of a challenge because the story was being narrated in Spanish, but not all the puppeteers spoke Spanish!  Delaney had fun playing the role of David.  Terry had fun taunting her as Goliath.

David es el rey (the king) and Miriam was his puppeteer

Terry was Goliath, and Don and Chris were his puppeteers

Delaney was David and Ally was her puppeteer, although as a puppet she was pretty independent minded.

Don helping with crafts

For craft time, the kids then made their own armour out of paper grocery bags.  Several of them chose to write scripture on them.  I found this a particularly nice touch because it was not part of the specific instructions that they were given.

One of the suits of armor made by the kids - "If He is with us, who can stand against us?"

Group photo from the first day of VBS

They played several games and then wrapped up with snacks and songs.  We had about 10 kids.  We are hoping to go door to door in the neighborhood tomorrow with invitations and get more kids to join the fun.

Day 4 - additional project

In addition to the painting, there was some carpentry work to be done.  There was a large hole in a wall between two of the downstairs rooms that needed to be filled in.  Don and Chris, our handymen, got assigned this job.  They decided to make the framing a built in storage unit facing one room, and then to sheetrock in the other side.  Chris noted that it was a particular challenge to do this project with the limited supplies on hand.  Don had brought his tools along, but they could not go to Home Depot and buy whatever additional materials they needed, they had to make do with what was already on hand, or available at the small ferretaria (hardware store) down the street.

Hole in the wall to be repaired

Chris and Don - our handy men

Day 4-meals

We've been provided with some good meals thus far:

Lunch for the road:  homemade burritos
Dinner out at restaurant:  every choice of grilled meat possible.  I got steak on an extra thick corn tortilla with yummy cilantro sauce.
Breakfast prepared by the church women:  eggs with veggies and refried beans
Lunch:  corn tortillas with shredded meat and pico and this strange lime seasoned Alfredo on spaghetti.  (Quite ironic since Delaney had just been sating that she wanted pasta!  She didn't care for the pasta, but did try the meat and tortilla and ate most of it.  I was proud of her!
Dinner:  crispy tortilla with refried beans and cheese with pico de gallo.

There  is a lot of blender use here for fruit drinks.  We've had cantaloupe and watermelon slushies several times.

David reading scripture for our devotional

Delaney trying something new to eat! 

Dinner at Voz de Desierto.  

L to R:  Jay, Don, Delaney, Miriam, ?, Pastor Ramon (back center), Bill (hat), Matt, Chris, Ally.

This was the hallway/dining area with our sleeping room at the rear and the kitchen to the right.

Church kitchen.  Three meals a day were prepared for 20+ people in this space.  Amazing.

Day 4-big paint job

There are two main activities that are keeping our group busy during our stay in Hermosillo...we are painting the interior of a brand new sanctuary at Voz del Desierto (voice in the desert), as well as the exterior, and we are leading vacation bible school in the afternoons.  The painting is a big job!  I worked on the interior and Delaney helped in both places.  She actually helped roll the high walls with the extension roller! There is a high ceiling that requires a long extension.  The exterior is actually a three story reach from street level.  Pastor Bill ended up standing on the top of the church van with a long extension roller to get to the top!

We had a brief scare this morning when one of the members of the church had a ladder slip from underneath him.  He was at the very top.  He was a bit bruised, but nothing broken (except the ladder). He found a couple of coat hangers and jury rigged the ladder so it could be used again.  Someone helped hold the bottom for him the rest of the morning so it didn't happen again.

It was very satisfying to make the brand new sanctuary look so nice and fresh with the paint.  I was especially thinking of my friend Laura today and employing all her good painting tips..  I can't wait to see what it looks like when we are finished.

Delaney

Delaney and Terry

Nita, Carolyn and Miriam

Nita scraping glue off the walls with a kitchen knife in preparation for painting

Miriam doing the high rolling.  Fernando is behind on his make shift ladder.

Delaney with the high roller

Bill working on the highest part of the exterior

Day 3 - Arrival at Voz de Desierto

After our long drive from Agua Prieta, we finally arrived around 8:30 pm in Hermosillo.  Thankfully we had decided not to try to worship with the church community that evening or they would have been waiting for us for a while.  We were several hours later than we planned.

We drove through town for a ways to go out to a restaurant that Pastor Ramon recommended.  I was totally astonished to see the number of familiar retail outlets that we passed.

We are staying in a large room that used to be the sanctuary before the new sanctuary was built.  It does have a working swamp cooler which we are very grateful for.  The pastor, Pastor Ramon, lives next door with his wife and four kids.  The new sanctuary has been built on the top of the existing building.  Its pretty ingenious how they have reinforced the walls/ceilings of the first story to support the second story.  They also added an extra storage space area on the first floor to allow the sanctuary upstairs to be just a bit wider.

Dinner out at a restaurant on our first night in Hermosillo

Church (R) and Pastor Ramon's house (L) with the new upstairs addition 

(accessible by ladder from the back of the house)

Our sleeping space with the collection of computer equipment for an after school study space for kids and teens

Room that used to be the sanctuary

front of the new sanctuary

rear of the sanctuary

balcony of sanctuary

Front of the church building with stairs going up to the sanctuary

Day 3-drive through the mountains

We drove another 7 hours south from Agua Prieta to Hermosillo.  The church had packed us a lunch for the road (bean or beef burritos).  After 4 different credit cards failed to pay for fueling the van, one of our Mexican partners took care of the charge...call to the bank needed.  The highway was mostly two lanes and took us through some beautiful mountain country.  The road was narrow and winding, but we were in good hands with Jay driving.  Some crazy drivers were passing on blind curves and there was a lot of truck traffic.

Headed into the mountains toward Hermosillo from Agua Prieta

Looking back toward Agua Prieta

Typical stretch of road, except you don't see a crazy driver trying to pass us...

Coming out of the mountains on the west side, not far from Magdalena

We were stopped at a check point by the federal police who were looking for illegal arms shipments and drugs.  They were polite and let us pass without difficulty.  We had another stop for customs.  All the passenger cars drove off the road onto the dirt and bypassed the truck traffic being inspected.  They made us open the trailer, but didn't delay us much.  Fortunately we had the correct license paperwork for the van thanks to the long initial wait at the border.

I would have liked more pictures of the security stops, but others in the van didn't think it was a good idea to be openly snapping photos.  They were probably right.

We made a pit stop at The equivalent of Quick Stop (called OXXO).  It had the cleanest bathroom we've seen since leaving Wichita.  Our second stop saw our first pay toilet, 5 pesos (approx 50 cents).  Unfortunately we had left the informal "dollar zone" and had not gotten any pesos yet, so our Mexican partners helped out again.  An effort to access the ATM (cajera) was unsuccessful (broken).  This made it kind of hard to pay the toll on the toll road > thanks again partners who saved the day!

The OXXO (pronounced Ox-O) stores were everywhere!  On every street corner.

Day 3-worship service

We enjoyed worshiping with the congregation at Lily of the Valley on Sunday morning.   Delaney and Matthew joined the kids in Sunday school while the adults met our partners from Agua Prieta who would be joining us on the trip to Hermosillo (Miriam, David, Joca, and Ally).  Delaney was fast friends with the other little girls.

The service was very comfortable. Mark provided translation for us.  The band sang a lot of praise songs, including two special ones in English and Spanish.  We also sang a song for them in both English and Spanish.  Lots of gracious smiles for our imperfect Spanish.  We felt especially welcome by the congregation as they greeted everyone with handshakes all around.  I even got a welcome kiss on the cheek.  There was mostly music for the first hour,  then a message by Pastor Rudolfo from Hebrews 5.  I have heard sermons on this passage before, but he had a new take about what to do when you are no longer 'drinking from bottles like a babe' in your faith.  Instead of throwing the bottle away, you save it for someone else who is new in their faith and share it with them, even as you go on to 'eat meat' and grow stronger in your faith.

The sanctuary was still under construction, but was looking really good.  They had a good sound system for the band and a projector for the words for the songs.

Lily of the Valley sanctuary

Pastor Rudolfo (on the left)

David playing guitar (screen:  Welcome.  Christ loves you)

Los Americanos cantar  (singing for the congregation)

One of three Sunday school rooms - we were practicing to sing for the service

Jay with his guitar - leading us in song