Valentines Day! What a day of love displayed today. The day started off early today. Most of the guys were up 6:00. We are blessed with having families on this trip. Marc won the prize for the most creative valentines. He spelled Heather and a heart with cheerios on the table. Larry shared his cards from home. Rebecca handed out Princess cards to everyone. Good thing Gerrid bought Val the rose yesterday. Clearly we are all blessed with love of family.
After breakfast, a group went for a walk up the road. Brian (head of Children of Hope) led the guys to see to new potential sites for the boys. One about 3-4 acres was right next door and another about 7 acres was a few properties down. Brian has had conversations with the owner of the 7 acres. Apparently his asking price is about $450k Canadian. Land is not cheap as the city is growing up to Pan de Vida. The next major purchase and build will need to be for the boys. They will be returning to Pan de Vida in 2 weeks from their offsite location. Pan de Vida can no longer afford to keep a second location for the boys. As the current boys dorm is limited they are trying to find homes or other orphanages for 10-20 of the oldest boys.
The boys began to arrive from their offsite location. After our walks we had Sunday School at 10:30. Bobbi and Ira shared their story of how they came to be living at Pan de Vida. What an amazing story of calling and commitment. They are just learning Spanish. I don't know how Ira handled all the negotiating for purchases, labour, etc without any Spanish the first year and half.
Church started at 11:30. With all the boys back the service had over 150 people (adults and kids). A great service of signing and sharing. Heather read a letter from Don McIIlwraith. A lady shared how she is on a mission trip to Rome. She was a child of Pan de Vida. What an amazing story to hear not only about her ministry but also how thankful she was for simple things in Mexico and Pan de Vida (water, showers, food, safety, etc). The service ran late due to all the extras.
We had lunch at 1:30. Spaghetti. After lunch we went to play with the kids. A group gave out stickers. A few kids covered themselves with the stickers. The boys played football. A few of us guys played football with the girls. A few of the Pan de Vida girls play on a flag football team. You have to see them throw. Thirty yards, straight as an arrow and perfect spiral. Others played tag, handed out heart shaped suckers and just visited with the kids. The 7-11 opened up for a while. It's a canteen for the kids. We shared snacks. There is a prize draw for free bags of Taci's. The kids latch on asking for the bag hoping to win a free bag. Before we knew it was 5:00.
A few of our team gathered to sign before supper. Supper was the best tuna fish in a pita I have every tasted followed by cake.
There as a birthday a week ago for one of the boys. After diner they strung 2 pinatas across the compound for the boys. What fun and excitement!. We were all out watching. After the pinatas we played chase, gave shoulder rides and visited with the boys. There was a new boy. Four years old who just wanted to be hugged and carried. He was here for about 1 week. The "Def" which is the child authority in Mexico rescued him along with his brother. He broke my heart.
The kids wore us out. We played until they had to go to bed.
After devotional Brian shared some of the current needs at Pan de Vida. It seems the biggest need right now is commercial washers. Currently all the kids laundry is done with used household washers. The team will decide in a few days about all our collections will go.
Everyone stayed up playing games tonight. I learned how to play spoon. It was a lot of fun with 10 people.
What a totally amazing day.
Greg
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