So sorry I didn’t get to blog yesterday.  We had something come up during my time window to blog and I just couldn’t get to it.

So let’s see, Tuesday was another great day of ministry.  There were 5 older men who came to the soccer camp for the day and that was encouraging.  It brought the count up to 7 for the camp.  The TIME local director comes to play and he’s using this time to build relationships with folks.  He met somone today who used to come to the church 10 years ago.  So that was really encouraging to him.

The folks doing VBS at the daycare are having a blast with the kids there.  Several are special needs and our team is loving on them well.  The team is having a blast with the kids.

Our construction team mixed several yards of concrete and got 3 of 5 beams poured.  A great day of work.  The job foreman is quite happy with our progress.  Tomorrow should be a breeze.

Our park ministry went exceptionally well last night.  It was so much better than Monday night.  The games were a blast and the crowd was much more controlled because we basically figured out what we were doing.  Several more kids responded to the call to talk with someone about Jesus.  It was wonderful.

Our body life time last night was a rousing game of Over the Mountain.  Folks are still talking about it.  Add a slippery cement floor, alot of flip flops and about 40 people in a 10 x 15 rectangle of benches and what a recipe for fun.  We gave out the Pescador Award for our Billy Bass actor Reese.  He has done a wonderful job with that part.  We also gave an award for the girl with the “most cement on her” to Cody Jones.  She was a beast under the cement troughs.  Way to go Cody!

Have a great night.  I’ll update today, tomorrow! Gotta go get the troops to bed.

Mark

Well, what an amazing full day of minstry.

The day started with a 6am wake up call and a 6:30 devotional meeting.  Everyone was then set free for 45 minutes of quiet time before breakfast.  And I’m telling you, the food we are being served is amazing.  The three little Mexican ladies do a wonderful job of mixing traditional and American foods at each meal.  And we are really being fed well.

Robbi was feeling much better this morning.  Thanks for praying for her.

After breakfast we loaded up our vans and headed out to three ministry venues.

The construction team moved 40 wheelbarrows full of aggrigate from the ground to the second floor of a church TIME is adding on to.  That’s about 17 buckets of aggrigate per wheelbarrow times 40.  We accomplished that in under three hours.

The soccer camp had a very small turn out, but they had fun with what kids showed up.  We announced the camp at tonights park ministry so hopefully there will be more tomorrow.

The group that went to the daycare had a great group of about 20 kids all under the age of four years old.  What a blast they had playing with the kids and teaching them Bible stories and doing crafts with them.  They had a great time.   There are even a few special needs kids there.

This afternoon we went down town to shop at an open-air mall.  It was pretty hot but we were able to go into stores that had air conditioning…a wonderful treat.

After dinner tonight we went down to the park about a block away and had a wonderful turn0ut for tonights park program.  We played water games, had face painting and tons of bubbles flying.   We performed our spanish version of Billy Bass and friends puppet show and Gary Overman gave his testimony followed by a gospel presentation by the local pastor.  There were close to 80 kids there and that number will continue to grow in the next two days.

Just a few bumps and bruises after the day…the Lord has protected us well so far, please pray for that to continue.

I’m so excited about how our team is responding to the challenges they are being faced with.  It’s great to see the team come together and work together.  I’ll try and attach a pic or two, not sure if it will work or not.

Mark

We are at the end of a long day of ministry and some fun as well.

Our first night had a little bit of adjusting for folks.  Guys were sleeping on the roof of the three story dorm room under the stars.  Getting used to the humidity and the noise and city lights was a bit of an adjustment for sure.  One of our little guys struggled a little his first night away from his mom who is also on the trip but they can’t sleep together.  But with a little bit of coaxing, looking at stars and talking NASCAR with him he was out.

Today we had three Sunday services.  First I led our team with an hour little service which included worship led by Mike Davidson and Robbi Russell.  I was able to do the teaching which was a blast.  This was followed by a service led by our host TIME ministry folks; interns led worship and Rick, their leader brought the message.

In between we mingled with the Mexican church folks who were having their services as well.

After a great meat loaf lunch we took a trip down to the River Walk in downtown Monterrey.  It was a great time of just relaxing and walking along a very clean man made river and sidewalk with serveral places to get wet.  It is very hot, so it was nice.  We stopped and had ice cream or Mexican drinks at a little cafe.

Pray for Robbi, I think she’s suffering from a bit of heat stroke.  I gave her the “Hurly Girly” award tonight for being the first girl to well “hurl” on the trip.

We went to the Mexican church this evening and enjoyed their worship for sure.  The sermon was a little difficult to understand. 

We filled water balloons in preperation for tomorrow evening’s park ministry and then had great fun at our body life time tonight.  The cowboy beat the rock star to start the evening.  And Bill Lisle shared his testimony with us to end the evening.

Tomorrow starts three days of intense and hot ministry.  Please pray for safety from any more heat issues for the team.  We are having a great time getting to know each other and are ready to get going on our ministry days; Monday through Wednesday.

The funnest news of the day was that last night several kids accepted Christ after watching the Jesus Film.  What a joy to see the minsitry that simple movie had.  We served popcorn and juice.  There were probably 80 people here, so it was very exciting to see 11 kids come to Christ.

Please pray for the ministry we’ll be doing in the next several days.  It’s going to be great.

Mark

What a wonderful start to the trip.  Last night we left the church ON TIME and what a great team effort it was.  There was one neigh sayer in the crowd that said that all our stuff would not fit in the bus storage area.  Litterally 20 minutes later it was all in.  What a great effort.

Our first stop was down in Austin where a small group of folks from Austin Bible met us in the Walmart parking lot at 11pm and served us ice cream sundaes.  What  a treat.  Everyone enjoyed the break and grabbed a bite to eat as well.

Our next stop was in Laredo where we switched bus drivers and then headed to the border.  We got there at 4:30 am and unfortunately we were 30th in the bus line.  They said an hour earlier and we would have driven right through the place.   After an hour and a half we were expedited through the check point because we had all our paperwork in order.  They were very pleased.  And then, thankfully all we had to take off our bus was our luggage and not all the ministry stuff we had packed.  So the paperwork and a timely $20 bill and away we went.  SWEET.

We arrived in Monterrey about 10:00 am with our bus driver doing an impressive job of traversing narrow streets and backing a tour bus down an alley to turn around at one point.  Amazing to watch those guys work.  Anyway, we were dropped off at the door of Iglesia Christiana Elim all limbs attached and all noses accounted for.

After a quick cereal breakfast we negotiated putting all our stuff away, got our t-shirts, and made ready for a great lunch.

This afternoon we had an orientation meeting and small groups began touring the area close by, within the parameters given us by TIME.  Many also took the free time to take a siesta.

Tonight we will host the community and show the Jesus Film on the wall, we’ll serve popcorn to the folks and host them to the best of our ability.

Tomorrow is WM Church, English Church, and Spanish Church with a trip to Santa Lucia (a river walk) in town sandwiched in there.

I will check in tomorrow,  please keep praying for the relationships that we are continuing to form today and tomorrow on our team.  It’s over 100 today and long pants are a real bummer, but it’s what we will suffer with as we try and serve this community.   Grateful for your support.  Mark

Well, we leave for Monterrey in less than 24 hours now and I wanted to let you all know who was going on the trip and our schedule so you’ll know how to pray for us on a minute by minute basis…well minute by minute mexico time that is…things don’t always run too close to scheduled times down there.  But we’ve worked on being flexible.  So pray for us when you think of us.