Wow!
I can´t believe that Outreach is almost over. Three more days here in Juarez working at Rancho Los Amigos and then it´s done! But before we get to information on that...let´s talk about Mazatlan.
Mazatlan:
Mazatlan is a beautiful city located on the west coast of Mexico on the Pacific Ocean. The water is so amazing and blue! The weather, even in winter, was sunny and hot. I loved it.
While I was there the 2013 Carnaval was happening. During the evenings the streets were lined with people and music could be heard everywhere. Unfortunately, it seemed like every two minutes you walked down a street you would reach another beer tent. This paints a terrible, but realistic picture for what the main purpose of Carnaval is: to get very, very drunk. The parents would be staggering down the street with their small children in tow. It was so heartbreaking.
For the Carnaval there were various areas of ministry to be a part of in order to reach out to the people. Evangelism inside the Carnaval gates, outside the gates, prayer intercession, beauty salon and a cafe. I was part of the cafe. We would set up every night from 8:30pm until 1:30am and hand out free coffee. It seems straight forward and lacking in evangelism, but we had a strategy! We lead people to the tables and two people from the local churches would be at the tables ready to talk about anything with the newcomers.
At first I was skeptical of this and thought no one would be responsive, but I was definitely very wrong. So many breakdowns and struggles were spoken of. With the use of a translator, my friend and I chatted with a man who had three daughters. All of his daughters were in prison for being drug traffickers. From what he said, the oldest was in her early 20s. That came as such a shock to me and I wanted to help him more but because he was slightly unsafe, we had to remove ourselves from the conversation.
By the end of Carnaval (which lasted around five days) 237 people had accepted Jesus as their Saviour, over 1,000 conversations were held and 4,000 cups of free coffee were handed out. I´m looking forward to Carnaval 2014 and hoping to have the opportunity to return and run a bigger children´s program than the one that was there this year.
The last few days of Juarez
It´s kind of scary to be almost finished with outreach, especially with all the responsibilities we have this week! My team and I are running the children´s home while the couple in charge goes on a much needed family retreat with his children (one of which is my outreach leader Beca). They all left this morning with their spouses and children for a few days in New Mexico.
Our day started at 5:30am. We got ready for the day then walked over to Rancho Los Amigos to wake the children up at 6am and help them tidy their rooms, do their hair and put their school uniforms on. By 7:35 all 30+ children were out the door and walking to school. I now have a few hours off until they return at 1pm and the day goes until bedtime at 8pm and then starts again the next day!
A Playground for Rancho
The last topic is....a playground! Here at Rancho the children play outside every day for at least a few hours. Their current play equipment is incredibly inadequate and unsafe. However, since the home is run entirely on donations, they do not have enough money to buy new and sufficient structures. Because of this my team and I were inspired to raise the funds for a playground for the home. We have located a company in America that builds playgrounds for schools and parks that we are going through to provide for Rancho. In the upcoming weeks we will hopefully have a website showing more information on our endeavor and ways to partner with the home and donate. Our time frame to raise the funds is roughly one year and we are applying for grants and contributing the $800 that was raised by our team members. If you know of any businesses or individuals who would like to be a part of our project please let me know! Mucho Gracias!
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