#4--Reports from another mission trip

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Tonight was my last meeting of the session of my own church, Central Presbyterian in Atlanta, GA. My stint as an elder ended tonight. I will miss the meetings and the contact with the other elders and most of all, the deep spiritual satisfaction I felt when we worshiped together or when we struggled for consensus on difficult decisions. But, the relevant part about the meeting tonight was the reporting on the mission trip our representatives took to Merida, Mexico. Four people reported, and I was very moved by the depth of the experience they had working with the school for orphans.

There were 41 people from all ages, middle school to adult, on the trip from our congregation. They were painting, building walls, cleaning up, etc. The most important aspect of the trip was to meet with the leadership of Hogar
Mana, a home for sexually abused children in Kanasin, Mexico, a to draft a covenant that will guide the installation of their water purification system early next year. Several of our representatives participated in training on water systems before going to Mexico.

Paul Osborne, Church Educator of Central, sent us the following report from Mexico: It is 2:00 p.m. in Merida...A group is forming in front of the television for the World Cup game. Outside the office in the front yard, Wesley McDonald is at bat in a pick-up whiffle ball game. The members of the adult Living Waters Team are taking their turn cleaning up after
lunch and preparing to depart for the day. This morning the entire youth group of 25 and their advisors spent another morning in an acre-sized back yard area. A pile of large rocks (removed by our group) measuring approximately four feet high and 25 feet in circumference sits on a large concrete pad in the blazing sun. The shadow of clouds, some of them promising rain, skim over the terrain. Two other rock piles of the same size, also removed from the backyard, have been placed to create borders around 15 saplings and young trees. The waist high grass has been cut to a manageable length; the earth inside the borders of the trees is free of weeds and volunteer plants. The 12-foot wall which surrounds the compound has been whitewashed. 20 bags of weeds, trash, broken blocks, scrap metal, broken glass, and grass cuttings are stacked in the corner of the front yard. A path in the back yard has been recovered and
extended, lined by rocks from yet another pile, and splashed with the lime-water solution the group has been mixing every day. The path winds toward the chicken pen against the back wall, its roof sagging and dipping, its support posts bending and straining. A second path branches from the first and ends in the shape of a cross (an idea from our youth). On the top of the overflowing row of cubbies against the far wall of the classroom/dining hall/community room/boys sleeping dormitory/craft room/chapel are three pans of 200 sun baked clay necklaces which our group will distribute to the children of Emilio Zapata Sur after spending an hour and a half on our last evening with them...

Each day has been spent in rotating groups working outside with rocks and dirt and weeds and sun and inside with plans and crafts and tarps and balloons and paint as we prepared to take our music, stories, games, and spontaneous emotional fireworks to the street filled with children. We turned rough, broken cement and rock in to large blocks of fun. Huge tarps purchased from the local Service-Star and tape from Wal-Mart have become red, green, yellow, and orange playgrounds with hopscotch, four-square, jump rope, and more. Balloons have filled the air of the intersection: one minute, laughter at a silly game, the next, chapel-like quiet at the first sound of hand chimes. Each night is its own block party, but the children trying to get a glimpse of their favorite youth group celebrity, and the sight of their faces watching us leave as the darkness of powerlessness falls upon their community, remind us that we have brought only a moment of joy, a glimpse of affirmation, and some quickly fleeting affection. It is what we have to give and it has merit, but but we also know that tonight we will not be able to say, “See you tomorrow.” More later. Paul

Bringing Children and Books Together at Hogar Mana
Thanks to Centralite Kemie Nix, founder of Children’s Literature for Children (CLC), our Mexico partners in mission will be taking 56 new, hardbound books to the library at Hogar Mana, a home for sexually abused children in Kanasin, Mexico. A nonprofit organization, which began in 1972 at The Westminster Schools and is dedicated to bringing children and books together, CLC now provides programs to hospitals and schools throughout the US and around the world.

As Paul reported earlier in The WeeklyThe youth focus of the trip was to provide activities, Bible lessons, music, and more for the children on a daily basis. The adults separates into two groups: One worked with Living Waters for the World to install a clean water system and to investigate the feasibility of a system at Hogar Mana. The other group partnered with some of our youth to help with the construction of a recreation building at the home. The Jerusalem Choir provided music at special services in the area and at Hogar Mana.

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Comments

[Spook]

Sounds like the group from your church had a profitable time spiritually and received as much if not more than they gave - a definite effect of ministry! Thanks for sharing so much!