Tomorrow We Leave for the U.S.
All our vans are packed and most of us are already asleep — tomorrow we leave B2B at 6am for a long drive home from our week here. It has been a tremendous week and we have been touched by how God is moving in mighty ways in Monterrey to care for the needs of the fatherless here.
Today, we accomplished several major things today. The first was to shop for the immediate needs for a new home about a hour away from here that just called Todd and Beth saying their well is out and they have no food. At the same time, we had told Todd and Beth that we had additional funds to meet any need that came up while we were here or after we left. So, a couple of us went to Sam’s Club and purchased huge quantities of rice, milk, eggs, oil, dish detergent, clothes detergent and other essentials. I’ll talk more about that after I return home but there would have been about 40 kids and house parents going to bed hungry tonight had God not orchestrated our trip here and our desire to be His hands and feet. It’s not us, it’s Him. We just got the joy of being part of it.
The second thing we did was to pour the concrete slab that we had prepped earlier in the week at the Douglass House. It took a lot of work but we were able to complete it and then take about a dozen kids from that home to a park in Monterrey to hike up a small mountain. It is an oasis in the midst of a city of nine million.
The third thing was to hand out flip flop sandals that were provided to us by many of you (including many from Joshua and Steven’s class — thank you Mrs. Cravey and kids! — to many of the kids at the Douglass House. Joshua and Steven were front and center handing them out. What was amazing was that Rodolfo (a young man that lived at the Douglass House for many years and is now part of the Hope Teen Program at B2B and is now on staff with B2B and also speaks five languages) would ask each boy what size he wore and then hand him a pair. There was no asking for a different color, no complaining — they were truly grateful and content with what they were given. What a wonderful life lesson for me and certainly for our kids on this trip.
Thank you to everyone who supported us on this trip. We appreciate your prayers and support and look forward to returning home. Keep watching as I take some time to reflect on some of what I experienced here. I had several very emotional days and experienced enormous heart breaking just looking at the conditions many of these people live in — and they are joyful the entire time.
