Mexico Trip!

Saturday we went to Mexico.

I've posted about these trips before, even though it isn't TECHNICALLY stories about the teens... the trips have made such an impact on me, and so I want to remember them and share them.

The trip went well and pretty smoothly other than getting stopped at the border going in. See we have several car loads of stuff and technically you aren't supposed to do what we're doing. So they stopped us at the border (which has never happened before). I didn't really know what was going on, because they were speaking in Spanish.

Luckily, Sam translated: We're going to jail.

The good news is he was joking (of course I didn't know that, and I panicked just a little bit). The bad news is we had to pay a small fine. But then we went through the border and continued on our way.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took:


Pastor Orlando and a little girl that we have gotten to know from repeated trips, Carla. (more of her from another trip here)
David, Sam, Pastor Orlando, Me and Javier
Patty (one of my teens) and me
Sam and some of the kids in the background... and me laughing at him trying to take the picture of himself.
Me and Carla and another little girl.
Helping the kids with backpacks... that was the main thing we took this time... school supplies.
Waiting in line.
Mango and me... you may remember him from a previous post
Mango and me again...
One of Pastor Moises' twins and me.
We raffled a bike that was donated and here are all the little boys with the winner (he's the one in the middle smiling)
Me and Javier handing out backpacks.
Me and David (he's one of our Spanish pastors, and my friend)
George and Mango in the car on the way to the next stop.

It was a successful trip. It's so much fun to see the kids' faces... They woke up thinking it was going to be like any other day, and then suddenly we show up with all these things for them. There's something so cool about that. And yet, when we leave, it always feels like we haven't done enough. It's hard for me to understand why I have a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear, a car to drive, and a job to go to, when these people have almost nothing.... and it's just because of where I was born. I was born here and they were born there. So I continue to pray for them, and love them and do what I can... I don't know if I will ever understand why... but I am so blessed every time I go... I think sometimes more than we bless them, THEY bless US!