So many kids for VBS we had to lock the doors.

The kids table

Yes, even in Mexico there's a kids table. It was good to have a place for Mike to sit where he could relate.

Family dinner with wonderful laughs and hugs

Dedication service with beautiful grasias signs made by the kids

Dinner and some tears

What a wonderful day! The highlights include a dedication service for the family whose home we built and a meal together. The service was a blessing as the kids made grasias signs and the grandmother sang a beautiful hymn she wrote. Tonight we invited the family over for dinner were we are staying and just had a blast. We shared stories of how we met, fun things about our families and great laughs when language was too complicated to worry about.

As with any journey into a new place where you make new friends it's sad to leave. One of the daughters is 11 years old. All week long she rolled up her pants legs and worked as hard as everyone else. Tonight at dinner she had her mom to fix her hair in a French braid sort of pattern and wore a beautiful dress with her best shoes. She was oh so proud and she made me think of my own daughters about the same age. At the end of the worship service she came over and gave me a hug then turned quickly away. After following her I saw her tears and it got me going too. There we were the two of us with wet, concrete laidened tears flowing down our cheeks. At dinner tonight we sat together and share some great laughs.

I just can't help but imagine what it would be like if the tables we turned. What if I was in a make-shift house with my family of 5 and 4 others? Where would they sleep? How in the world could I feed them all, much less send the to school (there is no public school) all on a salary that never really met the absolute basics? Then in my mind I image this little girl's Dad showing up with some friends and building a home along side my kids slinging mortar and cement blocks.

Yes, it brings me to my knees. As brothers and sisters in Christ we are to share God's love even when it's difficult. It could just as well be my little girls sleeping under that torn blue tarp tonight. And it could just as easily be me riding a bike with a basket on front that I ride on all day to collect plastic bottles along the side of the road. Or it could be my wife sitting on a street corner with a sewing machine repairing shoes and clothes just to bring home a few pennies a day.

It's difficult to keep things short sometimes. Sorry if this has gotten a little long. I think the apathy that builds like creosote on my heart has been cleansed again and I can begin to feel God in the blisters on my hands and the cuts all long my legs. Maybe, just maybe God gave us all a glimpse of heaven....

For the team- Mike Womble

Gifts and a Roof

There's nothing like getting absolutely covered in dirt and grime with friends that buiild bonds. Today we spent the morning finishing a roof for a house build by First Presbyterian Church in Athens, AL. It was exhausting work, but thrilling to see the end result. We are all fulfilled in seeing a home complete.

Our group was giving the option of resting in the afternoon or working some more on the home we built previosly. We decided to do the work. The volunteers were surprised, but the commitment we showed connected with them and they pitched in dispite the heat and sore backs from the morning's work. Even David Rodriguez, the current director of Faith Ministry came and mixed cement with everyone.

The ladies took time to get to know the family closer and then went shopping for school supplies for the 6 children. Erika asked that we not get a house warming gift, but rather school supplies. Education is the key to opportunities around the world, so providing supplies will help the children get one step closer.

If you'd like to learn more about Faith Ministires, please visit www.faithministry.org.

Thanks for the prayers and kind words.

School supplies for the family

Nurse Betty is doing great work in the clinic!

Rough looking crew

The burro and his master

A piece of string can be hours of fun

I wonder if I gave most of us gave our children a wheelbarrow and a piece of string if they'd sit and play with it for hours?

Wire ties and and deep love

Greetings from south of the boarder again. Everyone is doing well and feels healthy.

For a while now we have heard about security concerns along the US boarder. In some places the tension is very real and is a disappointing and unneeded threat. However, our time this week has been a blessing and has been very safe. We have seen no evidence of concern thus far and have 100% confidence in the leadership of Faith Ministries while here. Sure, security is always a real concern no matter where one lives. So there are guidelines that help us and our amigos to be smart and think safe. It is an honor to be among our amigos here in Mexico and everyone on the team has said they are glad they came.

Today we were blessed to work alongside the same volunteers that were here yesterday. We began mixing cement and poured a floor. Later we tied some rebar and prepared a roof to be poured for tomorrow. All the while our amigos worked tirelessly working on their tasks and building bonds with our team. They see teams come and go, so sometimes it's not always easy to bond. The unique thing with our team is members continue to ask about past friends. It's great to see that love build over time and no become short-lived. The current volunteers see that care and we hope will open their trust to us as we honestly seek to become their friends.

In Phillipans 1:9-11 Paul prays this regarding love for his friends, "[I pray] that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much, but love well." (The Message). It's fairly easy to love much- we are good at that in churches all across America and the globe. Thousands of church teams are mobilized around the world as I sit and type this blog. All of them (or at least most) are doing good work and are to be commended. However, I wonder if in our attempt to show love we end up spending more emphasize on loving much and less on loving well? Our prayer as a team and as ministry partners is that our love becomes so deeply connected that we can't help but to love well.

May we all go and love well.

Photo 3

Photo 2

Photo 1

New friends and Warm Salsa

Today we had a wonderfully warm day..ok, it was just a tad warmer than 106.  Despite the heat, it was wonderful seeing old friends and making new ones.  The home we starting building will be the home of Florencio and her children (see the image included to see Florencio).  The 4 children range from 16 to 7 and all of them pitched in mixing the mortar and even laying block.

It's amazing to see the hope in the eyes of the volunteers who were also on the job site.  All of the recipients of homes must help build all of the homes that year.  Some of the volunteers were even from previous years and didn't have to be there, but that chose to serve alongside this years recipients.  Everyone had such incredible faith that God will provided for their needs.  Some of them don't even know when, or if, a team will come build them a home, but they joyfully worked incredibly hard and shared their faith with out team.  we were privalidged to share lunch of beans, rice, chicken and some salsa that had a little kick to it.

As far as the work...we've done more in one day than we have ever seen.  We laid 10 courses of block and poured the columns.  For those who know what I'm talking about you'll appreciate what that means.  We plan to pour some flooring, a roof, and a foundation later this week.  Best of all we get to tell Bible stories and play some games at a VBS held in the clinic in which we are housed.  Stuart is thrilled to hand out candy and just play.

Feel free to send notes to the team via comments to the blog or my email (Mike's).

Adios!
The Mexico 2011 Team

see more of our blog at http://winterparkbaptist.blogspot.com

Is there oil?

This is an image of the Gulf of Mexico along the TX coast. Why is it we don't hear anything about the spill any more?

Rested and ready

Greetings blog followers! The Mexico team arrived in TX safely with only 1 bag missing. Everyone is well rested and ready for the encounters before us. After church this morning we'll get our supplies and head across the boarder after lunch.

According to the leaders at Faith Ministries and other people here in McAllen the situation where we are going is quiet and has been safe for some time now.

Keep praying for us and honoring God with everything you do

Mike Womble

(Sent from a mobile device)

Mexico Test

We're just getting ready to board to head off to Mexico.  Just wanted to send a test message

The Mexico Team

Helena, Arkansas

Greetings from Helena, AR!
All 18 made the long trip very well (those of us on the plane - me - had it a little easier.
We're staying at Helena Methodist Church. Very high heat index this week - so we're glad it's a swim camp. Going go New Hope Church this morning and then camp meeting in the afternoon. We'll have a big welcome dinner this evening with camp starting tomorrow morning.

I'll text some photos later today. Posted some on Facebook last night. Take care.

Richard Collier
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Last day in the DR

How do I put into words the experiences of this past week? There are no words that can do it justice. No words to describe what it is to meet s kid on Sunday and have him feel like family before the week is out. No words to describe the poverty it our own lives when we see all the love that these people have and give.

No doubt all 9 of us will tell a different story when asked what we learned. Be prepared and consider yourself warned if you do venture to ask the question for you may get an answer that seems to have no end.

It is an amazing thing to see love kick down the doors of a language barrier and be communicated through a few moments of playing with tinker toys.

As we step back on the plane tomorrow our lives will definitely not be the same. We have been changed. I don't know how someone can spend time around these boys and not be changed. It may take a while to process so please be patient if we cannot communicate all that we have experienced the moment we return.

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that as I get on that plane tomorrow I will leave a part of me here.

-Lance

PS - we went to the beach today, it was great. Here is a picture.
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Last day at the betay

Coates and Amber were both feeling better this morning - still stuffy but better. Brandon however woke up with a stomach bug, so he ended up staying back and resting this morning. Things at the betay were better today. Ruby and Katherine did face painting and the kids loved it! During our closing a guy rode up to Jared and Ashley (one of the long term volunteers) on a bike (he was probably late teens early 20's) and wanted to learn english so they got to work with him for a little while teaching him some basic English. It was cool to see how excited Jared was about that opportunity. We were all sad to leave the betay. Ruby had one girl that would not let go of her.

The afternoon here at the orphanage went good. The boys did great with the different parts of speech in spanish. When then worked on clearing a new field for some fruit trees to be planted (see the attached picture - they weren't all really working...it was posed). One of the boys I have connected with most here, Chipa, loves to take pictures with my camera. While working today I heard him yell my name, which from all the kids ends up sounding more like Lancey. He got the camera and next thing I knew he was off in some trees getting pictures of flowers and being creative. It has been cool to see him come out of his shell. Chipa LOVES to take pictures. He will literally snap 20 of one person at one time. One of the days he got my camera at the betay and I'm pretty sure he took a solid 200+ pictures. It will be fun to load pictures on to my computer after this trip because I literally have no clue what they will be like. Tonight we had another game night with the boys. This one was a little more free so most of it was spent on their playground just playing and having fun.

The boys joined us again for the large group devotions. It was neat having them there. Terrill, the Orphanage Outreach leader here, wanted them to experience worship with us. We sang a few different worship songs and then closed the night singing Amazing Grace. Katherine has informed me that she is going to chain herself to her bed on Saturday so she doesn't have to go home. She wants to stay.

Tomorrow we will go to the border city of Don Jaibon (I think that's right) to see the market there. We are going so we can truly experience the culture, to see more of the real DR. After that we will see some of the city of Monte Cristi and get to spend a little bit of time at the beach.

Annette, on Saturday we will be JetBlue flight 1109 from JFK arriving at RDU @ 11:54PM.

From the mission field,
Lance
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4th full day in the DR

Today started off a little crazy at the betay. The kids were wild. I still think the kids got something out of it, they were just very wound up. Recreation went well but it was hard to get them to listen to much else unless we were singing. We are all definitely getting a good arm workout holding kids. Literally the moment we put one down another one is standing there with arms straight up wanting to be picked up. Tonight during our team devotion/debriefing of the day I asked something about something good that happened today and Ruby, Katherine, Donna, and Libby all said, "I picked up a naked kid!" It was hilarious to see how proud they were of that fact.

Amber woke up stuffy and not feeling too great but she cleared up once we got going. Coates also woke up not feeling to great but he didn't clear up so he stayed back and slept this morning. Don't worry Annette we are taking care of your baby boy. He got to feeling better and helped out this afternoon.

It was as if something clicked with the boys at the orphanage today. They all seemed to finally open up to us. We read to them this afternoon and of course my kid kept picking out the books that were only spanish. Thankfully he would only let me "read" a sentence or two before flipping the page, because I was struggling with my redneck spanish. At one point he got out a book with loads of objects and the spanish and English word beside them. I'm still not sure but I think he was trying to quiz me.

We worked in the field again (see attached picture). It is always funny when its time to head back because the boys will not let us carry the hoes they want to see how many they can manage to carry. They will start yelling at us if we try to walk back with one or help them out.

As soon we were done in the field (before even walking back) the Haitian kid found me and managed to communicate that I needed to go get the gloves and a ball. I was real excited. I just could not find the small glove and he wasn't happy about it. He kept telling me over and over (in spanish) that he needed a smaller one. I tried my best with the little spanish I knew to tell him I couldn't find it but he didn't care. Finally after he sent me looking for the 5th time I managed to locate it. We were playing catch but Donna made me move because she was also playing catch and was afraid she'd hit me with the ball since she apparently can't aim well. Coates found him a hammock today in the storage room and got that thing strung up between two trees. He had a nice siesta (see attached picture).

Tonight was really fun. We had activity night with the boys. We started out with a big game (too much to explain) that involved a lot of running and us making idiots of ourselves. Then we sat down at the tables where we eat and played games like connect 4 or trouble with them.

Tomorrow will be our last day at the betay, we are all sad about that. Going to the betay has been a highlight of this experience. It has been eye opening to go out into the community and see how people are living.

Mrs. Susan, Ruby wants you to call her work to make sure she is not on the schedule for Sunday and she says for you to bring Josh to the airport.

Please continue to pray for us. Amber and Coates both need healing and Brandon is starting to feel a little sick. It seems to be going around, a few of the long term volunteers have been feeling bad too. Thankfully with most its seemed to be a short lived bug.

-Lance

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3rd full day in the DR

Today went really well. We managed to get things more organized in the betay. All of the kids seemed to have a great time. We've been working on Spanish literacy with them and we've been trying to teach them some English (along with the Bible and recreation stations). Thankfully it isn't just our Winter Park team. There are multiple long term volunteers here that are pretty fluent in Spanish.

I noticed that Coates didn't have the naked children hanging on him today. He seemed to shuffle them over to Brandon. All the kids seemed to have really warmed up to us. They all want to be held at the same time. If we don't pick them up that doesn't phase them they just start climbing us. At one point Jared was holding 2 kids and I'm pretty sure there was a 3rd making his way up Jared's back. Jared walked over to me and goes "here take one...please." Each day we find ourselves wishing we had more time at the betay. So many of those kids just want to be held and loved. When we were heading back to the bus Donna had one girl attached to her. Donna completely let go and the girl didn't budge. We literally had to peel the girl off of her.

We are having a tough time with the boys at the orphanaget. Part of that is due to the fact that the long term volunteers from the 2 orphanages switched this past weekend so the boys only have a bond with on person here. We brainstormed tonight and are going to try approaching it from a different angle tomorrow.

It never ceases to amaze me how its the simple, unplanned moments in which love is best communicated. Tonight during free time before supper we were playing with the boys from the orphanage and I got to play catch with a small Haitian kid who has been picked on since he got here. It was neat seeing him open up through a game of catch.

It is great to see that our team, as tired as we all me be, is always ready every night for the next day to spend more time with the kids. Both Katherine and Donna are trying to figure out how to fit one in their suit cases.

By the way, all of you are welcome to write back. I don't keep my phone on all day, but whenever I cut it on I receive all my emails. Everyone loves hearing whatever email responses I get. I will relay whatever messages you send. Annette, today I had Donna read your email in her best Annette voice so Matthew would feel at home.

-Lance

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VBS in the DR

Today we went to a betay for VBS. It definitely not what we expected. To say it was wild and chaotic doesn't really cover it, but we adapted and it turned out really good. A couple of the older boys from the orphanage came with us to help explain the games and activities. It was great seeing them step into leadership positions. They will be helping us all week, which is a first for them. The kids seemed to live every moment of it. From singing the songs to the makeshift english bingo we created to playing freeze tag. As we left a lot of then walked us to our bus. We are all looking forward to going back in the morning. See the attached pictures of the VBS at the betay.

When we first arrived at the betay we began gathering the kids. Two of the little boys grabbed Coates' hand and then one reached for Coates to pick him up. So Coates picks him up and it was about this point that Coates realizes what the rest of us already knew - the boy had a shirt on but was completely naked from the waist down. Coates: "No, no, no, no..." and he sets the boy back on the ground and says, "Let's just hold hands." By this point we are all losing it. Later today when we were talking about it Coates said, "Lance, I felt like I done something wrong!" I was crying I was laughing so hard.

This afternoon we were working with the boys at the orphanage. That didn't go as planned, but again we adapted. We did manage to teach some of the creation story to them. As we were going out to work in the field with the boys we thought we were going to get a really bad storm but it passed.

We have a projector so tonight we had a movie night with the boys. We watched Shrek in Spanish (with English subtitles). About 10 minutes in Coates gets up and comes back to where I'm sitting and says, "I can't understand it!"

Around 9 each night we walk over to the church here on the grounds and have devotions with all the volunteers. The light wasn't working tonight and while they were trying to get that figured out someone with a flashlight pointed out a nice sized spider on the floor about to crawl under Libby's feet. She turned into stretch Armstrong and had her feet behind her head. I thought she was going to do a back flip out of the chair. Then I turned around to find Katherine standing on the tallest thing she could find. And she has spent the rest of the night combing the ground in front of her with a flashlight looking for spiders.

Donna has entertained us during down time today with her best Annette Coates voice. She is keeping Matthew in line.

Its been hot during the day but not too humid. Tonight it got pretty cool. During the movie most of our group put on long sleeves.

Tomorrows schedule should look a lot like today's. Hopefully knowing a little more what to expect will help tomorrow to be even better than today.

-Lance

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