Redeeming Love Church Team

ALLIGATORS, TIGERS, BULLS

Sunday was another beautiful day! We work up and had banana pancakes, then Christy lead a devotion on God´s strength. Later at Nations Church we had a wonderful time of worship and a sermon from Jerry on how God has so much more for us. On the way home near the church, we saw a tiger in a cage right on the street!

Dunng luch at Esperanza Viva we celebrate Christy´s birthday by singing "Happy Birthday" to her in front of everyone! She didn´t know that the team knew it was her birthday. We didn´t have a lot of time to spend with the children since today was our day to spend the afternoon in Cholula, but we did enjoy watching 3-years-old Ximena sing the fishy song that Alisha taught her.

Cholula was wall-to-wall people since it was the last day of a month-long festival celebrating Mexico´s Independence Day. There were tons of vendors selling everything from colored chicks to jumping beans. We had so much fun taking in the sights and smells and bargaining for the best deals. There were bull rides and pony rides available and a small tram full of children thata travelled right through the crowd! We even saw a couple carrying their pet alligator. All in all, it was a fun and eventful day.

Terry Tomsen

FRIDAY BLOG

"Get up, get up, devotions in 45 minutes we are running late and we have to eat-Ruth what are we eating this morning, eggs, muffins what- get up..."

So our Friday morning started. Quick eat, quick devotions the van will arrive in a few minutes. The van was a few minutes late but right on time for this group.

It rained pretty much all night Thursday and Friday morning and I wondered how the dirt roads were. Very muddy, large lakes covering the road what a little of both were found.

We arrived at the orphanage and headed to the print shop to apply three transparent sticky buttons to the news letters so they can be mailed out. We finished the three thousands news letters, with eight people working in three and one half hours.

Lunch time is miracle time. High school students, who line at the orphanage, do the cooking for many of the staff and all the children who live at the orphanage. The best part of all the lunches we have had is they taste delicious!

Chaos time. Craft time is controlled chaos. Kids creating photo albums and collages. Paper flying everywhere, kids reaching over each other as they eye a special design on the paper.

Pack up it´s time to head back to the condo. We are exhausted and need the down time.

Steve Ellenwood

OF WATER BALLONS AND A GOOD SOAK

After an evening filled with excitement and adventure including, but not limited to, a Mexican Independence Day Party, a broken bus leading to a late night highway stroll, and A LOT of sugar- I woke up this morning ready for surprise, I was not intending to get so intimately familiar with the impact of a water balloon today though.

The day began in a relaxed fashion as all we had on our morning agenda was shopping in Puebla. Our fearless guides, Emily and Nancy were there to ensure our safe-keeping, and provide that valuable service translation. Half of our group chose to embark on the Turibus, a scenic bus tour of historical Puebla, leaving the rest of us free to shop in the Art District- after a much needed coffe break, of course.

Several hours, hundreds of pesos and one McDonald´s stop later, we arrived back at EV, hot but pleased with our well spent time. After lunch, we began tha day activities, which began innocently enough. Candy had the inspired idea to have a water balloon fight, since it was a little warm and the littlest children were the only kids there, for the most part. I (lucky me) got nominated to fill water ballons.

Willingly enough, I borrowed 3 of Molly´s charges and we hastled up to the girls bathroom to start filling up balloons. But in the process of filling, someone (who shall remain nameless) may have dropped a ballon, thus causing the water fight to begin a little early for an innocent bathroom and 4 less than-innocent girls. Eventually we finished, and brought the now extremely heavy bucket of 150+ waterballoon out to the rest of the children.

The fight was absolute insanity! Screaming children, exploding water-filled missiles and everywhere, a giggling child poised for the attack. I like to think I did well to be sure, I hit no one, but I got hot at least 6 times. That´s a fairly good score, in my book.

In the end, it was another excellent day in part of a long sucession of excellent days. This trip has been so amazing: making new friends and renewing old friendships. I feel so blessed to be part of this team, and can´t wait for what tomorrow has in store.

Alisha Tomsen