East Hill Church Team

October 16, 2011

Travel Day – Praise God!  We made it.  No red lights through customs!  Arrived at our new home tired and hungry with all in good health and all twenty+ bags (suit cases) intact.   Unpacked, ate and went to bed very tired.

October 17, 2011

This morning we woke up to a beautiful blue sky and birds singing.  It was a perfect way to start our first full day in Mexico.  After breakfast we had our devotions.  This morning Lissa led us in scribble prayer.  It’s a form of visual prayer.  It was a fun, new way of hearing God speak to us.  We had a leisurely morning until our ride picked us up at 11:30am.

We were all excited to see the new dorm on the land.  When we arrived, we took a tour of the new buildings and saw all the beautiful tile, painting, the wonderful new bathrooms and beds – we were overwhelmed with what God has provided.

Those of us who are returning had wonderful reunions with our sponsor kids and everyone got to hug and laugh and cry.  After lunch with the children, we gathered them together for a name design activity.  Each child was given a large piece of paper in large letters across the page.  They then drew pictures that told a story about themselves.  It was a fun activity that truly showed their creativity and artistic talent.  We collected their finished products to use in an activity later in the week.  Next we passed out smooth rocks (no we did not bring rocks in our suitcases) along with paint and brushes.  The kids painted everything from frogs to butterflies to landscapes – all creations of God.

After we went home and had dinner, one of the missionaries, Anna/Bridget, came over to do devotionals with us and shared about how the most important thing is to pray to the Lord of the Harvest and He will send out the workers.  Then all went to bed because we were very tired!  =-)

October 18, 2011

Dan started off this morning with a great devotional on the Holy Spirit and we were all inspired.  Today was our first work project day.  One group dug out the earth to make a pad for a tool shed and hauled the dirt clear up by the front gate.  Another group deep cleaned the little kid’s bathrooms and another person did laundry and folding clothes.

After lunch we gave gifts to our sponsor kids and there were many smiles all around.  We also delivered the gifts you far away sponsors sent with us and the kids were very happy to receive their gifts.  Then we had our first time of visual prayer.  The kids learned about how to focus on what the Holy Spirit is trying to communicate with them through the medium of drawing.  Our prayer focus was for the Lord to show more about how we are feeling and the kids drew some amazing things.  Some of the pictures showed God’s glory, some talked about healing wounded hearts, some celebrated God’s creation.  We are looking forward to more visual prayer times throughout the week.

Our second activity was to decorate kite materials that we assemble and fly later in the week.  We had two large octopus kites that flew very high in the great winds that blow across the land.  So good, in fact, that one blew over into the neighbor’s property to be rescued later.

After activities was a great time of worship with the staff.  One of the staff members gave the team a word of encouragement about the difference it makes to keep on giving, not just once but time and again.  Once worship was finished, Karen hopped up to go join the kids troup and ended up leading the kids in the peacock dance.  An video opportunity!

We’re all a bit tired from the work and it’s pretty quiet around here…think that lights out will be early!