Monday, March 20, 2006

Como te llamo?

I was listening to a song earlier by Caedmon's Call, the chorus was A perfect love is a world without hunger. This band just made a cd by traveling around the world and living in different cultures. They wrote songs about the people they met, in the style of the country, and often had the people sing with them. It's an incredible cd.. It's spring break, and I just got back from Nogales, Mexico on a mission trip. I went with my family's new church, and we got to paint a church building that the men had already built the week before. I'd only been in mexico once before, and it was only about 2 miles inside the border for a few hours at an orphanage. We were driving on Sunday and ust as we got to Tucson, it started snowing. mmhmm, that's right folks. And it did not stop, it snowed in Mexico.. and it was cold. We stayed in a church just across the border, and there was no heat; we drank hot chocolate. Anyways, we got to the church where we were staying and then headed out again to try to find the church where they wer having the service that night... well we tried. The streets in that city are... amazing. But not in a good way. We stopped twice to ask for directions before finally giving up and going to dinner. We ate at a restaurant there, and the tacos were incredible! Near the end of dinner a clown came out and, seeing a big table of Americanos, he came over and proceeded to make balloons for almost every person at the table. He was extremely good at making them, he blew them up with his mouth (wow) and he made penguins, tweety bird, I got a flower, but my dad's was best of all... a teenage mutant ninja turtle! We woke up to a nice clear sky, and headed out to the church we were to work on. The church was, I think, four miles away, and it took half an hour to get there. With 4 wheel drive. RPBC has been sort of sponsoring this church for a couple of years. They built the foundation and the walls last year? and then this year put on the roof and painted it. The church started with three adults, including the pastor, and 20 some odd children. Let the little children come! they have been meeting faithfully in that little building with no roof for a year. Now it's the best building in five miles. I kept complaining in my head about the cold. I did. Then I saw the houses these people live in. Bits of cardboard and metal pieced together to form some sort of shelter. I did notice though, that these people are much different from the "poor people" in America. They are clean, their clothes, their houses, and their yards are clean. And they make it cheerful with color, and little gardens, and with their smiles. Something to think about So by mid morning the sun was warming us up, and the bano arrived (the best bathroom there, I mean better than where we were staying..), and lunch was on the way so all was right in the world. When the pastor arrived the games began... I have never seen an adult have so much fun playing with a bunch of kids. It gave me so much joy just watching them play. It was quite a game of futbol, I tell you what. He loves those little kids so much, I can't even begin to describe.. it was jesus. It was Jesus coming through Santiago playing in that dirty street. I have more to say, but I have to think about it for a while before it'll come out coherently haha. I'll leave you with something I heard one time... ~We have been called to right the wrongs that have been called the way things are.~

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