Church/Mother's Day

I had an amazing 2nd Mother's Day this year. Being in Mazatlan for Mother's Day (and Dia de las Madres a couple of days later!) is something I probably won't ever forget. The Mazatlan pastor had asked Pastor Jose if he would preach at both the La Vina English service and the Francisco Madero's Spanish Service. With one day's notice they also asked if our team would do the Children's service. No problem! I looked up a couple of lesson ideas and was told I would be able to print out some things and buy some materials later. I was confident we could pull off a lesson.









At La Vina Church it was surprising to me to see a service of white people! I didn't realize how many American and Canadian retirees there were in Mazatlan. Pastor Jose brought the message, and he invited the church members to come up for . Our team had an awesome time of ministry praying for a variety of needs.

After that English service ended, we jumped into trucks and drove to the colonia of Francisco Madero to be a part of the Spanish church there. Worship was awesome and it was powerful to sing along in Spanish to songs we knew in English. The day before we were never able to get supplies, a lesson plan or the craft I wanted and we had arrived too late to get access to the churches limited supplies. Without any children's ministry supplies, no detailed lesson, no Spanish speaking team members I was nervous!! When the children were dismissed (it seemed like that was half the congregation!) and Pastor Jose was being called up to speak, I whispered to him "Make it short!"

We were led to the "classroom" which is in the still under construction new building . With about 30 cute, but dirty and stinky kids, we crammed into a small cinder block room. Imagine no fan, one little window, no breeze, 95 degrees.....and those 30 kids (remember cute, but stinky!).

How we survived? I don't really know. Somehow, I did a short lesson in Spanish about the importance of the Bible and the salvation story. I called kids up to recite their favorite verse, and called on kids to answer questions.

We had taken along some beads and we made Salvation story bracelets (each color bead represents something black= sin, red=blood shed...). Shannan, Isabelle, and Debbie M. helped the kids with the bracelets and loved on them, while I was in shock that the Spanish words were coming to me. The kids corrected me a couple of times, I asked the Children's ministry director for help a bit...but overall they understood me and got the message. Thank you Jesus!

As much fun as we were having, I was still ready when the service was over. It was exhausting having to think so hard to teach and the heat was nearly unbearable.

I didn't get to see it, but I heard that the message Pastor Jose preached in Spanish was amazing and the whole church responded for prayer. The Holy Spirit showed up powerfully in that church and the Lord did some great things in people's lives.


Following the church service we enjoyed a good meal at a restaurant.

After that Jose had surprised me with a massage back at our hotel, and the rest of the evening was spent napping and resting by the pool.

I was so blessed by this opportunity to serve in Mazatlan, and I'm so blessed to have such a sweet little girl!

Francisco Madero

One of our great privileges while in Mazatlan was to visit the feeding program in the colonia of Francisco Madero. 10 years ago, Madero was the worst of all neighborhoods. It was considered to be the "tolerant zone" meaning anything goes. Gangs, violence, drugs, you name it! Police did not patrol or enter the neighborhood and it was home to the red light district. 10 years ago our pastor Jose was visiting Mazatlan and checking out how our church could get involved in the work there. He happened to meet another Californian who had a vision for reaching this community. Our Pastor Jose was able to join the efforts and help raise funds for building one of the first feeding centers/churches that La Vina has (there are now 13!).

La Vina began by feeding the children of Madero weekly, then offering a Sunday School program. Soon these children of prostitutes were bringing their moms along and the church began ministering to them. Then a weekly church began as well as other programs, and Madero has become transformed by the Love of Christ!

Years ago when our church took a team to Madero, they helped lay the concrete for the building. During the trip 3 years ago they helped run the Children's program. This time it was running like a well oiled machine, and there was little for us to do aside from loving on the kids! It was amazing to see the ownership the people of Madero have taken for this church.

We walked in to see 120 kids running around the church (imagine a big concrete gym). We interacted with them and watched them horse around (we really need to loosen up on rules in our Children's ministry!). It was so cute to watch the kids immediately go to their seats and began to pay attention as the pastor's wife, Lolita, began the program. The kids participated in games, worship, prayer and a lesson.

Afterwards they were served a hot meal. We wondered why the plates were placed inside plastic bags, with the food on top of the bag. Some kids gobbled their food down in seconds, others barely picked at it and turned their bags inside out to keep the food to go. One team member saw a mother pulling left over bags out of the trash can to take home.

The volunteer mom and grandma cooks served our teams a plate. It looked so good, but we were told by our missions coordinator that if we didn't eat it, it would be used to give to the volunteers so we had to politely return our plates.

It was so sweet to watch this children's program. To see this many children listen to a Bible message and receive a meal was so special. To see their moms crowding in and waiting to hear more was amazing.

Outreach 2 Loma Bonita

Our second day of outreach was to Loma Bonita, which means Beautiful Hill. To be honest I saw nothing beautiful about this place- aside from the people!

Loma Bonita is a poor colonia where La Vina has built 1 of their 13 feeding centers, and has had a school and church (I don't think either are operating right now). Once a week La Vina puts on a children's ministry program and gives the children a free lunch. We learned that we would be assembling bags of food to give to each house.

As usual the morning of our second outreach we met for team devotions, walked to the church for breakfast and stopped at Sams Club. Pastor Dave of La Vina pointed to items and told us how many boxes to get of each item. Oil, corn masa to make tortillas, tomato paste, pasta, rice... After we purchased 120 of every item, we created an assembly line in the parking lot to make bags per household.

Despite the heat, I couldn't believe how FUN it was to work as a team and assemble these bags. Such a simple task, but our excitement was building as we looked forward to delivering them! Even Canaan had a task!

We got to Loma Bonita and some boys immediately greeted our bus. They promised to lead us around the colonia to the occupied homes.



We broke up in 3 teams and headed in different directions to hand out tickets for a food bag. Our sweet "tour guide" Francisco led us barefoot -that is until someone loaned him a broken pair of size 10 flip flops! He took his job so seriously!

At each house we stopped at we offered to pray for the families, and told them to bring their tickets in an hour to pick up their bag of food. They were so appreciative!

We treated Francisco to a cold soda from the local "store". I can't even begin to express how the 6 pesos (about 50 cents) we spent on the soda blessed us to see his enjoyment!

We soon headed back to the center of the village to begin the food distribution.

Along with the food bags, we handed out stickers and candy to the kids, and toiletries to the moms. You should have heard us try to explain conditioner to people who rarely use shampoo!

The people seemed so trusting and open to us, and I was shocked to learn that the night before there had been a rape/murder in this village, and another family had been killed the week before (of course the pastor told us this AFTER we left).

Walking around Loma Bonita, praying for the people and meeting their needs taught me so much. We have so much to be thankful for!