Our Nightly Meetings

Each night, we gathered in the cafeteria at about 9:30 p.m. for our nightly meetings. Kristine led us in all kinds of fun music - here's a picture of us doing the boogaloo!

She then had a short devotion followed by announcements and "call outs" for people who had done great job! There were lots each night.


After our large group, we would then meet in our small groups where we shared highs and lows and them prayed together.

On Wednesday night, Mama Lupita spoke to us and shared many of the struggles that the orphanage faces. She thanked us for coming and for our ongoing support.

Following her talk, we celebrated Britt and Betsy's birthdays with a cake and singing.

VBS in the Courtyard

Penny and the Children's Ministry team did an awesome job with doing VBS twice a day - once in the morning for the young children and then in the afternoon when all the children were back from school.

The activities all revolved around a "fish theme" - in addition, Penny, Aaron, and others did a Bible story in Spanish along with a puppet show. The kids were really engaged!

Penny also had created a huge banner (The hands and feet of Christ) that she had people at All Saints put their hand and foot prints on before we came to Mexico. We then pulled it out to have the kids put their hands and foot prints on as well. You can see from Laura's legs that there were also hand prints placed other places besides the banner. :-)

Penny's vision is then to have the "quilting ladies" at All Saints create two large banners out of this one piece of fabric - one for Casa Hogar and one for All Saints.

Music - A Universal Language

 This year, we had lots of very talented musicians on our team - Kristine and Pastor Antonio on guitars, Penny on the mandolin and Aaron leading our singing.

In addition, we had lots of Spanish speakers, so we could sing many songs in Spanish.

Every day, Penny brought out the bells for a bell choir.  She taught them Jesus Loves Me -  by the end of the week, the kids really began to understand the concept of a bell choir and you could clearly hear the melody as opposed to just lots of bells ringing.

 Pastor Antonio is also a drummer and he would get a whole table of boys drumming in the cafeteria - they loved it!

 Here the kids are using shakers as rhythm instruments as they danced to a song on the guitar.

Something's Fishy with Pastor Antonio

 Our theme this week has been FISH. The VBS stories have included Jesus asking fisherman to "follow him," and telling the fisherman to "cast their nets on the other side.

Even Pastor Antonio got into the "Fish Spirit."

Wednesday Morning Projects

 It's already Wednesday morning and we have lots of projects underway.

Our "laundry group" left right after breakfast with a lot more laundry to get washed and folded. The never-ending laundry is overwhelming and it is nice to help them get caught up.

 We are packing bags of rice and beans that we will distribute on Thursday night to the people from the Colonias.

This year, Mama Lupita does not want our group to actually travel to the Colonias - instead, she is distributing "tickets" to the families in the Colonias to come to the Church (located next to the Volu) to a service on Thursday. Pastor Antonio will give a message and then we are serving food, as well as distributing care kits, solar lights, rice and beans and the quilts we brought.

There is a lot of preparation necessary to get ready for Thursday.

 A huge work crew (18 in the van) left to work at the Volu today. Work includes tiling the showers and work on the bathrooms. In addition, a crew will be working on cleaning the kitchen and living areas for the older boys.

 Stuart and Jake worked on getting all the solar light out on a roof top so they can charge before we distribute them on Thursday night.

Daily Life at Casa Hogar

 The days are really full at Casa Hogar. This year, we're serving breakfast at 7:15 a.m. as a lot of the children leave at 7:30 a.m. for school. That means, the breakfast prep and clean-up crew is up by 6:30 a.m. Lewis is up early working in the kitchen.













A lot of time is spent cleaning, scrubbing, cleaning and more scrubbing. Many of us walk around with rubber gloves in our pockets - you never know when you will need them. Here is Kris "going in" on a stubborn pot.

 Of course, the most important thing we do is love the children. Here is Carolyn cuddling with Adrian.




















The dish room is a place where some real bonding occurs as the whole process of cleaning up and washing dishes for 150 people takes 2-3 hours. Here are Doug and Steve working hard.

We're trying to keep you updated on our adventures - the internet connection is touch and go, so it requires patience and persistence.


Finally, we do take breaks once and a while - a favorite is a trip to the corner store for a coke or joya!

Grilled Chicken for Dinner

 Last night we had grilled chicken for dinner - one of our favorites. Daniel, Doug, and Ken (not pictured) started the coals at 3 p.m. in order to cook the chicken that was served at 7 p.m. We served with pasta, pineapple (the kids love it!) and raw vegetables with ranch dressing.

We had a big crew at dinner last night including some special guests - Israel and Josue, two former Casa Hogar kids. Israel and Josue are twins who were here when we first started coming - they are both out working. Israel is studying engineering and Josue is married and has a little girl. They had heard the All Saints group was at Casa Hogar so came by to see their friend "Barbara."

Last night at our nightly meeting, Kristine talked about "impact" - who has impacted us and how we can impact others. It is clear that our group impacted these two young men in that they made a special point to come by to greet us and then stayed for dinner!