My week in Chetumal (pictures to follow)

So this last week has been amazing. Five of my teammates and I traveled down to southern Mexico to a city called Chetumal in the state of Quintana Roo to work in a VBS. The entire experience was amazing and has helped renew me in my work here in Mexico.

We left from Leon on a Friday at 12:30 on a bus headed for Mexico city. We arrived at 5 but our next bus didn’t leave until 8:30 so we had 3 hours to kill in the biggest city in the world. I had never been to Mexico City before and was blown away by the size of it. Ironically though even though it was a huge city I was to big for everything. We met up with the sister who were going to be traveling with us to Chetumal we settled into our seats for a 21 hour bus ride. For the most part the ride was completely uneventful except for the 5 hours we got stuck in traffic.
We arrived into Chetumal at 11:00 PM on Saturday night and quickly found our ways to our hotels which amazingly had air conditioners because it was hot and humid. The next morning it was time for church. It was very interesting to worship with the small church and get to meet some of the brothers. One interesting thing about the church in Chetumal is that if you are in the church you are referred to as hermano/hermana (brother/sister).

Next stop was to get to work. We started setting up for the VBS getting everything decorate and all ready for the children that would show up in the morning. It was hot sweaty work and when we were done 6 hours later we were very relieved to walk into our cool rooms.

The next 5 days the schedule was wake up at 6 AM get ready be at the location by 6:50 to prepare for the kids and have a devotional before the niños arrived at 8. Then it was three hours of insanity. I was a helper so that meant I did a bit of everything. The kids were awesome and it was so uplifting to see them getting so exited about the songs and the activities. I have to say though as tired, hot, and sweaty as we were the leader of the VBS Carla worked twice as hard and did twice as much. We were all very impressed and refreshed by her love and devotion to the kids.
After we finished up we were free to go and check out the city and have some fun. I have to say the area is absolutely beautiful! God surely blesses His creations with amazing things and being able to see that area was one of them.

About half way through the week one of the brothers from the church Juan offered for the guys to come stay in his house. It was an amazing time to spend with a brother and even though my Spanish is the good yet I was able to basically communicate with him and his family (an awesome wife and two lively little boys) and I hope that we managed to encourage him as much as he encouraged us. A fun fact about southern Mexico culture is that every house has hammocks. It was so awesome they build hooks right into the concrete walls and just hang them up during the day.

When we left on Sunday night it was hard. We had poured ourselves out into that place so much in just a week. I pray that the 70 or so kids that came will have the seeds that were planted in their lives watered and they will produce fruit. I am so grateful to god for the opportunity he has given me.