Wednesday, May 11, 2011

New kids

Saturday, April 30th was el dia del niño in Mexico.  There is a missionary family connected with Puebla Christian School that owns several large home-made games and an inflatable water slide.  The family offered to take the games out to Huejotzingo and also to donate candy as prizes.  Abraham and I busily spent the morning in different tasks; he went to find out if a Huejo family could help us move our supplies from the place where we had been renting for the Sunday afternoon classes to our house, and I went to buy a few supplies, make copies of invitations to the games, and distribute them in the neighborhood.  Shortly after we both returned home, the missionary family arrived, and we began setting up.

We were all surprised by the amount of people who arrived for the fair.  We had expected about 20, and more than double that number showed up.  Our patio was soon filled with children waiting their turns for each game.  Several Huejo moms and teens volunteered to help run the games which made the event possible, since we had not planned for so many participants. For the next three hours, we all stayed occupied, so much so, that I didn't even take out the camera.  Fortunately one of the teens took photos.

We invited the participants to return at 3 on Sunday for the class.  Most of the regular attenders came and also five new children.  The items that Abraham had transfered from the other location were (and still are) piled on one table, but we still managed to have a time of games and reading, Bible sword drill, and the Bible story.

The following Sunday we prepared a craft for the kids to make for their mothers.  Three adults had come from Dios es Amor to help which was a blessing, because even more new children came, so that we had a total of 22 children.  They spent almost the entire afternoon making their Mother's Day gifts.

The Huejo kids who are have been attending for longer had been working on scarves to give to my PCS students, and my students had made bamboo windchimes and decorated and filled jars to exchange for el dia del niño.  On Sunday, we distributed the gifts from the PCS kids to the Huejo kids, and then on Monday we took the scarves to give to the PCS kids.  From both groups the response was enthusiastic pleasure.  They both appreciated the work and results of the other set of children.  I would have liked for the two groups of children to have met in person, but this time around it didn´t work out.

Please continue to pray for Abraham and I as we invest more time in Huejotzingo.  Living there has already presented many challenges, but we have also already begun to build new relationships, especially with the neighborhood children.

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