Solar Light Distribution

The outreach group distributed 240 solar lights on Wednesday night along with more of the care kits and a meal. The families were so excited to have the lights. Once again, thanks for all the support to help us with this project.

Preparing for Outreach

All hands on deck! Our afternoons are a flurry of activity getting ready for the outreach to the Colonias. People worked to pack care kits, pack rice and beans, cut fruit, make the meal we serve and load up the van with all the supplies. We are serving approximately 500 meals each night in addition to passing out care kits, solar lights, rice and beans, and the quilts that our quilting group made.

                                                                                            

Playing with the Kids

The children love to play games! Brenda is playing cards with a little boy - he was making up the rules as they went along.

Jill taught a group of boys how to play Connect Four - they loved it! They spent the afternoon happily occupied.

Catherine helped two little girls make friendship bracelets.

Mealtimes

Preparing meals and cleaning up takes up a major portion of time. Our group is divided into servant groups - each servant group has responsibility for either preparing or cleaning up one meal a day. Meal prep and clean-up can take several hours so there is plenty of time for conversation and bonding.

We continue to try new ways of doing things. This year, after seeing how chaotic the meal serving time was, one of our youth suggested trying a different way. About 45 minutes before the meal, we ask all the children to leave the kitchen. We then closed the doors and set all the places with food, drink and silverware. When the bell rings, the children come in, we say grace and the meal begins. We have all decided that it is much less crazy than our previous method.

The Corner Store

After working hard, one of the favorite things to do is to take a short walk to the corner store. Everyone has their favorite treats! Here is one of the many trips that was taken to the store that is about two blocks away.

Projects at the Orphanage

Most of the projects we have worked on this week have been based at the orphanage. One of the first things we did is fill up the propane tanks - often when we arrive, the gas tanks are close to empty.

John Clark tackled cleaning and repairing the stove in the kitchen - the stove gets a lot of hard use and he got those burners going strong again.

Some plumbing projects the group worked on is connecting some sinks in the refurbished "guest quarters." These dorm rooms are where visiting groups can stay while they work at the orphanage.

Solar Lights Continued

Work continued all day to finish the solar lights  as we are distributing them tonight. After all the bases were painted, Andrew and Stuart worked on drilling holes. Laura and her helpers glued pegs into the holes that the solar lights will be mounted on. The group has worked really hard to get the 240 lights ready for the outreach group tonight.

Solar Lights Project

For the past couple of years we've been bringing solar lights to nearby colonias that have no electricity. To prepare the lights we have to sand, paint and drill holes in blocks of wood which will be the bases for the lights. Then we have to unpack the lights, assemble them and glue them into the bases.

Yesterday Andy B formed a group of helpers, both people from All Saints and kids from the orphanage to help him with this project.
We sanded all the blocks, and put the lights on the roof to charge. Then we painted the first three sides of the bases, waited for them to dry, then painted the rest. Next we will drill holes in the bases and glue in the assembled and fully charged lights. The lights will be ready to be distributed in the colonias later this afternoon.

Many thanks to all of you who supported this project.

Fiona I and Ian S

Relaxing with Friends

During the middle of the day the sun is hot in Mexico and it is a great time to relax with friends at Casa Hogar Elim.  Cindy, Jessica and Kris lounged on a chair on the corner of the porch and just enjoyed some downtime between projects.

Meet Paloma

Paloma Castilleya, 19 years old, was left at Casa Hogar Elim orphanage by her mother when she was 12 years old. She has not seen her mother since she was 13. She has a younger sister who is in a different orphanage - Paloma doesn't get to see her very often.

Paloma is one of the college students that All Saints has helped support - in fact she just graduated with her nursing degree in December. Since her graduation, she spends her day working at Casa Hogar and doing community service at the University.

When asked about her daily schedule, Paloma said she wakes up by 7 am. She is responsible for feeding the babies, caring for Gladys who is a special needs child, changing the bedding in the baby/toddler room, and cleaning the bathrooms. She then heads off to the University from noon - 8:00 pm to do Community Service. When she arrives back at Casa Hogar later in the evening, she puts babies and toddlers down to bed followed by more chores. In addition, she is responsible for the children if they are sick or injured. Paloma also loves to paint - she dreams that someday she might be able to do some paintings that she could sell in an art show.

When we asked Paloma about her dreams were for her future, she said she wants to continue her medical education and work at Casa Hogar to give back to the orphanage. When Paloma was asked about Mama Lupita, she got very emotional and said Mama is like her real mother and she loves her very much!

Two Birthdays Today!

Betsy and her niece Fiona share a birthday and had fun celebrating it at Casa Hogar. All the kids and staff serenaded them in both Spanish and English at breakfast.

Pancake Breakfast!!

The kids love pancakes so pancake breakfasts are a huge hit! Cindy's servant team made hundreds of pancakes that were enjoyed by all - down to the last lick of syrup on the plate.

Getting Ready to Go to the Colonias

While some people played with children others worked on several projects including cleaning the stove and installing some sinks in the quarters where we are sleeping. At the same time, we had others cutting oranges, preparing a meal and packing bags of beans and rice to take out to the Colonias. A group of 15 people left at about 4:00 pm to go to the Colonias while others remained to cook spaghetti for dinner. Spaghetti dinner is one of the children's favorite meals . . . and one of the hardest meals to clean up! But it's worth it because we know they love it so much.

The First Morning

Kris Chizeks' servant team was up and got the first breakfast prepared. It always takes a meal or two before we establish the routine. While Kris' team worked on the breakfast preparation, we had a crew in cleaning the dish room so that we would be able to have room to wash dishes for the approximately 150 people we served.

Later in the morning, the Children's Ministry Team gathered the children for a Bible story and songs.

The First of Many Projects!

As always, many of our team members had projects immediately. Here you can see Tim Fogarty and Bernie Johnson trying to unplug a clogged floor drain in the dish room. After an hour of work, they successfully removed a fork from the drain and cleaned the floor so we didn't have to do dishes standing in dirty water!

New Friends

Pastor Antonio is very busy making friends with all the children – we are so fortunate to have so many people who speak Spanish this year. It definitely helps for all of us who don't!

Flexibility is the Key

One of the lessons we learn each year in Mexico is to have a plan but be totally ready to change the plan if the circumstances warrant it. We had not planned to feed the children Sunday night, but it seemed that they had not eaten before we arrived. When we did some inquiring we learned they had only had one meal that day. So we improvised quickly and made a meal of peanut butter and jelly on tortillas along with fruit and chips. The children seem very hungry and happy to have dinner – everyone on our team stepped up to the plate to “change the plan.”

Arrival at Casa Hogar!

We awoke to a beautiful day and we were full of anticipation about our arrival at Casa Hogar. We arrived in Laredo at about 3:00 pm and went to Sam's Club to pick up food and other various items that individuals had forgotten. Thanks for the prayers for our border crossing into Mexico – God is so good! Our crossing was very easy this time – we didn't even have to get off the bus. As we made the short drive from the border bridge to Casa Hogar, we knew that the children were waiting. Our reunion with our family was so joyous – it is wonderful to see how much individual kids have grown over the year.

After many hugs, we started the process of unloading everything we had brought. The children are so eager to help us. We had a long line from the street to the kitchen and passed item after item. Ultimately, we had a fully stocked pantry ready!

Our Stop at Cracker Barrel

Our tradition is stopping at Cracker Barrel in Denton, Texas – we all enjoyed some “slow food” versus another fast food meal!

The Bus Trip

After a very “short night” at Advent Lutheran Church in Olathe, Kansas, we got up, had breakfast and a short worship service and then got underway. The bus ride went well – Pastor Antonio gave Spanish lessons, we sang and just spent time getting to know each other. 

Our Departure

Our group left All Saints at about 4:30 pm on Friday, March 26 full of anticipation for what God would be up to through our team this year. The weather looks good – so no snow storms to drive around this year. We are excited to be on our way.

All Saints Quilters Send Quilts

The All Saints Quilting Group is sending 27 quilts to Casa Hogar orphanage for distribution . These quilts, a variety of sizes, have been lovingly created by these dedicated quilters who meet every Tuesday morning at All Saints. Thanks so much for using your gifts of creativity in creating these wonderful quilts!

Trip Preparations Almost Done

Joel, Tim, Bernie and John practiced getting ready to cook the food for the children and staff at Casa Hogar Elim at our recent Mexico Mission Trip fundraising breakfast. Soon, we will be preparing some of the kids' favorites including pancakes and spaghetti dinner!

We plan to leave Minnetonka at 4 pm on Friday, March 26 for the long bus ride down to Nuevo Laredo. This year, we have a team of 40 including our two bus drivers, Ken and Doug. We have many people who are veterans as well as a good number of people who are coming for the first time! We are asking for everyone's prayers that God will work through our team to serve the children and staff at Casa Hogar.

Our hope is that we can add pictures and posts at various points during our trip so all of you can see what we are up to. We are so grateful to all the members of All Saints for the tremendous support for this trip. Thanks for blessing us so we can work to bless the children at Casa Hogar!