Our Week in Mexico

For the last 4 years, the boys, Mom, and I have traveled for a week to Colima, Mexico on an orphanage work trip. It's always a transformative week, and this year's trip was no exception.  It was a week that touched the hearts of every member of the team, produced countless smiles on little faces, and contributed about 400 hours of labor to jobs around the orphanage (for even more pics and stories, check out our team blog at http://centerpointmexico.blogspot.com)!

Check out the projects that Ben, Sam, Mom, and I worked on to make the homes of Hogar de Amor even more functional and beautiful for the kids and caregivers:

Casa Leonel used to be brown and a team earlier this year painted it a cheerful new green. But the casita (the little home for the houseparents) was still brown and it looked so dingy next to the rest of Casa Leonel. So it was time to spruce it up to match!

Marco and Adriana were so happy with the finished product!

The plastic mattress covers at Casa Cuna had definitely seen better days, so we purchased new material and made 18 new covers for the toddler beds.

Team Sewing!

This is us hard at work at hundreds of meters of plastic-coated fabric and elastic!

Ben brings another delivery of bedcovers to Casa Cuna

The new covers look great!

Here are the boys' mattress covers

And we also made curtains for the Matriz corner where the kids do their homework to shade them from the afternoon sun

Casa Matriz has an upstairs volunteer room that was a rather ghastly green. After seeing the repainted room, the house dad, Joel, said, "this room has never been a nice place and now it's beautiful!"

Ben's skills were in high demand in this low-ceiling room!

The finished room

The fence in Esperanza wasn't secured at the bottom and armadillos - yes, armadillos! - kept pushing through the fence and getting into the yard. After several rounds of plans and ideas, the team finally landed on lowering the fence and securing it to the concrete base so that the armadillos can't push through.

We secured it with bolts and washers after lowering the fence

No armadillos getting through this fence!

We had such a blessed week making new friends, greeting old friends, and loving on the kids and caregivers of Hogar de Amor.

It's such a privilege to serve in this place that takes the hardest, most broken kids from the roughest situations and showers them with God's love.

Please join us in prayer for this amazing place and people:

• Pray for the caregivers. These men and women work so hard, all for the love of Jesus and these kids! Pray for their energy, fortitude, and patience - that they would be continually filled with the Spirit that they so readily pour into every child here.
• Pray for the kids. Pray that their healing would be complete from all of the hurts they've received in their young lives. Pray that they would know God as their perfect Father and that he would prosper their education, relationships, and future, all for his glory.
• Pray for the Hogar. Pray that the facilities would last long and would provide a safe, comfortable environment for each kid. Pray that the finances of Grupo Amor would overflow. Pray that Adonai would continue to be able to provide each kid with an education that prepares them for a bright future.
• Pray for the leadership and members of Grupo Amor. Pray for Pastors Nahun and Pablo, that they would be healthy in body and spirit. Pray that this healthy, vital church continues to grow and mature. Pray for each member of Grupo Amor, that they would grow in wisdom and grace and that each church member would feel the importance of their work with the kids of Hogar de Amor.