Dirt, Band-Aids, Paint & Prayer
Location: Mexico
Camera info: Canon Rebel 350D • lens 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
ISO 200 • f 5.6 • 1/320 sec
The cliche says “A picture is worth 1000 words,” but sometimes a few extra are helpful. 🙂 This was one of my favorite pictures from the Mexico building trip, because I think it summed everything up perfectly. (If you missed the earlier story, I wrote about it here and here.) In the picture are four things that remind me of the trip: dirt, band-aids, paint, and prayer.
The dirt is probably self-explanatory. We were in Mexico, and it was everywhere!!! When the team first arrived, some had a difficult time adjusting to the mess after leaving the comfort of America. All that was forgotten, however, when we caught one of the local kids trying to drink out of one of the construction wash barrels because that was the cleanest water they had. Ick. A large tank of clean water was quickly added to the project.
My friend had a very good reason why her fingers were covered in band-aids. She had been working on stucco all day. The mixture we used included sand, cement, water, and lime. The last ingredient is hard on skin, so we usually wore cloves to work with it. However, my friend noticed there were gaps in the stucco near the roof, where the angle was too small for gloves to fit. After several failed attempts with a trowel, she gave up and took off the gloves to fix it with her fingertips. We didn’t want gaps that would let in breezes in the winter. The mixture chewed up her fingers quite a bit after several hours of work, but she was happy that the kids would stay warm and dry.
Paint was the finishing touch on the houses, along with a numbered plaque. It was our pay of personalizing each building and making it look more cozy. The inside walls were unfinished, but outside, we went crazy! My team’s building had blue window and door frames. The large building used wood and chicken wire under the stucco to create an embossed cross on the outside wall.
Finally, but most importantly, we prayed for the kids, the families, and the other work teams. It was the faith of the host family that led them to care for all the homeless children, and it was faith that led the three work teams to help build the orphanage. God brought us all together at one time to make a miracle for those kids, and we needed to take time and thank Him.
Do you have a picture that tells a story you love to share? Let us know… and don’t forget to include a link!
Mexican Pool Party
Location: Mexico
Camera info: Canon Rebel 350D • lens 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
ISO 800 • f 5.0 • 1/3200 sec
(Note: I don’t recommend ISO 800 for outdoors – I had just come from indoors and didn’t switch ISO’s before taking this picture)
More stories from the Mexico orphanage! While the work teams were building, some people took turns visiting the kids and running a Vacation Bible School (VBS) program back at the home. My turn came in the middle of the week, and I went with three other teens to help the organizers plan the day. We included the usual songs, games, and fun skits, as well as toys and playtime. While we were having lunch/snack time, the parent family managed to set up a small swimming pool and fill it with water. This was fairly unusual for the area, because clean water was expensive. But they wanted the group to enjoy the time here.
The kids weren’t really sure what to do with it at first. Finally, one of the older children had an idea that she whispered to her friends. Before the rest of us knew what was happening, they surrounded two of our teenage volunteers, Gabi and Sam. With a combined effort, they picked up both girls and threw them into the pool, clothes and all! Both came up laughing, so the kids decided it was fun. They jumped in as well – all 30 or so of them! Of course, with that many kids in the pool, they lost half the water. Nobody seemed to care, as they all splashed and screamed and laughed. Sometimes it’s the little things that make the most fun.
What’s the most fun you’ve had with simple things?
A Story of Orphans, Part 2
Location: Mexico
Camera info: Canon Rebel 350 D • lens 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
ISO 200 • f 5.6 • 1/125o sec
What would you do to keep a child out of jail? As described in my last post, my group in Mexico was faced with the situation of an orphanage running out of money and space. What would it take to keep them in business? Enter Casas por Cristo! The Texas-based housing ministry specializes in building homes in Mexico families that can’t afford them. Each home is built in one week by a team of volunteers from various places around the USA. Up until this time, they had never built an orphanage, but they were up for the challenge. So were three teams of workers from Mount Pleasant Christian Church. It’s Extreme Home Makeover, Mexico style!
During one blisteringly hot week in early July, the teams started construction on three houses that would form the orphanage – two bunk houses with a kitchen, and one large empty building for recreation and meetings. The buildings were simple – unfinished drywall inside and stucco outside, but they provided shelter and room for all the kids to live and play. Other people who heard of the project donated materials to build eight furnished bunk-beds, as well as curtains, toys, stuffed animals, kitchen appliances, and a large tank of clean drinking water. The kids were amazed, as many had not been able to sleep in a bed by themselves since they arrived at the orphanage. In fact, at the dedication party, one little girl (I would guess her about 6-7 years old) told us that she had been praying for God to help them, and our work teams were the answer. 🙂
The three buildings and all the workers
The orphanage moved into those buildings in 2008. By now, they have outgrown them, so a new team is forming to go to Mexico this summer and add on some extra houses. They will allow the host family to have their own place (they had been sharing with the kids until now) and provide more room for additional kids. Yay!
There now, wasn’t that a nice ending to this story? 😉
Pictures Around the World 