Just over a week ago, Curtis and I returned from serving for a week at Rancho 3M in Guadalupe, Mexico. The entire week was wonderful! I saw so many evidences of God's grace while we were there. I had been pretty nervous about going, because up until the week before I was still having lots of morning sickness and just generally not feeling good through most of the day. I was worried there would be nothing really for me to do and that I would be more of a burden than a help. But I knew God wanted me to go, and He'd made a way for me to go so I needed to obey that, no matter how inadequate or ill-prepared I felt about the trip. The first morning I woke up, I probably felt better than I had the entire pregnancy. Most mornings were like that, although some mornings, I was glad I had brought my nausea medicine with me. Every morning at the Ranch, I was able to sit outside, in the quiet and spend time with God going through our devotion for the group Bible study. Those were some of my favorite moments, hearing nothing but the cows and chickens, watching the Mexican sun come up, and getting to really hear from God and listen to Him. Devotion time with the group was great. We spent the last part of it every day praying for each other, sharing scripture with each other and encouraging each other.
Most mornings, I worked with Melissa, doing crafts with the kids. It would always start out great, the younger kids would come in, sit down, usually wait patiently for us to pass out the materials. Then about 15mins later the older boys would come in, loud and crazy, grabbing at everything, but eventually they would sit and enjoy the project as well. It always amazed me at how creative the kids were. It was so fun to watch them make their puppets and turn objects into stuff that could entertain them the whole day. After lunch time, we had siesta time, which I took advantage of most days. As well as I felt, I was pretty exhausted most of the week so those naps were greatly needed. Then I was able to help with the work projects. I am very grateful that I got the chance to be apart of those projects as well. I helped to take down some walls in the elementary school and then I painted so picnic tables to get them ready for the new school year. It was nice to feel useful, even though I did have to take many more breaks than normal, but we had a lot of fun getting those walls down :)
Once we were done with projects for the day we got to hang out with the kids the rest of the night. Those were times I looked forward to the most. Most nights, i played cards with the kids for hours. They would get so excited about the games and if I won, they'd have to play again because they wanted to make sure they beat me more than I beat them, so the games would last for hours, but it was so much fun!
The last night we were there, we took all the kids on a hike up to the cross that can be seen in the distance from the ranch. The hike was a lot of fun. And it was so beautiful, every where you looked were mountains.
The whole week was just wonderful. Getting to see all the kids again, I miss them already. They're so sweet and are so willing to love you, they just come up and hug you and run into your arms. It makes me never want to leave when I'm there, and makes me look forward to the day I can return. It's awesome to see what God is doing there for the kids, to see the older ones reading their Bible, enjoying the worship service and actually being engaged during the sermon. It makes my heart happy to know they are taken care of and that the people who work there do everything they can to make sure they know Jesus.
I cherish the memories that were made, and the friendships that were made and cannot wait till the day that I can go back, and hopefully one day can share it with my love and our son.
Here's just a few pictures from the trip:
Learning how to play spoons with the girls
This was our life most of the week, playing cards with the kids
We sang Old MacDonald with the kids using puppets
The kids loved climbing all over our guys
This little boy was so cute, he belongs to one of the families who live on the ranch
Working on the puppets
The kids just love Tigre, the ranch cat
We did face painting one morning, all the kids absolutely loved it!
These next few pictures may be some of my favorite. One night, all the boys decided they wanted to fight with Nate, Zach and Jordan. It was by far one of the most entertaining moments of the week.
After the fighting, Nate tried to do some training with the boys, teaching them push ups, sit ups and wind sprints.
The view at the ranch most nights.
Jordan and his favorite little guy.
Beginning our hike up to the cross
