A Day at the Orphanage

Today we went as a family to Casa Hogar San Francisco, an orphanage, in Reynosa, T.F., México. This orphanage has about 80 children from 2 months of age to 17 years, some of which are mentally and physically handicapped. To our surprise, there are many children at this orphanage who do have parents. These children live in the orphanage because both of their parents are working and trying to make a living. On the weekends, some of the children are picked up by their parents and taken home. Of course, there are children without parents as well. This weekend, about 40 children had not been picked up by anyone and they were still at the orphanage.

Our daughter, Petra, was enlisted to be one of the clowns. It was hot wearing that costume in the sun but she enjoyed her new role as "Lulu". Five students and two women on staff from Rio Grande Bible Institute and Language School did a terrific program for the children. They did action songs, two puppet plays, a skit, a memory verse, and a strong evangelistic message. The theme of the program was being spiritually prepared because people of all ages die, sometimes even children. The children were so well-behaved and attentive. We finished with two piñatas, cupcakes, and soda pop (pineapple flavor). Not a bit of pushing or grabbing, just politely waiting in line for their turn. I let about 5 little girls take a few pictures with our camera. It was a little risky but were they thrilled! When it was time for us to go, only a couple of the children said goodbye and gave us a hug. The majority became sad, looked at the ground, and slowly walked away.

Driving back across the bridge to the United States, we remembered the statistic for Mexico City: 600,000 street children. Even if that is inaccurate by 100,000 or 200,000, there are still more street children in Mexico City than there are people populating various large cities. Please pray for the children in all parts of Mexico. About 25-30 accepted Christ today in Reynosa! Their discipleship will continue through the ministry of RGBI in the coming school year.

Mexican Prison Ministry and Prison Tatts

Today, I (Marcel) went to a large prison in Reynosa, T.F., México to do some outreach with others from RGBI. It was an eye opening experience. Most of the people in the prison are there for crimes of violence and drugs. It was nothing like a prison in Canada where the prisons are known as "Club Fed." I had to render photo ID, go through a frisk and then receive a series of stamps on my arms (temporary prison tattoos) that allowed me to go through different areas of security. The guards carried large semi-automatic AR type rifles which can be a little intimidating. When I got into the general population area of the prison where some, so I was told, 2,000 men live, I was surprised to see that it was like a small Mexican town. Scattered among the large prison housing complexes were taco stands, artisan shops, trade shops and even a few churches. Visitors, most of whom are spouses and their children, are all allowed to mingle freely in the complex. I went to one wood working shop where a very rough looking man was making children's highchairs. There was no problem for him to have a chisel that could have easily been taken into the population without an additional search. We handed out Gospels of John and gospel tracks. There are a sizable number of people that have become Christians in the prison there and they are making attempts to repent from drug and alcohol addiction. There were gang members as well, clearly seen by their large tattoos done in indigenous artistic designs. It's not somewhere anybody wants to go but it was an interesting experience. Sorry about the pictures but that was the closest I could go with my camera without potentially causing a stir. The other picture is of my temporary "prison tattoo", one of the three stamps I received on my forearms in order to enter the prison.

The Latest Family Photo

Here is what the family is looking like after a year of Spanish language school.

El "Secuestro" (The "Kidnapping")

We have come to discover that our Spanish language school has a strange tradition, a privledge granted to the students in the second semester who are about to complete the program: a skip day. As a graduating class, we scheme together and choose a day to "kidnap" our professors and have a "forced field trip" in Mexico for the day. Twenty of our classmates were able to come with us today as we enjoyed shopping in the tourist town of Progresso. Our classmates bought some neat things: a hand-painted tortilla warmer, some little purses, Mexican soccer jerseys, candy-coated almonds, and a 5' long rainstick.

Top photo: Our Manitoban friend having Mexican braids done for $10! Warning: stylist holds sections of hair in her mouth as she vigorously braids with both hands. Aaaayy! Hey, what does that green sign say on the back wall of the salon? -- eyelash perm. Yikes!

Bottom photo: Our first stop: La Panaderia (The Bakery).

Thrill Ride

Who needs Six Flags when you have Mr. Willams and his cherry picker? Today, when the school day was over and the all the kids from our apartment block (all 19 of them) were outside enjoying some playtime, Mr. Williams gave the kids a cool ride.

By the way, you can click on all these photos on this blog to get a larger and higher reolution picture.

Why We Are Enduring Language School

Here's a hilarious example of our motivation for enduring language school instead of learning "on the job." Don't be deterred by the first few seconds in a foreign language. It switches to English and the download is worth the wait! Enjoy.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6077326441742307086

Best Friends Forever

This is our daughter Emma and her older friend Jeny Torres. Jeny is from Distrito Federal in Mexico. Her family is part of our church plant, Iglesia Biblical Cristo Vive in Ecatepec. Her parents are attending Rio Grande Bible Institute in preparation for pastoral ministry. They have become friends to our family but Jeny and Emma have a very special friendship.

Texas Track and Field

They are serious about their sports here in Texas. Brittany cleaned up in three more events this past weekend in the district Junior Varsity Finals. Normally she runs in the freshman events but her times have been quite good and so she was moved up to J.V. She's really been having fun and the medals are just bonus!

What I think is really cool are the high school sports stadiums here. The stadium where Brittany competed this past weekend as well as her own school stadium are both huge! My guess would be that they hold 15-20 thousand people each and there are a lot of school stadiums here! Well, track season is over for this year. I'm not sure what we are going to do for this budding young athlete when we get to Mexico City. I'm sure there will be good athletic clubs there.

Friday Night Lights

"Friday Night Lights" is the name of a movie about highschool football in Texas. Yet for us in deep south Texas, Friday Night Lights is when the Bible students, language school students, and missionary kids at RGBI go to the outdoor multi-purpose sports facility and play soccer. Sometimes we will also play street hockey and basketball. Many nights the latin students will bring out guitars and drums and just sing. Petra (the one in the middle looking exhausted) is wearing the jersey of the UNAM Pumas, a favorite soccer team of many Mexicans. Only 26 more days of language school and soon after we'll be moving to Mexico City. Pray for us as we find the best way to bring our things to Mexico and that all of us in our family will finish our time at our various schools well.

Rainy Day in Reynosa, Tamaulipas Fronteras, Mexico

We spent the afternoon in Reynosa today, the Mexican border city just across from McAllen, Texas. This picture was taken on the first street in Reynosa that parallels the Rio Grande River. We had lunch at McDonalds, drove around the perimeter of Reynosa, and visited two small shopping malls. The one shopping mall was very modern and spotless. Its anchor stores were Sanborn's and H-E-B. Sanborn's is a famous restaurant in Mexico that has an attached department store. H-E-B (pronounced one letter at a time, not "Heb") is a large grocery store chain that we also have in Texas. The Soriana's in Reynosa (like a Mexican WalMart with a grocery section) features several areas where you can sample food such as yogurt or our favorite, freshly grilled tortillas filled with -- a mildly spicy chicken stew. Sounds a bit odd but we really like these full-sized samples. It turned out to be Ahava's lunch because she was too distracted by her toy, the playground, and other Mexican children at the McDonalds who had earlier "prevented" her from eating her little hamburger.

Our two little girls had a ride on the carousel at the mall - it wasn't West Edmonton Mall but they still enjoyed the ride. Marcel sat on a bench with little Ahava to wait while the big girls went into a costume jewlery store. Another dad with a toddler sat beside Marcel and struck up a conversation in Spanish. The other dad is from Veracruz but is currently working in Reynosa. The older girls offered to "help" their dad practise Spanish using this wait-on-the-bench-while-we-shop-for-jewlery technique but Daddy declined their gracious offer.