Today

Kendra Benner: Morning: As I sit here at the dining table while munching on my bacon, I look around and see many interesting things. I see Kim chastising Ritch for not finishing eating his giant pancake; I see Alyssa S. deep in thought while doodling on her devotion notebook; I see Dave, slightly stressed, trying to organize everything; and I see a beautiful landscape of jagged hills and small houses. This, I must say, is quite calm compared to our previous day. There is nothing like serving hot dogs and condiments to 100 ravenous children! Earlier that day, we had water games for all the kids. By the grace of God, it was a definite success! It was awesome seeing some of the adults get more into it than the kids. Once we finished the activities, everyone got candy. A word of advice: If you ever go to Mexico and want to make fast friends with any of the children, bring Swedish fish.

Evening: Today was a definite adventure! This morning, Sarah, Enrique, Tyler, Beth, Dad, and I did a craft with the first and second graders. We made sun catchers, where the kids could paint the plastic and then when it dries, hang it in the window and the sun shines through all the colors. Our first session…wow. Lots of chaos. Paint splatters, flying plastic, and lots of screaming “Yo quiero!” Luckily, we regrouped for the next round. Second session…much better! The second graders were much calmer. At times we actually had to say, “It’s okay if you use more paint!” Must give props to Enrique though. The kids really appreciated a fluent speaker riling them up for the activity. This was followed by my dad introducing himself as Maria. (No worries, it was soon cleared up that his name is “Juan”.) But to everyone back home, all of us truly appreciate your support, prayers, and blog comments. Every morning and evening, Pete reads through the comments and they’re always met with laughs and smiles. Please keep praying and reading, you guys really a part of this journey as much as we are. Good night!

-Kendra