Easter in Mexico!
FreshMex homies-
Hey ya'll, we wish you a happy Easter from here in Puerto Penasco! We had an incredible day of celebrating the risen Christ with each other. After doing some planning and prep work this morning, we took off for church with our new friends at i6eight ministries. The service was a multi-lingual, cross-cultural experience that was cool for all of us to experience. We had the opportunity to worship in song (even though it was hard to follow along with the songs in Spanish!), in relationship, and with the sermon I was honored to deliver. There were even a few unexpected surprises: at one point the pastor asked for someone in the group from Colorado to stand up and give testimony of the good things God has blessed us with, so I called out Zach Hamilton, and he stood before the congregation and gave testimony to God's blessing on our group as Pastor Tony (a local Mexican pastor) translated. Zach did a great job! At another point the pastor looked to our group to provide a song or two that we had prepared! Ha - we were so surprised! We initially said no, and then he put the full court press on. Myself, Coach Reese, and Coach Blaser looked to the group, made a few suggestions, and quickly realized that none of the guys were going to participate in this with us... so we dutifully rose to our feet and performed a tone-deaf, off-key, and out-of-synch rendition of the song "I Love You Lord." I know Mitchell Peotter (our camera man for the day) got it on film, but I will have access to the memory card - so here's hoping that doesn't get out!
During the second half of the service, a quarter of our group went in with the kids of the church to participate in making crafts doing Sunday school activities. Big shout out to Candy and Lucas Palazzo for shopping for, packing up, and bringing out the supplies for Sunday school! The Easter eggs and crafts were a huge hit. The guys also made a "prayer chain" where they asked the kids for prayer requests, and then wrote them down on links of a construction paper chain - special big ups to Max Malinski who was a boss at interacting with the kids and translating many of the little kids' prayer requests for the guys in our group!
After the service we sprung into action making hot dogs, setting our chips and juice, and we enjoyed a great time eating with many people in the community. It was cool to see several people from the surrounding community come to eat - even they aren't necessarily a part of the church.
Then, the highlight of the day, we had so much slip and slide fun - and don't think your garden-variety plastic slip and slide. This thing was on a hill, in a pre-dug trench, with heavy-duty tarps, and military-grade plastic covered in water from a huge truck and tons of dish soap... basically it was the perfect recipe for an afternoon of so much fun!! All of our guys (and leaders) jumped in and enjoyed the ride with the community. Our group really flexed its "relational muscles" during this time as so many of our guys connected with and played with the local Mexican kids. As leaders we were so encouraged and thrilled at the outpouring of love we saw from our young men!
We headed back to the house and enjoyed some free time during the late afternoon. Particularly fun was spike ball on the beach - in which Tim Hammond and myself reached dynastic levels of domination over all of the lowly foes who dared challenge us! We re-fueled with a special Easter dinner of steak and mashed potatoes, with cheesecake for desert!
Finally, we debriefed the day and asked the guys to talk through their high-lights, low-light, and just things that struck them in general. The discussion was great, and more guys than ever have been participating in our discussion times. The theme for our devotional was "You bring a smile to God's face!" and we talked through our inherent worth and value as children of God, why it's important for us to realize our worth, where our worth comes from, and how often times the things our society says gives a person value is not necessarily where their value actually lies. If you want to dig a little deeper, look up the video "Brennan Manning Live at Woodcrest." We watched this video, and then discussed some of the ideas Manning shares in it.
Thanks again for trusting us with your boys - it's getting good around here! Tomorrow morning will be an early one as we hit the job site for day one of the build and really start to dig in for what we came here to do! We prayed for you all tonight, so return the favor for us! Take care and stay tough,
Sunny on behalf of Team FreshMex
Hey ya'll, we wish you a happy Easter from here in Puerto Penasco! We had an incredible day of celebrating the risen Christ with each other. After doing some planning and prep work this morning, we took off for church with our new friends at i6eight ministries. The service was a multi-lingual, cross-cultural experience that was cool for all of us to experience. We had the opportunity to worship in song (even though it was hard to follow along with the songs in Spanish!), in relationship, and with the sermon I was honored to deliver. There were even a few unexpected surprises: at one point the pastor asked for someone in the group from Colorado to stand up and give testimony of the good things God has blessed us with, so I called out Zach Hamilton, and he stood before the congregation and gave testimony to God's blessing on our group as Pastor Tony (a local Mexican pastor) translated. Zach did a great job! At another point the pastor looked to our group to provide a song or two that we had prepared! Ha - we were so surprised! We initially said no, and then he put the full court press on. Myself, Coach Reese, and Coach Blaser looked to the group, made a few suggestions, and quickly realized that none of the guys were going to participate in this with us... so we dutifully rose to our feet and performed a tone-deaf, off-key, and out-of-synch rendition of the song "I Love You Lord." I know Mitchell Peotter (our camera man for the day) got it on film, but I will have access to the memory card - so here's hoping that doesn't get out!
During the second half of the service, a quarter of our group went in with the kids of the church to participate in making crafts doing Sunday school activities. Big shout out to Candy and Lucas Palazzo for shopping for, packing up, and bringing out the supplies for Sunday school! The Easter eggs and crafts were a huge hit. The guys also made a "prayer chain" where they asked the kids for prayer requests, and then wrote them down on links of a construction paper chain - special big ups to Max Malinski who was a boss at interacting with the kids and translating many of the little kids' prayer requests for the guys in our group!
After the service we sprung into action making hot dogs, setting our chips and juice, and we enjoyed a great time eating with many people in the community. It was cool to see several people from the surrounding community come to eat - even they aren't necessarily a part of the church.
Then, the highlight of the day, we had so much slip and slide fun - and don't think your garden-variety plastic slip and slide. This thing was on a hill, in a pre-dug trench, with heavy-duty tarps, and military-grade plastic covered in water from a huge truck and tons of dish soap... basically it was the perfect recipe for an afternoon of so much fun!! All of our guys (and leaders) jumped in and enjoyed the ride with the community. Our group really flexed its "relational muscles" during this time as so many of our guys connected with and played with the local Mexican kids. As leaders we were so encouraged and thrilled at the outpouring of love we saw from our young men!
We headed back to the house and enjoyed some free time during the late afternoon. Particularly fun was spike ball on the beach - in which Tim Hammond and myself reached dynastic levels of domination over all of the lowly foes who dared challenge us! We re-fueled with a special Easter dinner of steak and mashed potatoes, with cheesecake for desert!
Finally, we debriefed the day and asked the guys to talk through their high-lights, low-light, and just things that struck them in general. The discussion was great, and more guys than ever have been participating in our discussion times. The theme for our devotional was "You bring a smile to God's face!" and we talked through our inherent worth and value as children of God, why it's important for us to realize our worth, where our worth comes from, and how often times the things our society says gives a person value is not necessarily where their value actually lies. If you want to dig a little deeper, look up the video "Brennan Manning Live at Woodcrest." We watched this video, and then discussed some of the ideas Manning shares in it.
Thanks again for trusting us with your boys - it's getting good around here! Tomorrow morning will be an early one as we hit the job site for day one of the build and really start to dig in for what we came here to do! We prayed for you all tonight, so return the favor for us! Take care and stay tough,
Sunny on behalf of Team FreshMex
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