South of the Border

Well, I'm back from Reynosa Mexico. My church went down for a week, and I was with them. We had 4 different teams, and the 35 of us split into several the groups. The VBS team held a children's ministry, and was run entirely by the young ladies of the group.
The Sports/soccer team ministered to the young men of the area by playing soccer, and then at half time giving a testimony and invitation. This group was run entirely by young men and and a few adults.
The women's ministry was run by some ladies, and it led a bible study on Psalm 23 at the same location as the VBS.
Also, on the home front, we had 3 wonderful ladies providing food for us. A christian family we know owns a house in Reynosa, and allows us to use it for our trips.
Then there was the work team, which I was apart of. Most groups are finished by 1 in the afternoon, the work team usually isn't finished till 4.
So, on monday we spent the day trying to find work to do, and the supplies to do it. Tuesday, that problem was solved. We painted a building next to the church that the church owns, and the three youth in the group, (myself included) went through 5 gallons of this fantastic yellow pain in 2.5 hours. And then we ate lunch, and looked for more to do. Meanwhile, the other part of our group was installing some counters at a satellite church a few miles away.
On the first two days, the soccer team went back out to play in the evening, in order to get the older crowd to play after their work. I went with them both days, and had a blast. I am horrible at soccer, but I can play disruptive defence pretty well. And so I just kicked the ball away from people once they came into my area.
Wednesay morning, we did some touch up paining, and a little bit of touch up on the painting we did last year.
That afternoon, we installed lights in the church, and it was boring. Then Pastor Jesus came by and asked for some help with putting rebar in the vans, so my friend (I won't name him, but he's in a lot of the pics) and I volunteered. And so we drive over to a house, and it looks pretty barren. (Note middle picture, I'm helping mark out the foundation)
We'll be building a house there in the fall, and so it was a treat to be part of the foundation.
After a while of marking, hearing but not comprehending a discussion in spanish, they told us to start leveling the ground.
Ok, no problem, right? Except there was about a 6 inch differential inside the frame, and the ground was like shale for the first 4 inches.
So, we busted it up and leveled for about an hour and a half, that that was the far harder then any of the work I did building the house in January.
The next day, we worked on putting shelves in under the counter, and then came back to the house and we helped pour the foundation.
Note to the world: If you are pouring mezclay, (concrete), do not do it barefooted. It has this weird tendency to suck moisture from your skin.

Friday, I played soccer because we were essentially out of work.

What I get the most out these trips is from the people in Mexico. They seem destitute, but happy. A combination of a faith in Jesus, and a family seem to be all they need. Definitely something I can learn from.