Fe y Duda

[Note: Plenty of Pics at the End of This Post.]

How quickly our week here has past. How quickly friendships have been made. How fast the bonds between our team members has become. It’s amazing what lasting moments and memories can be created in so short a time.

Thursday during Mexico week is a day of celebrations, a day of things built piece by piece.

We get up early and head to the house we’ve built to hand over the keys to its new owners. Over the many years of building houses here, North Boulevard has arrived at several traditions as part of handing over the house. A Bible is presented to the family. Then prayers are offered asking God to bless this house and every soul that will live here. Finally, Carol Lowe presents flowers and a flower box to decorate the house and to help make it a home.

After the dedication of the newest house in Maneadero, we head into Ensenada to walk the main street for a few short hours. We think we’re buying our souvenirs here – Mexican blankets, ankle and wrist bracelets, a luchadore mask, a piece of jewelry, a hand woven hammock chair, headbands and backpacks. But the real souvenirs of the week, what we’ll really takeaway from this mission trip are the relationships we made and renewed with the City’s children.

We came here wanting to teach others about God but it was really us who needed to learn more about Him.

Then it was back to the home for Skid to map out our lip dub. In seven minutes, it tells the story of our week in quick little vignettes – from Dora the Explorer to Noah hurling after an allergic reaction, from the fake heroes we too often put our hopes in to the real heroes that are always there to help.

For now I’ll post the lyrics of the opening song in the 2013 Mexico Mission Trip Lip Dub. I’ll post the lip dub itself for all to see once I have permission. Give me a day or two. But come back because I think you’ll really enjoy what we built together.

Rescue

by Stellar Kart

I've been released from darkness

My life has been redeemed

Now I am found in you

you've pulled me

From the fire

For all eternity

My chains have been removed

My God, my hope, my rescue

The cross has set me free

No power can stand against you

I'll shout it out, shout it out

Your blood has bought my freedom

No greater love than this

My king would die for me

Not even death could hold you

The battle has been won

My sins are washed away

My God, my hope, my rescue

The cross has set me free

No power can stand against you

I'll shout it out, shout it out

My God, my hope, my rescue

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The cross has set me free

No power can stand against you

I'll shout it out, shout it out

Shout it out, shout it out

My God, my hope, my rescue

My sins are washed away

My God, my hope, my rescue

My sins are washed away

Shout it out, shout it out

My God, my hope, my rescue

The cross has set me free

No power can stand against you

I'll shout it out, shout it out

My God, my hope, my rescue

The cross has set me free

No power can stand against you

I'll shout it out, shout it out

Shout it out, shout it out

Shout it out

Then after the lip dub is shown for the evening’s entertainment, we head to the younger children’s dorm to move from bed to bed to wish the children good night. It’s a hard moment for many, the week’s memories making it difficult to go.

From there, we walked up the hill to the amphitheater for our last team devotional. It too is a NBYG tradition. We offer up individual words and phrases of a memory from the past few days. One by one, the memories and anecdotes are piled like stones, creating an altar in appreciation of what God has done in this place both to us and through us. Just a few of those memories mentioned… “little Manuel’s expressions”… “red coat”.... "Why does Zorro look skinner?"… “a post from Jeff McClain saying it looks like it’s going well but someone needs to shoot whatever that is on David Garman’s head”… “gaining weight on a mission trip”… “Thor”… “coming back to the City of Children with your adult daughter”… “translators”… “Fe y Duda”… “Aqui!”…and on and on the words and phrases rang out in the dark some met with laughter others silence or with sighs of agreement.