Wednesday - Drawing Conclusions

The stars who stole the show and saved the day.

It was a day spent coming to conclusions. 

The last puppet show was performed and the last games played, the last food distributed in Maneadero and the last nail driven into the home we’re building. The last Bible classes were taught and the last devotionals shared between Mexican and American teens. The last row was planted at the community garden – a new activity for our mission team but one that we’ll probably keep on doing. 

Today’s teen Bible class was especially powerful. It was the only joint class of teen men and women this week and it's focus was faith and doubt. Skid told two stories and then performed a demonstration of faith and doubt that involved an unusual trust fall. If you want to know more about this or anything in the blog, ask a teen who went on the trip.

To make it through this final day of service, we drew deep on our last bit of reserves and expend the last bit of energy to live up to the task to make each day we're here an exceptional one for the kids.

Each new activity, gives rise to new stories – about learning something about this culture; the City’s children and their willingness to reach out, laugh and love in the face of parent's neglect; about us and about the nature of God; about who receives the greater service - those served or those who serve.  Ask a member of the team their favorite story from the week. Help them remember what they experienced here by getting them to tell their stories.

Of course, today was also the last day for our skit.

We left our heroes at a bus station getting ready to run away after finding out they had been brought to the City of Children to save it from the evil Dinero family. They had thought the invitation was to perform for a rich patron. But they were wrong and the children were wrong about them. They aren’t real heroes. They’re Hollywood actors pretending to be heroes.  When put to the test requiring real heroics, the Masked Zero, Credible Hulk and Aguaman failed. 

But that was yesterday.  And, today, being a day of satisfactory conclusions, our story would not end in failure. 

Our heroes returned to the City to help the children and defeat the Dinero family. And they did this by enlisting the help of other heroes.  Heroes unseen who had been there all the time. At the last moment with the bulldozers on the way to level the City of Children and prepare the site for Taco Vasto, the real heroes arrived.  At the critical moment, when all seemed lost, one by one, the staff and dorm parents stood up wearing Zorro hats and masks to defend the children and fight for the City. It was perhaps the most poignant moment of the past week.  It was incredibly moving to see the children cheer their dorm parents and the staff as heroes and the house parents and staff standing so proudly.

The evening’s skit ended as our trip had begun with a pair of 3-D glasses. Skid, in the guise of Zero, told the children they’d need these glasses to fully appreciate Zero’s next movie, which was going to be in 3-D. Likewise, he reminded them to surround themselves with real heroes and that we need God’s word in order to see clearly in this life.

We have one more day here at the City of Children. Help us, Lord, to spend it wisely in service to others. Help us to see and appreciate, the heroes that surround us.

Speaking of heroes, today's Festival of Sharing hat goes to new NBYG member Katherine Whitehead.

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Puppets

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 Food Delivery

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Water Collection and Community Garden

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House Crew

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Seen Around the City of Children

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Skit