[Note: Plenty of Pics Posted Below]
With Monday, the week begins full force. All kinds of
activities and service explode across the City of Children and nearby Maneadero
– puppet shows, games, crafts, Bible classes for teens and the staff, playing
with the children, food delivery to the community and the construction of a
house. There’s also one new activity – creating a water collection system and a
neighborhood garden at the Church of Christ in Maneadero. Under the leadership
of Tommy Whitehead (a friend of Skid’s from his days as youth minister in
Knoxville), this team is developing a resource that will bless the community
and, hopefully, draw them to the living water offered through Christ for years
to come.
While for many of us coming to the City of Children is a
missions Disneyland, a spiritual battery recharge, one week of 52 when we feel
closer to each other and to God because we’ve left behind so many distractions
that consume our attention at home, there is more to life here than the
romantic picture we’ve conjured up. Seeing the children who live in poverty, we
feel uplifted that the children of the City are blessed with opportunity and
resources and dorm parents and a staff and summertime mission teams who love
them. But no place on this earth is free from the struggles that are common to
us all. Satan doesn’t cut anyone slack…even orphans.
The children here long for their parents. The teens struggle
with doubt and wanting to set out on their own. From time to time, even the staff
questions the value of their work when they see a child they love rebel. What
parent hasn’t had these thoughts, doubts and fears?
Today we ask everyone who reads this post to join our
mission team in prayer for the City of Children. To ask God to bless the work
of this staff, to encourage them, to comfort them, to show to those who doubt
here God’s hand, to give faith to those who wonder and wander, to let the
children know the love that is all around them and literally stretches from
California to Tennessee, to keep every soul here safe today and for eternity.
Please pray especially for the teens here. The teen years
are a time of questioning and testing authority and yearning to be free. Teens
here are no different than teens in Tennessee. But here, they lack the daily
encouragement of a parent. The staff does what they can but there are so many
children, so many needs. Can you imagine being a parent to 200 children? I
don’t think any of us again. But that’s the daily challenge for Patty and
Ricardo, Tom Begin and the rest of the staff. Please pray.
To encourage the teen girls, Cindy Patton, Ann Horton and
Mariana Eddy prepared a class that, in part, had them focus on the things
around them that strengthen their faith.
Working with the teen boys, Daniel Neely and Luke McConnell shared their
life struggles and the teen boys responded, talking about struggles of their
own. It’s encouraging to those of us who are older to see teens working through
these struggles, looking to God for His help and guidance.
After a day filled with hard work and heady issues, it’s
nice to pause for a bit of entertainment.
This evening we were introduced to Dora the Explorer’s sister Dora the
Matadora. Who knew? In the skit, we finally meet the three heroes that have
been called upon by the children of the City to save them from the evil plot of
the Dinero family to destroy the home and build the world’s largest taco
stand. Our three movie heroes – the
Masked Zero, Credible Hulk and Aguaman – mistakenly think they’ve been invited
to the City of Children to put on a show for a wealthy man instead of save the
City from the clutches of Senor Dinero. What will happen when they arrive and
the children discover their heroes are only actors? Stay tuned.
You can imagine the larger story that all of this
represents. And, if you can’t, quiz your child when they return home. Let them
tell you the story and relive it.
Thanks in advance for your prayers. God is good. All the time.
Puppets
House Building
Water Collection/Garden System
Food Distribution
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| They thought they were buying very nice cooking oil.... This is what we call being Pilar-ed. |
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| How are we going to get all of this in a 15 passenger van? |
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| Where there's a will there is a way. |
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| What has the children all running to get in line? |
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| ...The Happy Meal toys that you donated to our mission trip. |
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| To everyone who has donated fabric for the Maneadero Church of Christ here it is being put to good use by the ladies of the congregation. |
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| No, really, they are putting the fabric to good use. |
Around the City
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| Jeff, we thought you'd enjoy this...highlight. |
The Evening Skit
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| Dora's sister Madatora |
