Mexico - Journal Entry #6

Thursday October 9, 2008
Today was a non-hardworking day. I was up early to help make breakfast with Jim Dean and my brother, Jeff. We made scrambled eggs, sausage, french toast (from two days before) & cereal. It was a lot of fun working with the two of them.
After breakfast the dispensia bags were brought out from the storage room to be put into the vans. We were expecting Garry to arrive with the translators around 9:45. Today was the day we would be going into the Colonia to distribute the dispensia bags that were filled with rice, beans and flour. Once Garry arrived with the translators, he gave us a brief orientation about what was expected of us when we went into the Colonia. He wanted to make sure we knew not to force anyone to accept Jesus just because we were giving them food. We were also told the translators were there to just translate. We were to try to be relational in our conversations. At around 10:45am we headed into the Colonia. The first house we stopped at we were able to give food to two sisters and a young infant. Before we left the one sister did accept Jesus as her personal savior. After the first house we divided into two teams. Each team taking one side of the street. Since it was the middle of the day we passed by many living areas where no one was home. My team, which consisted of Jeff, Ted, Joe (our translator) and myself only were able to get to a few houses. Our interpreter spent a lot of time with each family to make sure they knew who Jesus was and who He could be to them. I pray that God uses that time we had to draw each person closer to Him. Our van was the last back to the compound for lunch. After lunch we headed into the city of Juarez to go to the market place (where they sell a lot of souvenirs). it took us about an hour to get there. When we got there we only had an hour to shop, so I felt a bit rushed. The first shop we made purchase at was one where Ted frequents each year he comes to Mexico. It was interesting just walking through the market place. Each vendor was trying to sell their wares whether it was jewelry, blankets or other trinkets. At Ted's vendor, I bought several bracelets for friends back home. I did makes purchases at other shops and I even bartered for some of my purchases.
After the market experience, we headed to dinner at a local supermarket called S-mart. It had a small cash & carry restaurant at the front of the store. Garry picked out our food and we had a smorgasbord of food to choose from to eat. After dinner some of us went through the store and made some purchases. I bought candy to bring back to my coworkers.
We headed back to the Resplandor De Vida and all gathered in the dining hall to give Garry a testimony of how the week touched each of our lives. It was neat to hear how God ministered to each individual in a different way over the course of the week.