This morning the students were able to sleep in 15 extra minutes. It may not sound like a lot, but everyone was grateful for a little more rest.
This morning after breakfast and solitude time we all drove out to a piece of property to hear about a vision one local woman has for a school for children with slight learning disabilities. Vicky is her name. She has lived and grown up here in La Mision. She is married and has two young children. It is her desire to build a self-sustaining, green school. Something that is very unusual here in Mexico. She was given a piece of land by her mom to build the school. The process has been slow, but she is determined and in the very beginning stages of accomplishing her dream. After she shared her story, we began clearing some of the land for a wall that we hope to start building next week with the next group. It was a lot of shoveling, cutting bushes, picking up garbage and clearing the land.
Another group went to the Open Arms house and continued working on the upstairs walls.
At lunch time the crew that was clearing the land finished our work. I had thought we would need another hour or two after lunch, but they finished it before lunch. So this afternoon most of the group headed back to the Orphanage to clean up, play with the children and get ready for the journey home tomorrow. While others went back to work on the Open Arms house. They were able to get two more walls up.
This evening we will have one last team time before we begin to head home tomorrow.
We hope this has been a great week for your student and that they have grown in who they are as well as their perspective on faith and life.
Re-entry for students can range from like nothing happened to be overwhelmed. Students have been without their cell phones for a week and many have expressed how nice that is to not have cell phones as it has relieved them of a lot of stress and pressure. They have been able to meet more people, play card games, and learn new card tricks. Community time has been great.
Some students will talk your ear off until 3 am in the morning others will need a little time to adjust to life back at home. They have all seen a level of poverty that is hard to comprehend through our time at the old Tijuana dump and time at a church housing refugees. But it has all been good.
My hope is that they will process this trip with you. Therefore, below are some questions you can ask your students about the week:
- What was it like crossing the border the first time?
- What was the Mexico side of the border wall like when you visited it on Sunday?
- What was different about Mexico than at home? What was the same?
- What work site(s) were you on this week?
- What was the story of the people you were helping?
- What was the Canyon (old Tijuana dump) like?
- What did you do at the Canyon?
- What was the best part of the week?
- What was the hardest part of the week?
- What do you remember about Dj’s story?
- What did you learn about yourself?
It has been a joy spending a week with your student. We believe in each one of them and hope we have been a positive voice in their life this week reinforcing the values and qualities you want to see in your sons and daughters. Thank you for entrusting them to us for this week.
Lastly, we are having a reunion/fundraiser on August 24th at Marin Covenant Church, the same place we had our pre-trip parent and student meetings. It is our 10 year anniversary and we would love to have you celebrate with us! You and your students are invited. All you need to do is text us for tickets. For the phone # put “51555” in the body of the message text “B2LTix” This will take you to a place to purchase tickets. If you want to know more you can go to our website.
Tomorrow we plan to pull out of the orphanage by 8:15 am. If all goes well we hope to be back on US soul by 11 or 11:30 am. The border wait could be anywhere between 30 min and 4 hours. We are hoping for the shorter time. We will text you when we cross.
Please monitor the flight status
Thanks,
Phil
