Pie in the face!

An amazing children's ministry in Michigan (from Bethany Assembly of God) did a fundraiser for missions (and my work here in Mexico) at the beginging of the year. The preschoolers had to bring in their pennies and if they raised a certain amount of money they would get a pie in the face for their two teachers and their pastor!

Well they did it! It is amazing to see little people care so much about reaching people for Jesus (I am going to assume none of thier motivation was based around pies in the face, right Chris?!?)!

Thank you kids from Bethany Assembly!



In other news I am heading (with the interns) to San Miguel del Allende today! From the looks of it (thanks Google) it is a beautiful city with lots of culture!

You can also check out Rods Blog OR Jims Blog for more about last nights event!

13 more wheelchairs!

Today we were able to go to the special needs school, which happens to be very close to my house to give away even more wheelchairs!

We got a tour of this school and then did the presentation. This time it just involved saying the names of the students or person getting the chairs, shared the gospel and hung out some!

I love that we can meet a need in our community!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive layouts and designs so you can make your book just the way you want.

Baptism Video

This is a great video a co-worker (Jim) made from last weekends worship and baptism service!

\

31 Baptized!

Yesterday we had the amazing opportunit to see 31 people from both chuch plants get baptized! It is amazing to see lives changed with the amazing power of Jesus.... we see it all of the time here in Ixtapaluca. It was encouraging to watch these young christians take that step to be baptized!

I can not wait to see how God uses these amazing men and woman (and some youth) to further His kingdom! =)

For the baptizms we went to a water park an hour and a half or so away!

We started the day with some worship, a sermon and testimonies of why they wanted to get baptized. Finally, we headedto the pool! The afternoon was full of lots of food, swimming, basketball etc!

Just a little fun!

Last night we had a youth party in the POURING rain!

There was a photobooth, a wii, kids playing in the rain, hot dogs, chips, laughing, a small food fight and toooooo much rain!

More Wheelchairs Needed?

So next friday June 30th we are set to have ANOTHER wheelchair outreach in our little community!!

If you missed the blogs about the first one... it was pretty incredible. Check it out here... or go to Rod's blog!

But, we need to purchase 15 more wheelchiars in order to do that! We are lacking about $200 to buy them! (it is around $13 per chair which covers the import fees!).

If you are willing to help out, e-mail me at tbarham@caminoglobal.org!

The rain didnt stop us!

After a ton of consideration and being very wet... we decided the show must go on!

We had four different bands from two different countries playing worship songs for about 3.5 hours last night at the locales!

Even though the down pour was on again off again we still had an amazing time and many people we didn't know at least stopped by to see what was going on!

A facelift!

Today, despite the rainy nasty weather all days we still managed to get a lot done!

A group of people worked on picking up all the trash in our neighborhood!

A group painted the community center bathrooms (much needed)!

And a group of people worked on putting 4 new swanky benches in the area around the community center!

It is amazing what can happen with a little man power, some motivation and hard work! It looks like we got a facelift!

wheelchairs, breakdancing, and the Gospel!

Tonight was a tremendous night at our community center. Seriously, it may have been the best night since I have been here!

We started our evening off with some classes and ended it with an event.

We assembled 18 of the 25 wheelchairs we had and set them up just in time for everyone to show up. Colin started things off with a small breakdancing performance and then Sofia took it away with a killer Gospel presentation using paint!

Following that we were able to distribute the wheelchairs to the needed people. We had 9 or 10 from the local special needs school alone and a hand full of others from our community.

These are people that are being carried around by parents or loved ones because they can not afford a wheelchair for their loved one. These are people who primarily are looked down on in the community. the outcasts. the rejected. the lonely.

Can you imagine having a disability and then not being able to afford something so simple as a wheel chair? Something we take completely for granted 99% of the time.

I thank God that we were able to meet a need tonight for these people. I pray that we can keep being a part of their lives. I pray that they come to know that they are not outcasts, the rejected... they are created in the image of God...just like ALL of us!

We finished off the evening with another breakdancing demonstration and Colins testimony!

At one point I counted around 200 people who were there... that doesn't count the people just hanging around at a distance listening!

It was a GREAT night-- One that even brought tears to my eyes at one point!

Painting, Classes and Practice!

A lot was accomplished yesterday! We painted the lines on the basketball court, started the mural by one of our locales, had lots of classes, started painting the community center bathroom AND Colin showed off a little of his moves for todays outreach!

Please be praying for tonight at 6! We are giving away the wheelchairs (hopefully most of them) and doing a breakdancing demonstration. =)

15 More Wheelchairs!

Today, I went with Rod and a guy from the Ohio group to get 15 more wheelchairs. Well first we had to go to Office Depot to print a letter, go to an atm to get money, then to the bank to deposit in the account... and finally to get chairs!

Tomorrow is our outreach where we will give out these wheelchairs. We currently have 25 (well 24, Rod gave one away already today!)
Right now there is a group of people riding the wheelchairs around, and people answering questions and pointing them to tomorrow.

Please be in prayer for the outreach tomorrow! Not only are we giving away the wheelchairs but we also have a break dancing demonostration--- it will be a good night!

Some pictures below at the warehouse!

A great atmosphere!

We kicked off an incredibly busy week with a great time yesterday. Devos, cleaning, lunch, and finally a wonderful time at the community center. There were things going on all over the place! It is how I wish we could always operate! It was just a great atmosphere for conversation, games, learning and fun!

At one point, there was basketball, soccer, people baking cookies, piano, guitars playing, nail painting, english class and coffee shop!

It is a blessing to be apart of what God is doing here!

A funeral

It is neat to stop and appreciate exactly how God times things.

Yesterday morning, after intern devos, we went to hand out 600 flyers at the schools as they let out of school. But we were stopped by a lady at the church who asked us to come over and prayer for her mother and law who was ill.

We went with the intent on staying a few minutes and leaving. We went... prayed...and went outside to leave. We knew that the family we knew was the only Christians in their family. But, when we were saying goodbye someone else ivited us back in to pray some more.

After several people praying... Sofia and Elisa (our two mexican interns) shared the gospel with her and her family. She wasn't able to verbally respond... and only God knows what went on in her heart at that moment... but she kept raising her hands.

The family also listened intently to what was being said!

We found out later that day that the lady we prayed for died within thirty minutes after we left.

How amazing it is that we were able to pray for a woman... share with a woman (and her family) just moments before death. Sounds awfully sad... but what a great opportunity.

Anyways, a couple of us decided we should go to the wake later that night. They do things a little differently here... the wake is the night a person dies.

They brought the body to the house around 11:30 I believe. Set up the house for the wake... and then they did the rosary (a lot of the family is catholic). Then we sang some hymns and worship songs and Ishmael (our pastor) gave a short devo. Finally making it back home around 2am. And we left early!

Anyways, a couple of things struck me about the overnight wake.

It doesn't matter when a person passes.... the entire family, and some close friends basically drop everything (nothing else matters) to be at the house THAT night. There is no... when can everyone make it? When does it best fit into everyones schedule?

To show a person you care... you are just there. Some people brought flowers to put around the casket. But, what matters most is your presence.

I appreciate the community feel.

New People--New Outreaches

Today we have a group from Ohio and a guy from the states who has been working in Chiapas for the past while coming to visit us today! I love when groups come, new excitment and a lot of times we can put on events or do projects we can't seem to manage without some extra man power!

We are looking forward to ALOT of classes, a breakdancing presentation, handing out 10 wheelchairs and a community wide worship night!

Wheelchairs!

A few months ago I came in contact with a group here in Mexico called "Operation Blessing". One thing they do  is hand out free wheelchairs!

We decided this would be a fun, and needed thing to do in this community and so Rod and Myhiah went and picked up 10. (we paid 150 pesos, around $12 each, which only covers import costs).

But, itwas apparent, very quickly, that we needed more! The school said they could think of 20 students that were in need of wheelchairs.

Rod writes a little more about this, check it out!

If you would love to help us to purchase MORE wheelchairs, please let me know. $12 is a small price to pay to give someone comfort and mobility!

Intern Fun!

We left the city a little today for some fun time with the interns. After failing to make it very far up the pass (between the volcanoes) we ended up at a cute little restuarant for breakfast and had some fun in a maze and zipping down a zipline!

We have a great group of interns this year!