A couple of weeks ago we had our first short term missions group come to Teopisca. It was a group of six and they came to us all the way from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. Pastor Scott and his wife Tammy, Karen, Joshua, David and Cindy are all members of an English-Speaking Church www.antiochcommunityoutreach.com in San Miguel and they came all the way down to Teopisca to serve the Lord in a variety of ways during their 10 day trip.
We went out to a indigenous community and did a Vacation Bible School for about 80 kids. What was really exciting is that we had to host the VBS at the local elementary school because there really wasn't anywhere else large enough to handle that many children; imagine that, no church and state separation here in south Mexico and everything worked out just fine. We split the children up into four groups: arts/crafts, music class, sports and gospel presentation. We weren't counting on so many children showing up but praise the Lord that they did. And on the last day we fed them tamales, chips, soda and some cookies...they had a blast!
One really cool thing is that we had a three way gospel presentation going on because most of these children do not speak Spanish as their first language. They speak a dialect called Tzeltal. So in order to ensure that they could understand exactly what Pastor Scott was saying, he would speak in English, then Cindy would translate to Spanish and then a lady from the village would translate the Spanish into Tzeltal. First time I had been apart of something like that.
This group really helped out at the orphanage as well. We are once again doing some construction out at the orphanage and this group of workers helped paint some of the rooms in the cabana so that we can move some of the children around. The older children are waiting patiently as we continue to work on the dormitory that will one day soon house about five or six of the teenage boys. They also provided Christmas gifts for the children...talk about big smiles all around! And of course a few trips out to the orphanage wouldn't be complete without a good game of soccer, a delicious lunch and a piñata. And they even attended a Sunday morning service in in our home; good times.
Thank you Antioch Outreach Church for sharing the love of God with Teopisca, several nearby villages and the orphans. We look forward to having you back next year!
