I am super behind on updating this blog. So tonight is the night where I finish the story of Acapulco, Mexico. Sorry this will be a longer post.
While we were there we stayed in an orphanage. That was a great experience. The children that lived there were amazing. Always smiling, and enjoyed life. We were very impressed with the way the orphanage was run and organized. We were very fortunate to be there at the same time a church from Florida was there - Orangewood. They took such great care of us, and let us join their team.
The first night we were there - we got a call from my dad. Anytime a member of the family calls a foreign country - you know it can't be good. My mom had fallen down the stairs and broke her ankle in 3 places and was in surgery to get a plate and several screws. It was so hard to be far away and couldn't do anything to help. He assured me that everything would be fine and not to worry. But we decided to cut the trip short and come home a few days earlier to help my dad.
We went to visit the school there - it is a Christian school that is run by the Mexicans from several churches. They teach the children English like we teach Spanish to children in US schools. One of the English teachers was moving and so they needed a teacher for the 09-10 school year. But after being there for only a few hours, I didn't have a peace about coming there to teach. The students didn't care about learning English and there didn't seem to be a lot of support for the program from the other teachers. After we left the school - Jeff told me he felt the same way as well.
The next ministry we went to was the drop-off center for homeless kids. Each day, kids came to this house to get showers, clean clothes and 2 meals. While they were there they had chores to do, praise and worship, and a bible study. We noticed that most of the "kids" were not kids - but young adults. We learned that most of them had been coming there for 5 - 6 years and were now in their 20s. That was huge red flags for us. The goal is to help the children off the streets and this ministry was just giving them the tools - showers, clothes, food - to stay on the streets. We asked about outreach to find other children and we were told, that doesn't happen. The leaders of the ministry were happy with the ones that came and didn't see a need to go find other children. And even if they did - the ones that had been there for awhile treated the new, younger ones badly.
That day we were there a new boy came to the drop off center for the first time. Jeff and I were the only ones who were interested in getting his story - where did he come from, why was he there. None of the other leaders took the time to stop and talk with him. We found out that he was there on vacation and got lost from his family. He found some of the street kids and they invited him to come - so he did. Jeff started talking with him and had the chance to share the gospel. But he only had an English Bible. So he asked one of the leaders, to borrow a Spanish Bible. The guy responded, "Sure here is the key - they are locked up in the back." - WOW - that spoke volumes that they weren't really using the bibles in this ministry. So after a couple of days visiting that ministry - we knew this too was not a place we would like to minister.
We had some extra time (due to the rain closing down the city for a day) to do some praying. God gave us a clear answer to our prayer - He had somewhere else for us to be.
The last night we were there, we went to see the cliff divers. When we got back to the orphanage - we realized that someone had broken into our room and stolen $300. That just topped off the whole trip. But we were blessed, because I had put my diamond ring in the same pocket where the money was - but that wasn't stolen. Our passports and other expensive things were not touched. So yes, it stinks to lose that much money, but it could have been a lot worse.
Needless to say, we were very excited to get on the plane and head back home.
We are now praying the Lord continues to guide us to the place he would like us to minister one day.
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