Saying Goodbye is SO HARD!

 Saying goodbye is always emotional and hard — this morning, we are saying goodbye in shifts as parts of our group are driven across the border.

Once we are all back on the state side, we will spend the night at Latin American Lutheran Mission and then start back to Minnesota at 7:00 a.m. Friday morning.

We've had a wonderful time and are so blessed to have seen our "CHE family" during this last week.

Party Clean-Up!

Well, after a very late night, we got right back to work this morning (Thursday) cleaning up after the big party.

Because we are shuttling people across the border in vans, a group of 12 left at 8:00 a.m. and a second group left at about 10:00 a.m. But we had a great group of workers in the dish room and in time, we had it back to "ship shape."

The Quinceañera

The Quinceanera was wonderful — we started with a formal church service at the Volu where Pastor Antonio spoke. We also presented our Amor/Love banner to our Casa Hogar family here.

 

After the service, there was a BIG PARTY at Casa Hogar that went late into the night! We had lots of fun, good food, and dancing!

The Baby Room Project!

The baby room is mostly done — here are the 3 artists, Marni, Paloma, and Penny, who finished the mural at 3:30 a.m. after the party!

The children at Casa Hogar picked out several of their favorite nursery rhymes and Penny incorporated them into the mural design.

The whole project took many hands — team members cleaned, primed, painted, fixed sinks, got toilets operational, put up new lights, sorted toys, put up new shelving, and put the room back in place early this morning.

In addition, we are leaving beautiful quilts lovingly made by the All Saints quilting group.

Here are photos from the project!

Getting Ready for a Party Tonight!

 While we're in a flurry to finish all our projects, simultaneously, there is a lot of activity going on for the Quinceañera that is going on tonight.

This is a very special service (similar to our Confirmation Service) that will take place at the Volu, where the church is located.

After the service, we are being treated to a huge dinner and party. No sooner than we had finished the clean-up from the afternoon lunch, the kitchen was filled with the older kids and adults helping to prepare food for tonight.

The tables have been moved from the cafeteria to the courtyard so that we will be able to eat outside tonight while the music is playing.

We are all excited and feel very privileged to be included in this very special event.

Baby Room Progress on Wednesday

Work is in a full flurry today with the Baby Room project. A group left early in the morning to go and purchase mattresses and shelving for the baby room. Part of the goal was to create a place to store clothes, formula, and other items more conveniently.

After the shoppers returned, many hands are involved in getting the shelving put together.

While the shelves are being put together, Steve is working on the toilets in the baby room to try and get them functioning. Tim worked on the sink that had been installed in the baby room but was not hooked up, so was unusable. 

Meanwhile, the artists are at work — Penny, Paloma, and Marni are overseeing the mural that is being created. A few other budding artists have been invited to help with the tree, rainbow, sun, etc. that is a part of the mural.

The rest of the helpers (and there are many) are hard at work painting furniture, cleaning out the baby room storage area, finishing up the trim work, etc.

Pizza Night

 We had an amazing night last night — pizza night! One of our Mexico Mission trip team members, Ken, has spent his career with Davannis Pizza. He volunteered to help our group make pizza for everyone on Tuesday night.

Everyone got involved — the first step was making all kinds of pizzas. Veggie, pineapple (a favorite of many of the kids), cheese, pepperoni, etc.

 The pizza were then baked over in the new bakery — see Ken supervising the baking of over 30 pizzas.

 The pizzas were then carried from the bakery to the kitchen where they were warmed and then cut.

 Everyone loved the pizzas! As a matter of fact, we all gave Ken a huge applause for the great food. Just another example of how God used individual members' gifts and talents for the benefit of our mission.

Also notice the new plates that All Saints members donated — the plates are wonderful and greatly appreciated!

A fun evening with a wonderful dinner!!