Day 8 - Winding Down

Our second to last day at Welcome Home...and we are starting to see the end in sight. We finished the house this morning - painted, cleaned up, and ready to move the family in tomorrow. Check out the pics...it looks great! The last daycare session with the kids completed today, and we get to sleep in for an extra half hour tomorrow...yeah!

After a hard working morning of painting and garbage clean up in the surrounding neighborhood, we took in a local Friday Market in town - having some good team "down time". At 3pm we headed out to a drug rehab center about 20 minutes from the base. There we had a tour of the facility, visited the womens' dorm, and met some of the recovering addicts and troubled men and women that are staying there. Men and women who enter the facility go into a mandatory 3 day "detox". One women was on day 2 of her detox and was yelling and banging on the brick wall with tremendous force - an eye-opening look at what drugs can do to a person. Many of our team members were taken aback by the security and forcefulness of the treatment: "Beans, Rice, and Jesus Christ", said Steve.

However, as we entered into the chapel we were (almost literally) blown away by the sincere and active involvement of the men and women as they sang worship songs - in typical Mexican "polka" fashion. Many of the students even found the bass too loud...as it rumbled our bellies! Tyler Mueller led us in some English and Spanish worship songs after their group was done - and then the testimonies began. Many of our group were amazed by the humility and realness with which the Mexican men and women spoke. Our group kind of tag-teamed with their group...taking turns sharing what God had done for and in us. Pretty neat to be a part of this. I couldn't help thinking about just how similar we are to these men and women in rehab...being called to the same thing, but perhaps in a different way. We read this morning about how we need to not "love the things of this world" and to "consider rubbish" everything but Christ. This message is just as true for the members of our group as it is about those in drug rehabilitation!

We returned close to 7pm and went out for dinner at a huge Mexican dining facility near the beach. We felt completely spoiled as we dug into burritos (chicken and bean), stuffed peppers, rice, salsa, and more! "One of the best meals that I've had" was spoken by many team members (who will remain nameless to guard their identities from their mothers...who's cooking is likely really good too!).

And now back for closing worship and bed! Adios!