A defining question for a missionary putting together a partnership team, and one that I am going to try to start to answer with this post.
The Cancun site was started up in August of 2010. So it is young, just over a year old. In the first year, the site has now doubled in staff (including us when we arrive), and in only its second summer accepting short term groups, the summer of 2012 is already completely booked!
Matt & Julie Cooper, along with Mau & Lizy Davila, and now, Erick & Julie Mowery have partnered with two children's homes (Casas Hogares) San Jose & Esperanza, as well as two single mothers with several children in a very poor area of Cancun, and a continuing partnership with DIF, or the Mexican equivalent to CPS in the USA.
Each of these ministries have unique challenges and offer differing opportunities for being the hands and feet of our Savior.
Yesterday, we were able to visit two of these ministry partners, the CAT and Oti and her family in Tres Reyes.
If you do not recall what the CAT is, I explained it in our blog post from our trip last January and I encourage you to read about where these kids come from and why they are here. It will break you heart. You can read it here: CAT Blog Post
At the CAT, we were able to sing songs with the kids, led by Mauricio. There was lots of yelling, singing, and dancing!
The kids were also super excited to work on a canvas painting project for Anna and I's silent auction in a couple of weeks! So if you like what you see, you will be able to bid on this at our fundraiser coming up! We will also have one more of these that the girls at Casa Hogar San Jose will be helping us with!
After spending several hours at CAT, we headed over to Oti's home. Oti is a single mom raising eight children in Tres Reyes, Cancun. Back2Back is currently beginning to look for Shelter Program Sponsors for her kids so they can go to school!
We stopped by to drop off some clothes that had been donated for her kids as well as to get pictures of each of them so that they can be promoted for sponsorship. So, I set up all of my off camera lighting equipment, and got out the big camera, and it didn't take long till we had a makeshift modeling shoot going! They started pretty shy, but by the end, were twirling and posing like Runway stars! Meet Oti's beautiful children:
The trip is going so well thus far. Along with these opportunities to serve, I have also been able to gather lots of information on Staff guidelines and rules as well as housing for when we move and cell phone options.
The rest of the trip includes spending time getting to know the staff better, price checking everything we will need to get when we move so we can adjust our budget appropriately, and a few more visits to the different ministry partners, including the children's homes!
Looking forward to sharing a few stories with you all in person an a couple of weeks at our fundraiser! Can't wait to see you all there! Please join us if you can!
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