Group days

One of my biggest responsibilities here is to be general group staff. So when we have groups here on missions trips, I go with them each day and help things run smoothly. One of my favorite parts is building relationships with the group members and helping them process through their week here in Monterrey. We had several groups here over Thanksgiving, and it was quite the interesting week. I was on the group for 5 days in a row, which is really fun but exhausting. When they left and our campus was quiet on Saturday night, I slept for 12 hours!

One afternoon I was given the responsibility of translating for the group members in Rio 1. Now, I'm learning Spanish but I am no where near translating ability! We made it work though, and had a great afternoon. We also went out to eat at Pollo Loco, and I had a really long conversation with one of the group members who is a social worker in the States. We talked a lot about why I love being a social worker here because I know that what these people and kids need most is a relationship with Jesus, and I can tell them that. A few nights later this group member prayed to accept Christ and it was really fun to see her the next morning running around telling everyone. It's not just the Mexican's who need to know about Jesus, often times it's also the group members!

Another day we did some work projects and then took the Del Norte kids on a field trip to McDonalds and the movies. One of the little boys started having a severe allergic reaction to something, and by God's provision some extra staff had decided to tag along that day so I had someone who spoke really good Spanish to grab the little boy and a worker from the children's home and jump on the bus to head to the emergency room. And I still had one extra staff person to help me move all the kids and the group from McDonald's to the movies!

On Thanksgiving I spent the morning leading a crew of people in spraying for and killing cockroaches in the kitchen at Casa Hogar Douglas. They squealed a lot, but were hard workers and had great attitudes. After that we did a birthday party for the kids at Douglas, and I got to spend some time with one of my favorite girls who turned 11 this fall.