Another full day. A few got up before sunrise to walk up the hill to the small, white, wooden cross that overlooks the City of Children. We waited there for the sun to come up but the early morning cloud cover obscured our view...of the sun...but not the Son. We celebrated His rising and enjoyed the view of the hills and the City of Children nestle below.
Then it was off to Maneadero to present the keys of her new home to Norma and her family. It's an awesome feeling to hand someone the keys to a house...their house...raised with so much love. Her equity in the venture was the purchase of the property we built on. The land cost a purported amount of $3,000 -- an enormous sum of money for a dusty patch of land. John Risse gave Norma the keys to the front door. Sam Bagwell presented her with the keys to her eternal home in the form of a family Bible. Then we all surrounded the house to raise it in prayer. In the background, a few neighbors looked on. I wonder what they saw? I wonder how the Lord will nurture these seeds plenty in such seemingly dry soil. I wonder what moments of both joy and sorrow these walls will see? I wonder how long the work of 61 people with 1 God and 1 goal will reverberate from this hill? We hope this house will provide a foundation for a family of faith that will be a blessing from generation to generation.
Then, it was back to Ensenada for a few hours to tour and shop in the city. It was a bit of a cultural jolt moving within minutes from the poverty of the outlying villages (it's not unusual to see a house fashioned from crates, bungee chords and a tarp) to the main street of Ensenada where cruise ship crowds pour over deals on jewelry and handmade blankets. It's a powerful visual contrast between rich and poor -- all determined by chance of birth, where and to whom we were born. We are blessed. We are rich. We are loved. Let's continue to show our thankfulness in service.
Back at the City of Children, we played baseball together...and the Mexican team won! At dinner, the teen boys dressed up to serve dinner to the teen girls. It's a Mexico trip tradition and a good lesson for our young men.
Then we all gathered at the gym for the finale of our skit. It's impossible to adequately summarize the week's skit in a few words. It was loosely based on the movie, "A Night in the Museum," with a nod to "High School Musical" underpinned with a message from scripture. All of our activity during the week centered on two pieces of scripture -- the story of the woman at the well and John 10:10 ["The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." NIV].
Every night, the displays in the museum come to life at 10:10 -- historical figures like Davy Crockett, revolutionary war soldiers, vikings; Biblical notables like David and Goliath, Methusilah, Joseph and John; even a dinosaur. Four teens locked in the museum (played by Ann Horton, Annie Gonzales, Kody Harvey and Addison Durham) after closing discover how the displays come to life and with the help of the Biblical characters set out to discover who is breaking the museum's valuable collection of one-of-a-kind vases. The museum's owner Senor Rapido (played by Sam Bagwell) laments that these priceless vases lose all of their value when they are broken. Ann, one of the teens locked in the museum, leans that a person's brokenness can be made beautiful through the grace of our Savior. She is taught this lesson and how to handle her own personal brokenness by one of the characters in the museum -- the Woman at the Well (played by Rachel Bowen).
Tonight, at the weeklong skit's conclusion, we learn that the person breaking vases is the evil Macho Dinero, a.k.a. the museum's security guard, both played with understated aplomb by our own beloved Joe Mayes. Both the Macho Dinero character and the Explorador (played by Jeff McClain) are carryovers from last year's skit. It was fun for the surprised children to see their favorite characters from last year return. The skit ended with Senor Rapido receiving a gift to the museum -- a mosaico crafted from pieces of the broken vases, a visual proof that even that which is broken can be made beautiful in the hands of the creator. This mosaico was a picture of entrance gate at the City of Children. When asked what the picture was of, the Explorador replied, "It's my favorite place on the whole Earth." Rapido asked, "Is it heaven?" "No," replied the Explorador, "But close."
Later that night, the mosaico was presented to Stan and Carole Stout as they prepare for the next chapter in their lives together. Following one more year as the American directors, Stand and Carole will be retiring from their 22-year work here. We hope our mosaico will remind them of the many broken pieces they saw value in and found a place for. Stan's greatest compliment to us was the acknowledgment that each year the children and staff at the City of Children wait for the arrival of the North Boulevard group.
Our Festival of Sharing hat went to Ann Horton for her service and her openness and courage in playing a character in the skit who admits her own brokenness and struggles.
The last hours at the City are, for me, the most difficult. Not because of all the clean up that must be done before we can grab a couple of hours of sleep. It's saying our goodbyes that is so hard. Our last contact with the children here comes as we help tuck them into bed. We visit a couple of the younger boy and girl dorms and passing among the children we offer hugs and small gifts and more than a few tears. They are tears of sadness because we leave friends, because we can't do more and because there is so much more that needs to be done. Tears because we like ourselves here. And they are also tears of joy because we leave with more than we came with. We leave, even after distributing all that we brought and pouring ourselves out, with more than we brought, more than we can contain. We leave with the knowledge that one day we will all be together.
After tucking the children to bed, we went up on the hillside to an amphitheater for our final team devotion. As is our tradition, we built an altar of memories and blessings and impressions. We don't tell stories. We individual offer up just a few words, a brief word picture from the week, offered up one after the other, heaped up like an altar to God. Together all of these brief phrases and memories make a beautiful mosaico. It's a special moment that's impossible to describe. Some phrases are funny and we laugh. Some phrases are poignant and we fall silent or sigh or just wipe away a tear. Some of those phrases shared included, "spending time with my mom," Risse jumping rope," "communion truck," "Bob playing Methusaleh and looking younger," "Mario mimicking Skid," "High School Musical chairs of death," "service," "hope in the future of our church," "distributing food and somehow coming home weighing more (not a miracle, just a tribute to our food ladies)," Antonio's graduation, "10:10," "I can't find my plastic cockroach," "Carol's flowers," "three generations of family here again," "quebrantado hecho hermoso...broken made beautiful."
There were many, many more words and phrases offered up. These are just a few. Tell you what, if you have a few that were special to you or a few more that have come to you since the trip, post them below in the comments section.
One by one, we raised our altar of memories to the Lord. We went on for a long, long time. Unfortunately, we couldn't go on forever. Tomorrow we travel home from our new found home in Mexico to our home in the U.S.
Until then, 10:10.
