Esperanza Day 7, Saturday

Our first stop today was at the beautiful St. Martin De Porres church that we had been blessed to pass each morning on the way to the worksite.  The huge Jesus statute is very welcoming! The inside of the churches have very detailed stained glass windows and murals on the ceilings as well as many beautiful statues. There were European style confessionals and a mock burial of Jesus with a real crown of thorns. The detail on the alters were very ornate. There was a family there preparing for a baptism of a beautiful baby girl!

Our next stop was at the beautiful beach in Rosarita!  The beach scene was filled with a beautiful array of laughter, fun, music and shear enjoyment of the waves from the ocean. Families, couples, friends, Mexican’s and American’s alike shared a beautiful day of sunshine and building up community. Several of us had a fun experience bartering at the market. While shopping, when we mentioned Esperanza, one beautiful merchant lit up with excitement, as it was familiar to her.

Once we returned to the Posada we had a meeting to where each one of us reflected on our feelings about giving up a week of our lives to help the less fortunate in an area that many in the USA think is unsafe. Everyone agreed that after interacting with Mexican people for a week, we were impressed with their love for us and gratitude for us being here. None of us have had any reason to feel unsafe but every reason to feel very good about being here, and the fact that we were building community and not walls. The gospel reading today was from Matthew 23 where Jesus criticized the Scribes and Pharisees for not practicing what they preach, but serving the  poor for the week, all of us who are very well off by the worlds standard feel very good about our decision to take a small risk in order to be obedient to Christ’s call.

At the end of the evening, our team was blessed with a prayer experience of being served, by our incredible leaders, Sarah and Tony. Tony began by reading John 13: 1-17 (the story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet) and then they proceeded to go one by one and wash our feet, and pray over us. There were many tears from our humbled hearts, it was a very healing and moving experience.

Our group grew very close this week, and had so many opportunities to discover the gifts and hearts of each other, with laughter, tears, and sore muscles and enlarged hearts we are coming home with so much more than we began with. Thank you for your prayers. We are coming home today with the desire to bring back to you all and to those around us the treasures in our heart. Thank you for your prayers and your support. God bless you all!!