Pentecost '12 Mission Trip pt.2

...(WARNING--this is part 2. Please scroll down and read part 1 if you haven't yet)

   

The next day was Saltillo Day. This is one of my favorite times during group visits because everyone goes to the awesome St. James Cathedral in the heart of Saltillo. The noon Mass started off with the Bishop coming all the way to our pews and greeting the whole congregation even though his health was not the best. After Mass, we went out for our traditional group picture. Our friends, Juan and Linda, got stuck with about 5 or 7 cameras. By the last few shots we were ready to go...quickly. We got to the hotel where we would all share a meal. Close to 60 people - broken elevator + 6 flights of stairs = a lot of hungry patrons. Still, not a grumbling in the crowd...besides the ones coming from our stomachs. Didn't get to finish the day with a walk through the market and shopping...oh, darn! :P  Got to come home with the tired little ones who needed naps.

The Kiehl Family with some of their littles

Praise and Worship Night     

That night we held Praise and Worship out in the courtyard. We got permission from Padre Juan to bring Jesus out from the tabernacle. It was an awesome night gathered with everyone singing and loving Our Lord in the open air patio. The moon hovered right over all of us and the music by Jonathan, Luis, and some of the others in the group was fantastic! A very powerful night.

Tonio and our supervisor, Millie

   



   The next day we wrapped up our work projects. Again, mine was the roofing project and putting the final touches on it was a relief. I was hoping that I would get to see it completed. Tonio and his family were super blessed by all of the hard workers chipping in to get it done by our self-imposed 12:30pm deadline. We were trying to get to our Desert Day activity and still had to clean up.
   

Not our Desert Day location...but still a nice view

     With our sack lunch, water, journal, and Bible we headed out to a nearby farm. It's amazing how much cooler it is in the shade. I found an old pallet under a huge tree and sat to eat my lunch first. With all of the activities going on throughout the week, the earlier work project,  and the heat, I fell almost immediately into a nice nap. It might have only been for a few minutes but then a big gust of wind rushed by flipping my pages of my Bible. I woke up feeling refreshed and started reading God's Word. God is good!
   
We all returned and the group started packing and getting ready to leave during the wait time before dinner. After another awesome tasting meal, the group shared all of their thoughts or experiences throughout the week. I was impressed and a little surprised by how quiet the house really was with more than 54 people coming in and out. It was the times that we scheduled at ranchos or work projects or Praise and Worship or all of what you've read that they were LOUD! Loud and proud to be Catholics spreading the Word of God and giving testimonies in a foreign land! This trip blessed me more than I can ever write about. It blessed me more than I ever imagined it would. What an awesome feeling it is to have the Holy Spirit rushing in all over the house at all times of the day! If you haven't been on a short-term mission trip to Mexico yet, then you must do it soon  NOW!!! Too scary...too violent...not worth the time...bunch of bull! A lot of the youth came without  their parents. There were some married couples that came without their other halves. Entire families showed up with little ones in tow. All came to experience the power of the living God and what it means to be missionary...without fear!

My awesome artistic skills...
just don't pay attention to the lopsided cross, floating letters, or smudges

"But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." --Acts 1:8


"Do not restrain the Holy Spirit." --1 Thessalonians 5:19