Mazatlan Day 6

No access to a computer yesterday to get any blogging down. Yesterday was a full day of church and it was great. We first went to the English Service at the main Vineyard down here which was a good time to worship and hear a teaching in our language. We ate a quick breakfast and then sat in the back for the worship part of the Spanish Service. They have amazing worship. 7-8 girls up front who dance and play the tamborine and the band just rocks. The highlight is, as always, Jorge plays this worship song to the tune of La Bamba along with the sweet guitar rift. It needs to be heard to be believed. I always really love worshiping in Spanish because though I do not know all the words I feel really connected to God.

We had a few hours off during which I took a run in the hot mid day sun. This sounds ridiculous and trust me it was. I was so tired and hot when I got back. I forgot to wear sunscreen and thought I would run fast enough not to get burned :-) but that did not happen. I ran really slow actually, the slowest 3 miles in a long time but about 2 minutes into my run I realized survival was the goal.

At about 3:30 we left to go to one of the local colonia churches for their Sunday evening service. None of the local neighborhood churhces have service on Sunday morning because all the leaders are at the main church so they have them on Sunday night. We drove to Villa Union where we will do clinic tomorrow. A retired American couple who work down here most of the year picked us up and we were on our way. We stopped several times to pick up young teenagers who help with the kids program out there. Villa Union is actually a separate town outside the city and is about a 45 minute drive. Our friends, Kyle and Ellen who are full time church planters down here, run the Sunday night service and we met them out there not before having to go through a military check point looking for drugs. Bill and I had a moment of panic because all our meds were in the back of the van and I did not have our paperwork with us but we just got waved through. We helped clean up church and set up. This church has multiple pigeons living in it so you can imagine what the floor looks like. Angie and Jaime, our best Spanish speakers, took to the streets around the church with flyers inviting folks to the clinic on Tuesday. There were about 10 people at the service and probably 15 kids who had a lesson upstairs. We worshipped and then sat in a circle where Kyle gave a lesson about the healing about the leper. At the end we were standing in that circle and Kyle asked anyone who wanted prayer to take a step in. 4 of the Mexicans took a step forward and we had a good prayer time. Our team was very touched by the service and though it took some of our "free" time away, it was an experience we will not forget. We stopped and had not-bad-by-our-standards pizza on the way home. Then we all piled in the van, dropped each kid off at their house and finally made it back to our hotel at about 8:30.

Our group has gotten into playing Dominos here at night. The first night we played I beat Bill on the last play of the last hand. We are playing a game Jaime taught us called Chicken Train but I think it is similar to Mexican Train. Bill and I bought two cheap sets of dominos yesterday so all 6 of us can play. Last night Bill edged out Shonna by two points in another hotly contested match.

Today was our day off and all I really did was sleep. Woke up at 11:15, ate lunch, went back for a nap at 2 pm and just woke up at almost 5. Most of us are feeling a bit under the weather. Two of us are taking cipro for traveler´s diarrhea so we needed the good rest.

Prayer requests:
continued and renewed health for all of us especially jeremy and angie who are the most ill of our group currently
a good last day tomorrow in clinic
ease of ´closing up shop´ here which means an inventory of our meds, what to leave and what to take home in terms of our medical supplies
that we can consolidate our luggage to one bag a person for the way home to save money
iowa city is having extreme flooding and it looks to get only worse

thanks to everyone who has been faitful in prayer