Over Easter week this year (Semana Santa) Bill Lee from the Church of the Redeemer in Greenville, SC led five fathers and five sons from Sumter, SC to Mexico to spend their Spring Break with the Children of La Familia.
One of the main projects for this mission team was to add clothes line posts and restring the clothes lines in the outdoor area where the children’s clean clothes are hung out to dry. See photographs below of the finished project.
One of the most valued contributions the Sumter made was to replace the worn and bald tires on the old white van mission teams use for transportation when visiting La Familia. Brand new tires were installed during our visit. To illustrate how badly the tires needed to be replaced, one person commented that the old tires were so bald that you could see the air inside the tire.
Each morning before breakfast at Sandy’s Restaurant, one of the father’s led a scripture lesson and one of the son’s offered up prayers for the success of the team that day and for the food we were about to receive. The food Sandy prepared was terrific as usual.
At Easter Sunday worship services, the building was packed as usual. One special treat we all appreciated was to have Karla Frye translate Juan Francisco’s excellent sermon for the benefit of the Gringos. Ten years ago Karla was adopted by a family in the Atlanta Area and now has returned to La Familia to serve as a volunteer. She did a great job of translating. Below is a photograph of two missioners sitting on the “Papa Joe” bench following the worship service with several of the Children of La Familia.
We have been waiting a long time for enough donations to pave the area outside the front entrance of the main building at La Familia, but that day has finally come and the area is now a combination basketball court, futbol field and volleyball court. I promise you it gets plenty of use.
The visit was completed with a day in Puebla and Cholula visiting the pyramid and climbing the stairs up to the church that is located on top of the pyramid.