Thursday was another awesome day in Merida. At breakfast Laura gave us some reading out being being Church and and how it is important to be in fellowship with fellow Christians.. which we are all living this week!
We then headed to pastor Joel's house to do some painting.. (make sure you pronounce it the Mexican way, drop the J.. it sounds like the word Noel.. minus the N) Which was fabulous. Joel is a pastor that works primarily with a different church, but also helps out Shalom with the groups that come down to Merida. He has a fablous family, with 7 beautiful children.
Laura, Jennifer,Alan and Christy painted the outside a great orange, while Leslie, Grayson and I stayed out of the sun and painted inside with Gabby and Joel, and Joel's daughter Pasty... It was really alot of fun.. Laura and Christy both were competing for the winner of getting the most paint on their person's.. and Christy won by some how getting paint in her socks..
While the first coat was drying we all sat down and had a snack of fresh fruit... and we all just loved the mango's..Leslie our fearless leader was brave enough to try one with chile pepper.. I think I will just take her word that it was good.We then headed out to paint our second coat of paint on our walls.. and when we were done we all all pretty proud of ourselves.I was glad that Gabby and Joel were inside to help with the edging and corners.
While we were waiting for lunch we washed out the brushed and explored their back yard..(thanks for all the brush washing Alan,Christy and Laura!) which was was great.. They had several fruit bearing trees.. and we got to try a green orange.. (That it's name, a green orange. :)) a lime and some pomegranantes. I think Jennifer was loving all the fresh fruit. Then Laura taught Leslie, Pasty, Rebecca (Joel's daughters) and I how to play spoons.. The
game translated well, and every one had a great time. Lunch was great.. chicken, salsa.. the ever present tortillas and I learned a great way to eat chips.. try lays potato chips with picked purple onions.. sounds a little strange.. but it was muy delicious!
After lunch and some prayers we headed for the Beach.. and it did not look promising.. It looked like we were going to have a Yucatan rain storm. We were all praying for some relaxing beach time.. and God was absolutely amazing. It took
about 40 mins to drive to the beach from Joel's house.. and it was pouring hard rain the entire drive to the beach and it was not looking to promising.We park at the beach and it was still raining.. but we all start to get out of the car.. by the time the last person was out ofthe van.. the rain stopped! The sun even started to show it self. We all got to spend about an hour and a half sharing the wonderfulbeach at Yucatalan with a group of school children.. then we all head back to the van... and as we started to pull away.. the 
rainstarted back up. So thank you God for letting us enjoy your wonderful work at the beach today! Gracias! mucho Gracias! On the way back from the beach we stopped at a coconut stand and tried some coconut water, coconut flan, coconut pie and coconut meat.. I thought I did not like coconut.. but as it turns out.. I really only like fresh coconut. And after a stop at the Oxxo in Progresso for Ice cream (we run on snacks!) we headed back for Merida for some down time to get ready for our last night of fellowship and prayer with the Shalom leadership teams.
We then headed to pastor Joel's house to do some painting.. (make sure you pronounce it the Mexican way, drop the J.. it sounds like the word Noel.. minus the N) Which was fabulous. Joel is a pastor that works primarily with a different church, but also helps out Shalom with the groups that come down to Merida. He has a fablous family, with 7 beautiful children.
Laura, Jennifer,Alan and Christy painted the outside a great orange, while Leslie, Grayson and I stayed out of the sun and painted inside with Gabby and Joel, and Joel's daughter Pasty... It was really alot of fun.. Laura and Christy both were competing for the winner of getting the most paint on their person's.. and Christy won by some how getting paint in her socks..While the first coat was drying we all sat down and had a snack of fresh fruit... and we all just loved the mango's..Leslie our fearless leader was brave enough to try one with chile pepper.. I think I will just take her word that it was good.We then headed out to paint our second coat of paint on our walls.. and when we were done we all all pretty proud of ourselves.I was glad that Gabby and Joel were inside to help with the edging and corners.
While we were waiting for lunch we washed out the brushed and explored their back yard..(thanks for all the brush washing Alan,Christy and Laura!) which was was great.. They had several fruit bearing trees.. and we got to try a green orange.. (That it's name, a green orange. :)) a lime and some pomegranantes. I think Jennifer was loving all the fresh fruit. Then Laura taught Leslie, Pasty, Rebecca (Joel's daughters) and I how to play spoons.. The
game translated well, and every one had a great time. Lunch was great.. chicken, salsa.. the ever present tortillas and I learned a great way to eat chips.. try lays potato chips with picked purple onions.. sounds a little strange.. but it was muy delicious!After lunch and some prayers we headed for the Beach.. and it did not look promising.. It looked like we were going to have a Yucatan rain storm. We were all praying for some relaxing beach time.. and God was absolutely amazing. It took
about 40 mins to drive to the beach from Joel's house.. and it was pouring hard rain the entire drive to the beach and it was not looking to promising.We park at the beach and it was still raining.. but we all start to get out of the car.. by the time the last person was out ofthe van.. the rain stopped! The sun even started to show it self. We all got to spend about an hour and a half sharing the wonderfulbeach at Yucatalan with a group of school children.. then we all head back to the van... and as we started to pull away.. the 
rainstarted back up. So thank you God for letting us enjoy your wonderful work at the beach today! Gracias! mucho Gracias! On the way back from the beach we stopped at a coconut stand and tried some coconut water, coconut flan, coconut pie and coconut meat.. I thought I did not like coconut.. but as it turns out.. I really only like fresh coconut. And after a stop at the Oxxo in Progresso for Ice cream (we run on snacks!) we headed back for Merida for some down time to get ready for our last night of fellowship and prayer with the Shalom leadership teams. 
Leslie and Grayson headed out to Ruben and Julia to meet and pray for their Mundo Este. Which is their KidStuff. Their prayers are for work life, church balance, for more volunteers and for the for more funding for their ministry. Alot of blessings for the people that they have connected via Mundo est, and for the talents that people have been able to develop.
Alan and Laura went to Gaddy's house to learn about shalom's basketball m
ministry. They had a great time connecting with Gaddy's family and had a great time sharing stories and jokes. Some of the prayers for the basketball ministry included more christian coaches so the ministry can really be a place where kids can mature and that it can be a place of light for God.
ministry. They had a great time connecting with Gaddy's family and had a great time sharing stories and jokes. Some of the prayers for the basketball ministry included more christian coaches so the ministry can really be a place where kids can mature and that it can be a place of light for God. Jennifer and I headed to Landy's house to meet the some of the small group leaders. We also had a wonderful time learning about their prayers 
and concerns for their small groups. They need more leaders and for the groups to mature and grow.
and concerns for their small groups. They need more leaders and for the groups to mature and grow.It is hard to really capture our evenings via this blog.. but know that we have all had a wonderful times having the opportunities to meet with the members of Shalom church has been great.
And we all have alot more prayers in our hearts.. and we can all share prayers and stories with you..
And we all want to say HI to our families!
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