So Grateful We Can Be Here

Have you ever wondered where all the used school buses go? Most of them are in Mexico. Last night 25 of us climbed onto Rancho3M’s school bus along with 45 of our closet friends from the ranch and made our way to downtown Guadalupe. The other 15 of us followed in one of our rented vans (enjoying the air conditioning). We pulled up to the ice cream stand and wouldn’t you know it, it was closed. The good news is that no one had gotten off the bus and… earlier that day we had purchased enough popsicles for everyone to enjoy. But the 20-minute trip away from the ranch was refreshing for the team. When we got back to the ranch someone busted out some pistachios and shared them with everyone. There was no meeting, we just hung out…and it was just right.

This morning Don Bayles led the devotion on faithfulness and the following quote captures it, “Every aspect of the Christian life depends on the faithfulness of God.” The promise of eternal life is dependent on His faithfulness. The completion of our sanctification is dependent on His faithfulness. Our faithfulness to Him is ultimately dependent on His faithfulness to us. And great is His faithfulness!

As for testimonies, we’ve heard from four so far today, one of which was Nicky Hacker. Nicky’s testimony focused on the faithfulness of God and she shared it immediately before Don gave the devotion on faithfulness. God is so kind in orchestrating little details like that. After dinner tonight, we are going to hike up to a hill bearing a 20’ cross. At the cross we’ll catch a soul-stretching Mexican sunset and hear testimonies from four more folks on the team. Ben Hacker will be leading us tonight with a devotion on gentleness. Please be praying that God will continue to encourage us through each other’s testimony and that these last few devotions will continue to be used by the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Jesus.

The big event of the day was the birthday bash. At lunch we celebrated the birthdays of 16 kids at the ranch ranging in age from 3 to 17. Master Chef Bunchkin led the grill unit, which, after making a morning manure run, grilled up 200 hamburgers (we made sure they showered before grilling). Kati “Klutch” Hargett led the logistics squad that prepared plates full of food, goodie bags for all the kids, piñatas, birthday cakes and gifts for the kids whose birthdays we were celebrating. After smashing two piñatas, we moved out to a field and played 6 innings of kickball. The finale of the birthday bash was the water balloon fight. It was 11 minutes of fast flying flurries of fun. Our students gave themselves with joy to the kids through it all.

We’re so grateful we can be here. Thank you for your prayers. Please pray that we finish our visit here well. Tomorrow is our last full day and we are anticipating it will be bittersweet. We will be participating in a soccer tournament by fielding our own team. Pray that we would be faithful to the opportunities God presents to us.