Day of the child

The Day of the Child is on the 30th April here in Mexico. All over the place there are special events for children and families. In our church in La Loma we have had a particular involvement in childen's ministries (no surprise if you know us well!). The great majority of what I do is based in the home now for obvious reasons though most tasks need to have a flexible timescale. Some time ago I offered to put together a presentation of the different children's ministries and events in the church. It was finally ready this morning. Please pray that this exciting visual will attract more workers to the various ministries.
To celebrate Day of the Child the church had a special program for the kids. Andrew directed a play about creation. During the course of the drama the actors painted a creation mural on the wall. I think it's the fastest mural done to date! About 70 kids attended including some of the kids from the breakfast club. The dress rehearsal took place yesterday afternoon. The church planting team had arranged a special event in the community for kids. About 80 turned up with about 20 parents. The team hope to visit the families and will see if things open up to start a new house church. Please pray for them and for this exciting possibility.
Yesterday was our last day at the breakfast club before our trip home. Please, please pray for the club over the next 3 weeks. There is a good group of about 30 kids at the moment and they have 3 more chapters of the Lamb series to do. Pray in particular that as the message of the gospel reaches its climax the kids will be challenged, see their need and respond. We have trained the leaders in how to counsel a child for salvation and are really praying that some of them will have the opportunity to put their training into practice.

Second to that is the prayer for the organisation of the club. The only reason that is important is in order that the numbers might be maintained through kids having a great time. Yesterday we were glad we were there as a number of activities had to be arranged spontaneously (even though they had been assigned beforehand). Everything came together and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves but we would appreciate prayer that the people assigned to things would turn up and be well prepared.

Here Andrew steps in to do games...again!
A spontaneous sheep making craft.
The finished product. What's great about this picture is that the two little sisters in the middle (who are working street kids) are flanked by two little friends they invited. They were all back today for the Day of the Child celebrations.
After 3 weeks Mex-i-Kids will have a break until the Holiday Bible Club (VBS) in the summer. We are praying that this will be a refreshing time for our leaders who have been so enthusiastic and will cause them to come back excited and refreshed to a new term after the VBS.

The other 2 Mex-i-Kids groups in the city had special events for the Day of the Child yesterday. In Tultitlan they had inflatables etc., like a special party and in Valle de Chalco where we were last week they had special gifts for the children which Andrew and the pastor were able to pick up at incredibly low prices in a market down town. We're not sure how these special events went yet but we are praying that they will have helped to draw kids and their families in under the sound of the gospel and that through all of the clubs many will come to know Christ.