Change

There are quite a lot of things happening in the Mex-i-Kids clubs.

The club in Acapulco has finally opened. They started last week with about 40 kids. The club there is in a huge housing development (19,181 apartments according to an internet source.)
Here is a picture of the area. Please pray that the interest generated would continue and grow and that Mex-i-Kids would serve to introduce and integrate many needy families into the church.

We have a meeting with Cesar and Irma tomorrow night to discuss the possibilities of a change in direction for them. The Chalco club is strong in terms of kids but very weak in terms of leadership. Recently there have been problems with the owners of the property they use for the club there. The most likely scenario is that the Chalco club will not re-start but instead a new club will open in the mother church at Escuadron. Our prayer is that more people from the church will be able to help shoulder the responsibility. Chalco is quite a distance from Escuadron when you have to take a bus and it's a big commitment to ask of people in terms of time and finance before even thinking of the ministry itself. We have visited the church in Escuadron several times (Andrew goes once a month) and there is need there too of course. It's a case of limited finances and limited personel. It's a difficult decision to make of course and we continue to hope and pray that the seed planted will go on to bear fruit and that perhaps one day we will be able to re-open in Chalco.

In La Loma the numbers seem to be settled around 20-30 kids weekly. That's after 2 years. What do you do when you're not reaching targets (we hoped for 300 kids there)? You start to ask questions - what are we doing that we shouldn't be doing? What are we not doing that we could be doing? what is keeping the kids coming that do attend? what is putting other kids off? The leadership has just changed again. The lady I handed over too has found herself overcomitted. She will still help, just not direct. Please pray for Lety, the new leader. We are now trialing a shorter club time with a hour of home visitation afterwards.

Now that we are into the New Year (where did the first half of the month go?) we will hopefully get into regular leadership meetings as we move forward with the Mex-i-Kids manual.