Today was our first day serving with the church in Neza. We arrived on site to find the Pastor ready to greet us and begin the day! We set up a few tents outside in order to shield the children's and hair care areas from the sun. Medical and optical services were inside the church building. The day started off a bit slow before the word got out. But by the end of the day, things got quite busy as more people arrived for services. Throughout the day, 26 people received medical care, 65 received optical care, and 25 received hair care and nail painting (we actually had four members of the team painting nails at once to keep up with the crowd)! The church also fed us a wonderful meal of chicken, rice, vegetables, and tortillas giving us lots of energy to continue working!

Tuesdays at Neza :)

Today was a beautiful day serving in the Neza garbage dump! As we arrived on site, we were greeted by several friends in the area, including members from the church we served with last week. We set up 6 tents today – and the team did an amazing job :). Throughout the day we were able to see 23 patients in medical and 15 in optical. The children’s area was busy with coloring, soccer, and a game of “duck, duck, goose!” The team also combed and styled 10 people’s hair and painted 18 sets of finger nails – opening up the doors for great ministry. In addition, a number of our regular patients stopped by in medical for check-ups and medication refills.
At the end of the day, the team helped distribute 32 grocery bags. Each bag contained a mixture of rice, beans, canned tuna, oil, and other grocery items.


Afterward, we packed up the bus and visited the church that has been built within the dump. We had a time of ministry with the pastors of the church and also had a chance to take a team photo. The day ended with dinner and rest time at the hotel – and we’re looking forward to tomorrow!

Spring Break - take 2!

The week is off to a GREAT start! Just Saturday we received 16 team members here in Mexico City to help us continue to serve the poor and needy here. Over the weekend, we oriented the team, took in some sites, and prepared for this week of serving. Today we visited our first site :). After a morning worship and devotional, we loaded up the bus with the many supplies needed to provide medical, optical, hair and children services for the week. The team worked very hard and made loading the bus EASY! As we arrived on site, we gathered together to pray for the day and receive instructions. After unloading the bus, we set up four different tents under which we were able to set up areas for children, optical, and hair care. The medical area was housed inside the local community center. Today we were able to help over 70 people in the optical area and over 30 people in the medical area – for the first day this was amazing! The children’s area was full with coloring, face-painting, and some soccer games. Several of the young people serving with us also presented an educational program on dental hygiene. This has been so important to the community here and it was such a blessing to watch the children learn how to correctly care for their teeth. After packing up (in record time!) we stopped for dinner at a local restaurant for delicious, family-style fajitas. It was truly a beautiful (and yummyJ ) day!

Spring Break - Team 1!

This past week we began our first Spring team down here in Mexico City. We served with a team of 8 to provide medical, optical, and child services throughout the city.

I was able to help out in medical with translation and in the pharmacy. We had a great team in medical, and together we were able to see almost 200 patients throughout the week. On Monday and Tuesday we worked in local garbage dumps and community centers. On Wednesday we began working with a local church. The Pastor had brought in a group of students to cut hair – they did a beautiful job and the people were so happy to receive hair cuts and beautiful styles!

The church also was very involved with the areas of service. Not only did they help us with counseling and registration, they also assisted in optical and children’s.

On Thursday and Friday when we arrived on site it was such a blessing to see the tents and areas already set up and prepared. With the help of the church, we were able to serve over 1000 people this past week!