VBS Day 3 in a monsoon

Our third VBS evening got interesting.  First, Adrian took a few of us to the doctor because of sickness (I'll just be up front - several of us had diarrhea for multiple days, me included.  LOL).  We got there a little late and were welcomed by torrential downpours.  The half of our group that was there on time had tried twice to put up the tarps on the basketball court, and the wind quickly knocked them down both times.

Seeing that the VBS group was struggling, one of the local families in the apartment complex opened up her home to ALL of the kids and our entire VBS group.  I'm sad I missed this happening ... what an amazing act of serving, loving others as Jesus loves us.  Our group was able to get tarps up in her backyard patio but the rain was deafeningly loud.  The louder Chuck and Marcos talked, the louder the rain came.  There were a few of us (myself included) that just couldn't stop laughing.  No matter what we tried to do, the rain just wasn't having any of it.  We were all drenched and Marcos even managed to baptize Lisa (joking) with the rainwater coming off of the tarps as he tried to drain it.  Fortunately we all were in such good spirits (the kids included!) ... it was absolutely comical though.  For you to really get what it was like, please watch this video (taken on Ryan's iPhone) ... it was nuts!

Here are a few pictures I was able to hijack from other cameras ... it was raining so hard by the time our group got there that I just didn't want to chance taking my camera or my phone inside when I made a run for it.  LOL.

When we realized that VBS outside in a monsoon (ok, not really but it SURE seemed like that) wasn't working, the kind family opened their living room to all of us.  And there were a lot of us ... especially for the size of the room.  But they graciously and lovingly allowed us to use their home as needed ... it was really a beautiful moment despite us being cold and wet.  (Yes, that's a terrible picture of me, but I wanted to show how wet we were!)

After an abbreviated VBS lesson and craft, we sang a few songs - we sang ours in English and the kids sang their song in Spanish.  We LOVED being serenaded to.  Here's another quick iPhone video (thanks Ryan) of the kids singing to us ... please watch it, they are so sweet!

After that, we said goodbyes to the kids.  It was bittersweet because we all wished for more time with them.  We are doing a VBS on Sunday also, but it's during the sermon at church and many of the children we've been seeing won't be there.  I know we all latched onto a few kids that touched us ... I'll always remember their little faces and their big smiles as they tried desperately to communicate with us.  Oh to see them try to talk in English as we tried to talk in Spanish ... it was so sweet.  Here are a couple (really bad) iPhone pics of me with 2 of the girls - the first was one that really touched me - she was so vibrant and had a personality that just could not be ignored!  LOL.

And finally, here's a quick iPhone shot of the finished basketball court that we painted earlier in the day, albeit terribly wet.  We've already heard that Rudy (the Evangelist in Puebla) has gotten comments and questions from apartment families about why we painted it.  They were convinced we were part of a political movement.  LOL.  When he told them that we were brethren of the church and were there to work out of our own free will because we wanted to do something nice and share God's love, they were shocked and amazed.  Hopefully Rudy will be able to capitalize on their shock and have some of them join him at church :-)

Tomorrow, we worship with Rudy's church in Puebla.  We are all SO excited.  Adrian is delivering the sermon and our group is singing in front of the congregation ... LOL.  We have never sung together, so it should be interesting ... but we are so looking forward to praising God with them, even if we aren't a polished choir :-)