¡Arribate sus manos!

For those of you who are not familiar with mexican slang, the title of this post, roughly translated means "Put up your hands." At least I'm fairly certain this is what the little boy at the orphanage was saying as he ran around pointing his dart gun at all of us.

First off, this mission trip to Agua Prieta with St. Paul's Outreach was an amazing experience and if any of you ever get the chance to go to Mexico on a mission trip, I strongly recommend you go. Words cannot even describe the poverty levels of this town, it reminded me of (as cheesy as this sounds) a post apocalyptic town from some movie or video game. Everything is so run down and it is just astounding to see what a difference a few miles and a fence can make. Agua Prieta is a border town for those of you who don't know, it is just on the other side of the border from Douglas, AZ. I am so grateful that God blessed me with the opportunity to travel to this town and help them build houses. The family my group was building a house for was a family of 4 with 1 more on the way and they will be living in the small house pictured above. It was hard work but well worth it and the family we were building the house for deserves it more than anyone I know. We laid the concrete foundation and floor of the house and also started laying the brick for the house. We couldn't finish with only 2 days of work, but there is another group coming soon to pick up where we left off.

Each afternoon after working on the house, we traveled to a local orphanage to play with some of the orphans. They kept yelling 'capuche!' meaning piggyback rides and after a while we figured out what they were saying. The second day we went to the orphanage, a young boy came out running and shouting, 'Los Americanos!' with a bag of firecrackers in his hand. Needless to say, we had a good time. We followed that by playing some fútbol with them and of course more 'capuches!'

Every breakfast and dinner we were blessed with the wonderful opportunity to eat at a local family's house-we paid them of course. Their hospitality was simply amazing and the food was some of the best I've ever had. Our last night in Agua Prieta, the father's little brother was getting married and we were invited to the after party and let me tell you, mexican weddings are so much fun! Between the music and dancing and food and toasting and the piñata, I'm not sure what the best part of the night was. I just can't believe this family would invite 25 Americans to their wedding celebration, it was simply an amazing experience.

I think that this experience just shows how much of a blessing it is to help others. This was without a doubt one of the best experiences in my life and will cherish it always. Life is good!