Bummer, I just found out that I'm OLD & Try juggling this!

 

Each day the kids rotate what chores they will do. 

As this boy waits for more dirty dishes to wash, he blows bubbles with the dish water.

It's good to see kids having fun with whatever they're doing.

Papa Joel is considered the "father" of the children in the middle age kids house (5-11 yrs old).

Here he is playing and teaching them soccer.

At times there could be as many as 25+ kids in this home. Can you imagine being a parent to that many kids? When would you find the time and energy to play and teach?

This repair surprised me. I had no idea that you could buy a shower head that could be hooked up to 110 volts and have the water heated by an element inside the head!

It seamed dangerous to me. In fact it didn't work when I was done replacing it, but because I was a little confused and scared, I allowed one of the other local repair guys to finish fixing it.

After multiple trips to several stores and after several days, I was able to finally fix one leaking drain in a kitchen. However with the teenage boys stacking pots under the sink, I fear that the watertight connections may not last long (I had just replaced them all last year).

It's always surprising and confusing when I return to be repairing things that I just repaired the last time I was here. But, like my friend always says "Any job worth doing once is worth doing twice".

We took a trip to the dormant Volcano Nevada. Yes, that's show that I'm licking off the picnic table.

It was COLD.

As we got to 4,100 Meters (13,400 feet) I found out something new...

AS OF TODAY... I'M OFFICIALLY OLD!

I was 100% exhausted and couldn't go 10 steps without stopping and resting.

It was humbling.

Just about then, I noticed that one of the kids we took (a 16 years old) was sitting with 2 jacket on, gloves and a foil emergency blanket that other hikers had given him. Lewis was very, very cold and could not feel his fingers. Luckily the sun came out from behind the clouds, we were able to warm up for a bit, then we were able to head down.

Here we are on the way down. Lewis had warmed up a bit and felt much better.

You can see the Colima Volcano behind us. It's still an active volcano and was going off every 20 minutes or so when we were here several years ago.

I think I caught the "altitude sickness" because the whole next day I couldn't focus my thoughts.

It's very common to see people perform tricks, washing windshields or selling items at red lights in Mexico. They work for tips, which I think is much better than just simply having a sign asking for $.

This ol' boy was pretty good at juggling the machetes!

Today's adventures and pondering "second thought, first action"

 

It's good to be a kid, it's better to be a kid with a rope swing and a friend!

Here is another child with an egg shell growing plants. When you show interest here with the children (like everywhere), they grab onto it and want to show you more. To me that's one of the most important things about raising kids... When you tell them what you like, you'll get more of it.

Most every day it's necessary for someone from the orphanage to drive around and visit the stores that donate food to us. Most times, the food is at the end of its ability to sell, but not always. New tortillas are also picked up in abundance. They are made specifically to donate to us. There are many, many kind people in this world.

My friend and I went for a moto ride to pickup parts that I needed to make some repairs. I spend more time purchasing the parts than fixing anything here. It typically necessitates 2 or more trips for any single repair. This was my first ride on the motorcycle and because the repair took so long, I hadn't even thought about the headlight on the motorcycle. Well, night came and I drove home in the dark. It's always exciting to drive on a cobblestone road (that was made 100 years ago and is missing rocks), but to add being on a moto AND it being night. Oh, the adventures here!

They had me add heavy metal screens to the top windows of one house to keep anyone from looking in. Roof work is always best to do early in the morning or late in the day due to the heat. Most days are 90º here.

The government here inspects the houses for safety. One of my projects today was to add a strap to the gas tanks (for cooking) and change the feed tube from flexible to stiff pipe.

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When you have time to stop and think, you can ponder things that God brings to your mind. Here is something that I heard last week that has been resonating in my head...

It’s the second thought and the first action that’s the sin.

We all have thoughts that are wrong. They can be selfish, mean, nasty or hurtful. It’s very normal to have an impure thought.

I use to beat myself up for having those impure thoughts, then better understood Christianity and the “fall of man”. That helped me understand that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” There ain't nobody that doesn't sin.

When it comes to the kids that live here in the orphanage, my guess is that this statement applies to their parents as well. No one wants their child to be separated from them or wants to have the inability to care for them.

Perhaps the parents didn’t stop at the “first thought” and proceeded into the “second thought” and deeper into the “first action” that led them to this place where the authorities had to become involved for the child’s safety or it could be that the parent just realized that they were no longer able to care for them.

First thoughts do not make you a bad person, we all have selfish, mean, nasty or hurtful first thoughts.

Be careful today…

It’s the second thought and the first action that’s the sin.

When your shorts are wet, it's hard to keep them up!

 When I come to Mexico, I never quite know what the day will bring.

Today started out by going to the 8:00 church service with my friends. Most of the time 99.99% of the words are not understood by me. Today, it was more like 99.1% so my Spanish is getting slightly better.

Afterward my friends asked “Why don’t we go to the beach”? I had the best intentions of having a purposeful day studying and reading, but hey, who can turn down the beach?

It ended up being an awesome day full of sun, friendship and laughter.

Checkout this video of my friend's 2 year old. Each time his shorts were pulled up, they would just drop. He (and the rest of us) thought that was hilarious!

It's the simple things in life that make you laugh and get forgotten in a normally busy day.

We even found some ice cream that a guy sold us out of the back of a Nissan hatchback.

The next day, there was a motorcycle tire to repair.

I’m hoping to use this while I’m here. I would call it more of a scooter, but they call it a motorcycle, so we’ll go with that. There could be some danger due to it’s top speed, ability to come up to speed and the lack of mirrors, but of course there will be adventure also.

Luckily I have my motorcycle license. Check out this traffic stop where the police were impounding motorcycles if the driver didn’t have a motorcycle license.

Sometimes we think that Mexico is a lawless society and the cartels run everything. That is not true. There are rules and regulations and like other places in the world, people try to do the right thing and be good citizens.

Do I go to Mexico because I can't think straight?

Leaving for Mexico

Here I am, yet again… off on my annual trip to Mexico.

Arriving after a long day of travel

I’ve been visiting this place for one or two weeks a year for the last 13 years. A friend from church started organizing trips to help support an orphanage in Colima, Mexico. In 2020 I started coming down for a month at a time. I call it my Sabbatical, which I define as a purposeful time to get away and do different things.

While here I WILL NOT do most of my normal daily tasks and I WILL DO other unique different tasks that are outside the normal.

I’ll continue: Morning Bible Study, Morning time in purposeful prayer, My morning exercise (Setups, pushups, & stretches on my bad knee and back) and daily Spanish lessons.

Then I’ll add a few new things: 

• Play with kids every day
• Just sit and talk and listen to other people
• Tackle a bigger repair project with a couple friends/workers here
• Do minor repairs around the properties
• Nap
• Review & modify my goals
• Read a fiction book
• Laugh (the people here laugh a lot!)
• Ponder where I am and where I want to be by spending extra time in prayer
• and most importantly… I’ll just be.

I recently read an article about Cognitive Load. It discussed the idea that when our mind is full all of the time with things to do, relationships to improve (or cut off), incomplete tasks, never-ending emails and work projects... it can be overwhelming.

When cognitive load is too high, it is difficult to put focused attention on new ideas and deep thought into current struggles because we just may not have the brain power for a needed, extended length of time to do it. 

I would guess that you use weekends to unplug from your cognitive load like I do. However, just unplugging may not get us the rest that we need or the resolutions that we desire.

This trip is a great time to not only unplug, but to also direct my thoughts and actions in ways that just can’t happen within a very hectic schedule in the United States.

So I guess the best answer as to "Why do you spend so much time is Mexico" is: I love my Mexican brothers and sisters in Christ, they are like family. I love the kids and desire to help them know that they are loved. But honestly, and selfishly, it is to better connect with God and give Him the time to get my thinking straight.

My challenge to you is to STOP, turn off the TV, social media, and movies and just sit in your thoughts on purpose. Our thoughts are what’s leading us to crazy or sanity. Spend the time needed with God to unload your burdens and to just see what He fills you with.

Here is something that brought a smile to me today....

This beautiful girl showed me an egg shell that was growing plants in it.