This month, on June 2, we celebrated our 10th year of being here. To look back at all of the video highlights and see all of the wonderful things the Lord has done in that time - simply amazing. It has been a privilege to be a part of it all. Here is the video that shows the highlights of our 10th year.
Construction has begun once again. As we shared in our last update, one of our visions is to reach the community of those who have special needs with a special night just for them. A big part of having a night like this on the church property is changing the bathrooms from upstairs to downstairs. God put it on someone's heart to give towards this project and we have begun the construction process. We are not done yet and still need some funds to finish; so, if you would like to help fund this project so we can complete it, please make a note "Construction" on your donation so we can put it towards that.
Just a short week after our return from furlough, Len and Caleb had a trip to Cancun for a Muay-Thai regional combat tournament. Caleb is our kind, sweet, artistic child. He has never really connected well with any sports he has played in the past and struggles many times fitting in and making friends. So, to our surprise, a year ago he asked about training and learning to fight at a Dojo here in Motul. Here, in this place, Caleb has found acceptance and friendships. This wasn’t Caleb’s first tournament, but it by far was the biggest. As they went, Len noticed the room was filled with trained fighters, but everyone was kind and respectful. There wasn’t a foul word to be heard at all. Even though fighting isn’t a team sport, this group, this Dojo Caleb is with, was a team including small boys and girls from as young as 8 all the way up to heavy weight adult fighters. They seemed like a family caring for one another. Every time Caleb would go to fight, all his friends would go ringside to cheer him on; and the older young adults would be his ring crew helping him, coaching him mid-fight and giving him water and encouraging in between rounds. Caleb has finally found his spot, and as a father, Len was so happy for him. But then the bell rang and the fight began. Caleb fought with heart. It was a close match and he and his opponent went blow for blow, both landing good hits. Caleb and his opponent were tired. Len shouted to Caleb, "This is your time! Fight with your heart! Fight for your friends. You are not alone!" Caleb finished the last round strong. At the end as both the boys stood in the middle of the ring, the official raised Caleb’s hand in victory. Len has never been so proud of him. Not because he won, but because he worked hard. In previous tournaments Caleb would lose over and over and get knocked down, but then he would get back up. Len was proud of his hard work and dedication... and because he won. After a long day, Caleb fought to become regional champ in his weight class.
Calvary Fort Lauderdale Youth came on a mission trip this month to Motul. There were 10 students and 4 adult leaders, one of them being our good friend, Sean Fryer. It was so good to see him on this side of the world after so many years. The team was great and hard working. We had our challenges with the weather, but God many times shut off the rain for when we needed it most. We started the first night with our Coffee Talk. This night was especially for teenagers. They youth could ask any question they wanted anonymously and the panel of Len, Sean, and our youth leader from here would answer. Almost everyone in our church participated in the next event - Volunteer Night. We try to do this once a year and it helps so much to do it when a team is here so that way none of the volunteers have to serve on their night! We are very grateful for how many in our church serve in all of the different ministries. We had an ice-cream bar with servers available to them and the sanctuary had table and chairs set up for everyone to sit. We played a couple games and just had a really fun night.
The night of the Family Festival was probably our worst night of rainy weather. We had to set up everything inside the youth room and sanctuary. This is a night where the city is invited to come with their friends and family to enjoy some fun at no cost. They could play games, win some candy, eat popcorn, make a craft, receive an animal balloon or have their face painted. Considering the weather, we still had a good turn-out. On Saturday, we did something we have never done before - we took all of the kids from our Sunday school who wanted to go to the zoo. We paired each kid up with someone from the team and we drove to Merida to their zoo in the center. The kids and the team had a blast. We stopped for pizza on the way back for lunch. This was a day these kids will never forget.
The last outreach we had was a youth night. The weather was also challenging this day, but we had about 50 youth in total that night. A night full of games, pizza and coke, and a message of hope. We pray for the seeds that were planted in all of these events would continue to grow and come back again to Calvary Motul.
A new ministry we have been praying for is about ready to launch. We are excited to announce our feed-the-kids program; we have been behind the scenes praying and preparing by upgrading our kitchen and staffing up volunteers on Sunday for this new ministry. We want to offer kids 9 and under to eat for free. We want to use this as a blessing and an outreach. Many of our church parents struggle financially and we have been seeing it for a while. We wanted a way to bless them so, we have started on Sundays offering a low-cost lunch after church. Now we want to bless them even further to say, “your kids nine and under - no cost for lunch!”
And very shortly we to extend this to an outreach to help children in our neighborhood. We want to invite these “at need” children to come to the church and enjoy our children’s ministry and afterwards enjoy a meal. There are more ways to share the gospel with someone than just using words. To break bread by sharing a meal together can meet a need and will build a relationship. This is going to be a large undertaking; we want to start off with 20 children and then move to 50 children a week to be invited, loved, and ministered to each Sunday. As you might think, such an endeavor has a cost connected to it. Each meal costs us 35 pesos that is 2 U.S. dollars a meal per child. We will be using the church tithe to help with this ministry but it just isn’t enough. The kids would need some sponsorship. So, we humbly ask you to pray if you could be a part of this exciting new feed-the-kids ministry. We hope through prayer, love, and some financial support that this is going to be a blessing to many families, children and the church. I ask you to pray and see if God moves in your heart; with every 2 dollars 1 child gets a good meal on Sunday. For all donations please note on your donation that it is for: 'feed-the-kids.' God bless and thank you.
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