Spring Break means different things to different people. For hundreds of children and adults in Ciudad Acuña it meant a chance to have some fun and learn about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every morning of the Spring Break week Del Rio Bible Church meets in the annex to prepare for the day. This means filling bags with candies, preparing crafts and coordinating activities and volunteers. After prayer the party leaves in various cars and heads for the border.

On arriving I thanked the Lord for not letting the tiny tires of my worthy vehicle pop from the shifting, rambunctious load of so many squirming kids. While the boys spread out, going up and down the dusty lanes to invite the neighbors, I was waved in by a friendly neighbor almost immediately. Adan and his wife Elba lived just across the lane from where we will start the event. This is where I begin to feel my linguistic inadequacy. My wife, who speaks much better Spanish than I, was busy elsewhere, so I plunged in with more willingness than wits. A torrent of heartfelt introductions and gesticulations confronted me once I got into their very modest home. Elba offered me the chair - the only I could see that they had - and I got out my best Spanish that I had and we proceeded to have what you could charitably call a conversation. They came up to this city from Tabasco, way in the South of Mexico. She has problems with her spinal column and the doctors tell her she will eventually be paralyzed. After visiting a while we prayed, each in our own language and at the same time. After hugging these newfound friends in Christ, I went back to the group to see what else needs to be done. Before I left I said that though they live in a little jacal now, in Heaven we will have our heavenly mansion.

 By this time many kids had already gathered, sitting indian fashion on the large tarps. We were ready to start. Apparently some of the kids brought their dogs (or maybe the dogs brought the kids?).
First we have warm up exercises by Javier, where he leads the kids in a musical  drill of "cabeza, hombros, rodillas y pies, y unas manos que alaban al Señor !"

"Head, shoulders, knees and toes
and some hands to praise the Lord!"

Julie did the missionary story of Makesha from Africa. She said later that she was "shaking like Belshazzar" but I didn't notice. Fortunately, the kids behaved well. After this Javier, Rachel and David Fry and Andy Ricchuiti did the crowd-pleasing play, "Frijoles", in front of over 50 kids with more coming up the dusty lanes with every minute.

The only downside to this first day was when I drove home. A cop sitting at a corner pulled me over for not obeying the flecha sign or some such thing. Nos dio un buen regaño. My wife put me in the know, explaining the gist of the officer's admonition into understandable English: "You made an erratic illegal U-turn!" It's true. I attempted a left turn at a busy intersection but I had more car than road so I then tried to turn a hairpin turn into a three-pointer. I was embarrassed because I knew the cop was right. I was embarrassed also that I resorted somewhat to the "mi no sabe nada gringo" card. Learning experience. Forget it - but don't forget it.

Tuesday
Julie got permission from Jose Angel and Juanita at Manantial to take Mari and Dalilah. Monika had to stay at the orphanage because she hadn't finished her housework.

There were more kids this time; some already seemed to be expecting us. (Every day we seemed to have more kids than the day before, in fact. As the days went on, there were a lot more parents coming too as word got out.) We were a little sorry that we bragged on the kids yesterday and how well-behaved they were. Today they were decidedly more ... kidlike. As Julie was trying to give the lesson, some boys in the front row were throwing rocks (at least they weren't throwing them at her!). "It was hard to concentrate on the lesson", she told me, "but I got through it con la ayuda de Dios".

 The teens performed a skit about how sin effects us; each time one of them acts out a different sin, someone else puts another rock in his backpack. After awhile he notices the backpack is too heavy to carry and staggers under the burden. Finally Jesus comes and takes the backpack from him. These types of object lessons hopefully translate well into the understanding of many of those who watched.

During crafts the crayons were missing, so we drove down the few blocks to the bottom of the hill to the Casa de Los Niños Orphanage to borrow some more.

Wednesday through Friday
Colleen Waiss played "This is the Day that the Lord has made" and other songs on her autoharp. At this point there were about 120 kids. Today the children were better behaved and there were less distractions when Julie gave her lesson. The singing was better on this day too. I noticed a number of adults joining in on the singing.

We finally got Perla her Bible. She had been asking for one the day before, but we had run out of them. Many of the adults are coming forward asking for Testaments and Bibles. We have to be careful that we give them out to the "right" people - those who will make the most use out of them. It is hard to know sometimes. I worked out a way to find out the more likely candidates for the Spanish Gospel of John booklets. After asking them if they can read, I open to a page and ask them to read the word or two that I point to. Julie and I are really encouraged when we see such a desire to read the Word of God. Reading materials are certainly not as common as in America. Anyone who wants to make a helpful impact in this country, even though they may not speak a word of Spanish, can bring Spanish Bibles, Gospels and good Scripture tracts and give them out as the Lord leads. This is a great need that can be met by anyone who is willing to do it.

A tall slender neatly-dressed older boy, Jose, that has been coming every day showed Julie a medallion of Christ's head with a crown of thorns. She told him, "Que suerte! Dios te lo dio. Jesus es el unico que merece un medallon porque hizo todo por nosotros." ("Jesus is the only one that deserves a medal because of what He did for us.") Here in Acuña I've noticed that there are a number of pictures of a crucified Jesus on T-shirts, on walls and in churches, but I wonder how many in this city think of the resurrected Jesus Christ. The pictures of Mary, at any rate, outnumbered those of her Son. After just a few days of making our presence known in Tierra y Esperanza, the local Catholic church was spurred into action, enlisting children to go from door to door proclaiming their own church activities.
 

Saturday
Today our car is put to the test! We brought Abdon and 8 Manantial kids to the Colonia in our little vehicle. Kids were crouched, crunched, stacked and stuck in painful positions. Well, not painful if you are a bendable 10 year-old. As if that wasn't enough of a strain on old faithful, after the day's events were over, we went down the hill to return 11 other kids to the other orphanage down the hill. We also brought that orphanage all of the leftover candy.

This day we gave all of the neighbor kids the epitome of North American culinary genius - hot dogs! 400 of them, but who's counting?

Over all it was a very good week, though a tiring one. The dust, the sun, the adventurous roads, the tedious long lines getting back through the US border - all took their toll. But it was worth it. Hopefully the seed was sown. Many in our churches here were encouraged by the week's outreach, as well. It was a real eye- opener to see and participate in some small way in this wonderful missionary  endeavour.