Update #5 Sent July 8

Thanks for the prayer session - we can use plenty of it! Tomorrow we approach the halfway point in Mexico and all is well. We have been ministering at Grace Children's Home this week and the orphans there have adopted your children! Words cannot convey the love your children are giving - and receiving - from these little one's (and the staff). I have seen such warmth, patience, and genuine affection from your children - a side of them that perhaps many of them did not know that they possessed before this trip.
Some of the boy's worked with me today also in digging a long trench for pipe that we laid at the end of the day (for gray water). More to do tomorrow early, but I can assure you that they can handle pick axes and shovels well in soil that is so hard and dry (and mostly volcanic rock). They had some junior helpers who stuck with us the entire day. I watched as these young boys worked with such pride and eagerness with your sons - who were for a day like the fathers these youngsters will never have.
Tomorrow, after some early morning chores, the students will take the children to the playa (beach) for a day of surf and sandcastles. Stacey Palau has promised to bring along some surf boards, so some of your children will try to hang ten in the Pacific manana. Tomorrow night is a reason for extra prayer. The students will be conducting the entire Wed. night service at Pastor Martin Castro's church up the road from Grace. They will be doing music, testimonies, the message - everything - for over 100 believers. On Thursday they do the same but for even more people at a weekly Bible Study at Grace.
Pray for our stamina - the days are long and the work is hard (and that includes letting 40 children crawling all over you all day and doing VBS.) No illnesses so far but pray for health too. Finally, pray that the students comprehend and appreciate the gift that has been given to them - time without the normal distractions to see God move in powerful ways - and to know Him better. I know they miss you - but they are also having a blast here! Thanks for praying. Tom