A Trip in Missions, Pt. 12

God has interesting ways of reminding you to do something...mine came at church when a friend said, "Jamil!  You're back!  ...you didn't update your blog!"  Hahaha!!!  It's true; I've been back in the U.S. for about 3.5 weeks now.  I have to say that my return was filled with everything that I DIDN'T expect!!!  I flew into Miami, Florida for my best friend's wedding, and I was greeted by.....no one.  Haha!  My best friend had car troubles on the way down and couldn't meet me at the airport as we had planned.  So I was in an unfamiliar city with no clue where to go and no working cell phone...  :-/  Aside from that, I made it back to the DC metro area in time for my Grandpa to pass away and my mom to collapse at work with heart problems.  Needless to say, I was truely in the "back to Mexico" crew at that time (last week).

Enough with the update on the States!  My last month in Mexico was simply amazing!  By God's grace, I was able to complete EVERYTHING I had set out to do!  The building plans for the community center are complete (as well as my neighbor's plans)!!!  Not only that, but all audio files for the online Bible school were made into podcasts and linked to iTunes!

As you may remember, I wrote in my last post that I intended to write letters to certain people/groups before leaving Mexico.  I must say, the teenaged group received my letter warmly!  A large part of that could be the soccer ball that accompanied it...either way, they received a letter jampacked with my testimony and the Gospel!  I hope that God uses it well!

Three unexpected events took place in my final two weeks in Mexico.  For one, I met a group of great friends who took me swimming at the base of a waterfall!  We went for an hour-long hike along a river, and then we broke for lunch when we made it to the waterfall.  Being there was too breathtaking to describe in words...so look at these pictures instead!  Haha! 

This picture above shows the lowest "pool."  Actually, there's another "pool" behind that giant rock on the left, which is where I was standing in the picture on the left!  In hindsight, swimming probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, since it was overcast and the water was freezing...I paid for it the next day...with a cold.  Haha!  It's fine; it was a Saturday, anyway!

The second event was a visit from a doctor friend of Lee's.  It turns out that the doctor graduated from Howard University!  He treated Lee and I to dinner at a restaurant I never expect to be able to afford...  Haha!  Seriously, though...this place had an amazing view!  From my seat, I was looking at all of Puerto Vallarta...the ocean, the city, and the mountains...and did I mention that the steak was an inch thick???  :-)

The final event, and probably the most impactful, was a surprise going away party that the community threw for me!  All of the mothers from the neighborhood that I had worked with during my stay in Mexico had gathered together their own money and set up a party for me!  That, in and of itself, is touching, enough...then throw in a host of kids and what you get is this picture:

Everyone had little going away messages for me, which they wrote on a soccer ball.  All of the messages can be summed up in this statement:  "REGRESA PRONTO!"  Literally translated, this means, "Return soon!"  It was truly heart-wrenching to leave them all...  I don't know when it will be, but I definitely want to return!  I love the people there too much not to...