All Good things must come to a end...

Today was almost a work free day. We had rain last night which made everything to wet. We did however get some painting, computer work, and we removed bricks from the truck. We played some soccer today (team canada did finally win against the girls, but not by much), many of us said our good byes to the kids, we spent time in town at the market as well as went for a taco supper. The food on this trip has been amazing! Many of us planning on losing weight will have rather gained.

Today we say good bye to the oh to familiar 18 speed bumps going in and out of town, beans (some more excited for this good bye than others), the children (by far the most difficult), the hugs, the adults, the beautiful views, the daily viewing of the rat killing (Thanks to 4 of the men of hope), and so so much more.

God has blessed us so much on this trip. He has blessed us with safety, spiritual growth, friendship, understanding, knowledge, marriage councelling, and so so much more.

When we arrived here Brian said that everyone comes here to take something home. Not one of the men here would disagree with him what so ever. The weather may have been the coldest in the last 100 years, but the warmth in our hearts from these children has far out weighed the coldest of nights.

Thanks everyone for all your support, and for following the blog. The men of hope shall return forever changed.

II Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.


We wake up at 3 AM, and arrive in fargo at 6PM. Please pray for our safe trip home, and for future groups to have experiences as positive as ours.

Rise above it all!

Today was a regular day of work for the men of hope. The sun was out but it was as windy as it could get. Sand was flying, but the children were playing.

We only worked til lunch today, and then we left for Pena De Bernal. Over half of the men hiked to the top, and others enjoyed the view from other points of the mountain. The wind was quite strong, and breaks were needed for the climb.

From here we continued to go to the base to shop, and then we parted for town. Supper was enjoyed with mexician steak, and tortilla soup.

It started to rain tonight (which is very uncommen for this time of year) but coffee, and shopping was still done in town.

A verse that stands out for today is.

Isaiah 40:31
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Tomorrow is our last day here at Pan De Vida so we will have to say good bye to the children. We will work till lunch, then join the Rock Concert in the afternoon. We depart the orhpanage at 4AM on Sunday.

Thanks for all the support.

Men Of hope

Pizza anyone?

Today was a hot but windy day. The Bricks that we had been waiting for finally came. We continued to make the metal grates for the girls dorms, fixing electrical, plumbing, computers, and the usual brick/concrete work.

After we cleaned out our ears of sand we went to the thursday night church service. They played some praise and worship, and had a short service. The songs they sang were much the same as what we are use to singing but in spanish.

The men of hope went up for 3 songs. This group of 20 men can sing! I think we have impressed the children, and ourselves with our sound. The sermon today was about how material things, physical labour, etc means nothing unless it is towards Gods plan.

(Rev.1:8). If we miss this foundation we are left to wander and wonder, and we may never know or appreciate the plan and enjoy the benefits of it.

Tonight was also our night to say thanks to the ladies that have fed, and cleaned up behind us. We took them to a local pizza place. They deal today was 2 for 1 pizza so we got ourselves 20 larges (and I must say they were amazing).

After that we took a quick tour of the city. We drove by many fountains, churches, and the aqua duct.

Tomorrow we will work for half the day, and then go to climb a mountain.

Thanks for all your support once again. We have 3 more days until we arrive home.

Men of Hope

Bring the Heat

Today was the Veggie run day. 4 of the guys went with the truck to pick up donated vegetables. What happens is the girls (which are know by the businesses) will go ahead and ask people if they have anything to donate. The guys come behind them picking up the vegetables with a cart and bring it back to the truck.

Today the jobs continued as normal. Some roof repairs were done, some concrete was poured, electrical issues at the boys dorm (yesterdays post picture),metal grates made for girls area, and some brick laying.

Today was the first day we were able to pull out the shorts, and short sleaves. The temperature wasn't that high (somewhere around 16-18) but a huge improvment from what we have had.

Tonight was weiner roast night. 3 boys gave us there testimones telling us about there lives. These boys had hard times growing up. Wether it was losing a parent from a young age, to be abused, to living on the streets for years, and the list goes on. They all were turned over to Pan De Vida through the government. These boys are each others family. They didn't all know where there parents\family were at.

The founder of Pan De Vida Darryl told us about the his life, and the story behind Pan De Vida. He was paralyzed from mid chest down early on in his life from a motorcycle accident. During his time in the hospital he reconnected with God. During his life he moved to Mexico, got married, and took over a orphanage. This wasn't a full out orphanage but rather 12 orphans living at his house. He continued on to the orphanage he has here today. These children are taught about Jesus Christ, given a place to live, food to eat, and educated. There is a open door policy here so if a kid wants to leave they are free to do so. But yet almost none leave the orphanage.

These children are a big family. The older kids help the younger ones, and there love for one another is so amazing. These kids have so much energy but they never turn down a hug. They truly can all teach us a lesson in love!

John 13:34

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Chris Unrau has started a picasa web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/cunrau . He has taken many amazing pictures from day 1, and will update as often as he can.

Thanks for all the support

Men of Hope

Day of Men

Today was another work day. Some men were fixing the roof of the Church, other were cementing/brick laying, and the Plumbers and Electricians kept fixing issues. We have had help from a tractor, and a hand controlled packer. This makes jobs go buy so much faster.

During the recess break the Canadians challenged the Children at a game of Hockey. This game is still quite foreign to them but great times were had. One of the group members got sick and was not able to join us for the evening. He seems to be feeling better now though.

Tuesday night is the boys prayer night. All of us men joined the older boys at there house. This house is way under sized for the 42 boys that live there. There is a outdoor sink/washer/dryer. There are beds everywhere throughout the house. They even had a triple decker bed. The amount of space that these teenagers have is not near enough. They are still searching for a new place, and hopefully God gives them a oppurtunity soon!

They showed us where a couple of the older boys make money. They build pinatas including tinkerbell, and some toy story characters. On the busiest of times these guys will make about 9 dollars a week, which they get to keep for themselves.

Back the the prayer night... The prayer night consisted of all of us men sitting in a large circle outside. We talked (with translation) about the things that we were thankful for, asking for, etc. This was an amazing feeling to have so many people speaking what God had put on there hearts. Us Canadians sang some songs for them, which I believe they were quite impressed with. From there we continued to horse around. Including kicking the soccer ball around the circle, and wrestling. These boys have so much energy, and love. They love to wrestle, joke around, and just hang out. They challenged us to a Soccer game on saturday afternoon. We all know that we have no chance against them but again it is all about having fun.

Proverbs - Chapter 22:6

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it"

These Children are so well behaved, and even though they don't have parents they do have one another, and the adults watching over them.

The weather continues to be cold, but the hot water thank got fixed today so everyone should be getting hot showers. The forecast for us seems to show rough times ahead.

Thanks for your prayers

Men of Hope

( I have attached 2 photos) One is a picture of a power wire running through there shower heads (and by the way they don't have warm water), and the other is from where we had our prayer circe.

First day at work

The day started off with watching the children raise the mexician flag. They sang 3 songs, and marched around the court yard of the school with their national flag.

Today the men got to use there given talents to help out the orphanage. Some men were fixing some electrical issues, including a wire that got cut by the tractor. Others were fixing toilets, hot water tanks, etc. Some worked on computers, and others helped with concrete/brick work. This area gets very dusty in summer and grass does not grow well. A large portion of the yard is already brick but there is still lots to do. There was a 15" think cement pad created so that the water tuck can empty easier, and new sewer lines were run.

During the kids recess breaks we got to fool around with them a bit but not like we did on sunday. There schooling is done around 2 so we didn't have a lot of time with the kids today but hopefully tonight, or tomorrow we can continue to have fun with them.

Tonight we are going to a small town to check out some more churches, as well as maybe get some shopping in.

We have had 4 ladies here doing all of our cooking/cleaning. What a blessing they have been. I know that if these 20 men didn't have these ladies we all would be eating much much worse, or eating out way more often.

Meating the Children

We started the day off with our own devotion time where Brian (person in charge of Children of Hope) who told us a story of his life and how Pan De Vida started. This was an amazing story that we will not soon forget.

At our brekfast table we all had personal letters from different children. Many of us found the kids who wrote us these letters and spent some time with them. The morning was cold again and some of the children ( who are obviously not use to this kind of weather) were shivering. The sermon was translated for us while we sat amongst the children.

Now the fun began. We had time to spend with the children. We played some football, basketball, talked, and just mingled with the kids (team canada lost to team mexico by several touchdowns). Some of the older boys were a bit shy and stayed inside the van. So a couple of the guys figured that they would join them. The guys would wrestle a bit with the boys, and would grab passing kids and just throw them into the van. Before they had to leave the count was over 20 people in this van. A lady came up to these men and said that what they had just done for these children is more then if you were to build 12 walls. These children here just need someone to love them, play with them, and just someone to show the the love of christ to.

Some of us guys visited a site to which they were looking at purchasing for the boys. Currently the boys are in a temporary place and they are searching for a permanent place for them. This is a 3 acre lot that is suppose to cost them about $350,000.

For supper we went back to town where we were shown a some city sites including a beautiful catholic church, and a water channel built in the 1700's. This city has so much history and beauty and is growning so fast. In the last 10 years the population has grown from a couple hundred thousand to near 2 million.

Tomorrow we will start working on the grounds here. It sounds like some brick laying, and some minor repairs throughout the yard is in the schedule.

In Canada we are very focused on material things, and to them here it is not at the top of the list. We need to remember that we are here for the children, and to put a smile on there faces is worth more than any amount of work we could do this week.

Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,
"Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me."
Mark 9:36-37

The untold story

Sorry but yesterday's blog was to short to get the full story out.

Another amazing story was of this little girl. She had fallen off of her chair and as many of your parents have probably heard before her head made that solid thud on the cement floor. Within seconds a local lady came to the child put her hands on her head and started to pray. With tears coming down her face you could see this woman new Jesus personally. Many of us stood around this situation with pure amazement. As Wayne Peters said there is not much for health care for these people, but they have the power of prayer!

I forgot to add about the adults getting blankets. After the children had received the word of God the Adults had a chance as well. We got 100 adults into the community center. Then 2 people from our group, as well as one person from a group of university students had testimonies that were translated to the people. They then recieved there blankets to which you could tell they were so thankful for (setting records with the cold). There was a man standing outside this community center as the presentation were going on. When it came time to hand out the blankets there was 1 extra. There had been a man standing outside listening to what was happening. When the speaker asked that man if he would want a blanket he ran around the entire school as if he was being called down to the price is right. I assure you this man had not run like this for many many years. The lanscape up on the mountain was also breath taking.

People had cleared the land and made walls of rocks they had picked off the fields. There were countless miles of these rock walls.

We are now about to have breakfast, and go to Church. This last night was cooler then last. We can somewhat see our breath inside the building. I will try to put a movie up from the shoebox drop off.

The Saturday of our lives

The only word that could explain today would be "WOW". The day started off with a mexician breakfast. This was toast, beans, eggs, and sausage. We had a short bible study, and we got on our way to the city. We met up with the Man in charge of samaritan's purse. He gave us a brief udpate on his goals, his current projects, etc. Him and his amazing wife are an amazing couple that truly make this world a better place!


On the drive to the School/community center we ran into the mexician army. They asked us all to step out of the vehicle as they searched our vans. This was somewhat intimidating when they all had automatic rifles. But after they looked through the vehicles they sent us on our way with smiles.

We then arrived at our destination as to where we were going to hand out the shoe boxes. The kids first got some breakfast, and a clown show. No words can describe the feeling of meeting these kids. For the majority of us there was a language barrier but through shaking hands, joking around, etc it was an amazing site to see all the smiles.

While half the men were handing out cereal, the other half went outside to greet the adults. 2 men gave testimonies and we prayed with the people. To see them smile at the word of God was a blessing on it's own. If this trip was over after this day I believe many of us would say that it was a success. While walking around shaking hands with these people you could feel there thick skinned hands. These are people that truly deserve our highest respect.

We handed out some clothing to them which they were very thankful. We then proceeded to actually hand out the shoe boxes. As you can see from the picture above the kids were so excited. This was the moment that us guys had been waiting for. To see a child that has next to nothing, and to recieve a gift like this was a feeling that is undescribable. It was as if it was christmas but yet they got a simple box of what we would consider almost nothing.God is moving in this village and it was a blessing to see!

We then went on to eating a meal that they had provided for us. It was pig skin, potatoes, beans, and rice. For some of this it was very different to what we had ever eaten. From here we went back to the city where we were able to walk around and purchase some things if we wished. Then something amazing happened! We went to the worlds best taco restaurant. There was several kinds of meat with several types of spices. This meat was cut off of a rotating piece of meat. I believe we all left overfull!

The drive home was almost complete when we were pulled over by the police. After we stated we were working at Pan De Vida we were told to get on our way. We then returned to Pan De Vida, mingled, recieved the last piece of luggage, and now we call it a day.

Tomorrow we have church, and we will get to see the Pan De Vida children for the first time.

Continue to pray for us as we carry on here. We have an amazing shield protecting us, and we pray it continues. God is an amazing God and we are all witnessing his amazing power and grace. Thanks

Waking up at Pan De Vida

Well there is no heat at the orphanage. The building was quite cool this morning, but we had warm showers. There is internet here and we were able to get the group online.

I was trying to think a of a verse that would describe this group. Job 8:21 "He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting". Everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves.

We have the ladies from the Orphanage making us breakfast this morning. We will be going to town to meet with the person in charge of the shoe box drop. From there we will travel up the mountains, and return in time for supper downtown.

Arrived at Pan De Vida

We arrived at Pan De Vida today at 10:00 PM. We lost one piece of luggage, and Dwight got a little owey that was quickly fixed with bandaid. Our flights were great, with no delays. Several people stopped to ask what we were all about, and we were all willing to tell what our mission was for the up and coming week.

Tomorrow morning we will drive about 1 hour to do the shoe box drop off, and from there come back to the orphanage and figure out a game plan for the up and coming week.

The temperature here is quite cool (around 13 degres celsius), and they just got a heavy rain fall.

We are now bunking up, having a snack, and then we shall try to settle the excitement and sleep.

The men of orange (as we have named ourselves) thank everyone for your support and prayers.

Fargo Arrival

We arrived at Fargo without any issues today. We are leaving for the airport at 7:45AM. We fly to Chicago, Houston, and then our final destination of Queretaro.

The plan is for us to do the shoe box drop off on saturday morning.

There is a possiblity that we will be setting up a temporary guys dorm at a warehouse this coming up week. Final decisions will be made when we get there.

Thanks everyone for the prayers and support.