Well, now all that is left to do is some paperwork and financials. Once we reconcile expenses, we will send the remainder of the funding to Norte as our offering to their ministry.
Carlos said he was very pleased with the mission, and it is clear that God left his fingerprint on Long Beach, especially Ramona Park. That park has been basically overtaken by gangs, so hopefully the ministry of Norte will encourage the community to take it back as a safe playground for the children as it was intended to be.
Here is a picture of the Norte leaders. For those of you who haven’t met him, Pastor Carlos is in the middle. On the left is Sandy Bond, the Children’s Ministry director, who played a large role in organizing the carnival. On the right is Louis. He lives with the Cuevas and was our tour guide for the week.

Sandy, Carlos, & Louis

And here are the Cuevas:

Carlos, Nicole, Alexis, Jackson & Tony

So, that’s a wrap.  This will be the last post.  Thanks for reading about what God is doing through Mission Norte!

The carnival went very well.  We had a great turnout and there were lots of smiles.  Pastor Larry, the senior pastor at LLCF, told me that the vice mayor of Long Beach was there, as well as the superintendent of the parks department in that region.  Long Beach has a population of almost a half million people, and the vice mayor came to our carnival.  How cool is that?

Click on one of the “thumbnail” pics to start the click through slide show!

Jackson and Tony like the new colors on the playground

Rogene the clown

water balloon toss

Emily and Alyssa working the craft table

Netti working the cookie decorating table

Meghan and Abbey doing face painting

Erica and Alyssa running a game

recognize this little guy?

tug of war

Carlos speaking to the crowd

Tom doing parachute games

Bouncy houses are always a big hit

Juanita, Jackie & crew giving puppet show

one of many happy faces

busting one of the pinatas

scramble for candy from the pinatas

We all made it back, safe and sound, thank you God.  I’ll add a few posts today to catch up.

Here is the IC kids truck.  I forget what IC stands for but the church owns this colorful truck that opens up to a stage.  They drive to a park, pull out the speakers and do various children/youth ministry activities.  Karen, DeeDee and a few others went with them for a performance and said it was awesome.

IC kids truck

Carlos on the deck of the truck

IC truck

Here are a few  pics from a basketball clinic put on at the church.

Dan giving a basketball lesson

Paul and Tom putting the younger kids through some drills

Older kids scrimmage

Jackie held a puppet workshop at the church one evening.  I didn’t get pics but she said it went well.  The students quickly realized that it’s harder than it looks, but they caught on.

Wow, did God show up today!  We were hoping for 80-100 kids, but the park was full.  I don’t know if anyone got a good count, but they were everywhere.  Everything went well, and a good time was had by all.  Here are a few pics…

We’ll post more another time.  We’re heading to Downtown Disney for the evening.

Quick update - we finished painting the playground this morning.  Take a look…

Before

Dome before

After

After

Can you see the difference?  It definitely brightens up the park.  Hopefully this park will be filled with kids at the carnival in a couple hours.  We’re leaving now to go set up.

One day left.  I probably won’t have time to write tomorrow because our day is packed.  We are going to try to finish painting the playground in the morning and then the big carnival is in the afternoon.  Then Saturday we’ll be travelling all day, so this will likely be our last update until we get back. 

I’d just like to add that God is great at multi-tasking.  While we are here to serve Long Beach, many times I feel that our mission is us.  There has been so much growth in our team this week.  Deep devotionals filled with wisdom, many touching moments, and everyone finding out that they can do more than they thought.  The youth have really been stepping up, perfoming a skit for the kids and even leading a devotional.  There have been challenges and frustrations, but God is good and He has revealed His presence in so many ways.  The 18 people that made this trip are all better ministers because of it and will bring those skills and a deepened faith back to Liverpool.

We will finish the story at some point, and post more pics.  Thanks for reading!

It’s been kinda crazy here today so far.  This morning, after devotions and breakfast, we all went to His Nesting Place, a shelter for pregnant and nursing women.  The director gave a presentation about their facility, and then the team assembled cards on roses that are sold to raise money for the facility.  The grounds were beautiful, see pics…

His Nesting Place mural

inside

Praying over the roses and for His Nesting Place

Dan made a friend

After lunch, we split up and went to three different schools nearby to pass out flyers for the carnival tomorrow.  All the kids were excited, we hope many of them show up.

Right now, 1/3 of the team went to a promotional event where a large painted truck opens up to a stage and they do presentations at parks, etc.  Our folks went along to check out their ministry technique and distribute more flyers.  1/3 of the team is in our building preparing items for the carnival, and the other 1/3 of us are getting ready for a basketball clinic at 4pm.

It is a beautiful day here, in the sunny and 70’s…

Wednesday was a very productive day.  And the weather has greatly improved.  Yesterday it was in the 60’s and sunny.  Our people were loving it, and I think one of the youth said that if their parents want to see them, they can come here because they are not leaving.  Today it is supposed to be even warmer.

Yesterday morning we all went to Ramona Park, just up the street from the church where we will be having the carnival on Friday.  We worked around the park all morning.  Some of us were inside, cleaning and organizing the kitchen and storage closets, repairing chairs in the game room, etc., and some were outside, cleaning the playground equipment and basketball court.  This morning we will go back and paint the playground equipment and add some organizer racks.

We have seen God’s hand working in many ways during this trip.  One specific time was yesterday at the park.  Carlos had hoped to get the paint donated, but the Vista Paint corporate office notified him that that was not going to happen.  We decided to purchase the paint under our mission budget, since we’ve saved money on food because they have been feeding us.  So we went to Vista to buy the paint, and the store manager gave us a 50% discount on everything, which saved us $90.  So many times on this trip, we are confronted with a speed bump, and instead of getting discouraged, we look for another way, and then God provides a shortcut in the process.

Yesterday afternoon Pastor David Hino gave a presentation on street evangelism.  After that, we went back to the park to finish some projects while Dan held a basketball clinic. 

Oh yes, and the food.  Breakfast was french toast, eggs, sausage, and fruit cups.  For lunch, two generous people named Mason and Gladys Johnson treated our whole team at Hometown Buffet.  Then dinner was a thanksgiving feast at the Cuevas.  Two turkeys, a ham, and ALL the fixin’s.  It was awesome.

Emily's battle scar

Repairing chairs

Dan and Zach ref'ing the game

Juanita and Jackie giving a puppet show

This morning will be service projects, then this afternoon we need to promote the carnival by handing out flyers.  Please pray that the word gets out to all the kids in the area so they know about the carnival.  And for those who are wondering, no, Rogene hasn’t found her teeth yet.

The rain cancelled our morning plans on Tuesday, so we ended up doing extra long devotions since we had time.  Someone commented that all we’ve done so far is eat and pray, and when we get done praying it’s time to eat again.  It’s working for us.

We switched our schedule to get some indoor work done yesterday.  The youth worked hard all afternoon prepping for the big carnival on Friday, making signs and organizing giveaways.  While they were doing that, some of us went on errands to pick up more items for the carnival.  There will be various games, crafts and puppet shows going on during the carnival, and people are starting to get excited about it.

The big flair for the event is a coloring contest.  Kids can take home papers and if they bring them to church next week, they will get entered in a drawing.  The three prizes for the drawing are two bikes (with helmets) and a DS (hand held video game).

We brought back pizza for a “snack”, which was devoured in about 4 minutes.  Then we all went to the Fusion event in the Ministry Center where our own Tommy G. held a teambuilding workshop for the youth, our team joined in with the kids from the community.  The second part of the event was a bible lesson, and the kids were all very attentive.  Then, of course, dinner - beef stew.  These people know how to cook!

Prepping for carnival

Erica putting a hand print on a sign

Fusion Youth teambuilding

Gary playing during Fusion worship

Fusion Bible Lesson

The weather is supposed to be great the rest of the week.  Things are going well here.  Today we are scheduled to clean up the park we’ll use on Friday and then do a kids’ workshop.  Oooo, breakfast is ready.  Gotta go!