Cancun in a Nutshell... Well Coconut-sized Shell!

During the first week of December I was privileged to fly to Cancun with 6 other B2B staff ladies to help out with one of the first groups to our new B2B site in Cancun. Matt and Julie Cooper and Mau and Lizy Davila are the on-site staff for Cancun and have been doing a fantastic job making connections and getting involved with the 3 children’s homes after only a few months of being there.  During this first week of December we had 17 women, mostly from the Cincinnati area, and good friend Craig Aven fly down to Cancun to serve and deliver Christmas to the Children. To say it was an amazing trip is an understatement! The Lord did so many AWESOME things that week!!! I have been forever impacted by some of the people that I crossed paths with, as well as from the God-experiences that we had. So here is the “nutshell” account of our trip and some of the many ways we saw the Lord moving in Cancun... He is up to somethings there! To HIM be the glory! 

Our awesome group of staff and women on the beach for small group time. 

 Above is a picture of our group... few but furious! These ladies are awesome women of the Lord who helped the kids in Cancun see Jesus.

Teen moms at a program offered by the government to aid and educate them. 

 The day after the group of ladies got to Cancun we went to the DIF (government run children's home) to throw a Christmas party for a number of teen moms. There are 200 registered moms between the ages of 12 and 17 in Cancun, however there are only 33 who attend a class offered by the DIF once each week. These young girls come with their babies, drop the kids off in child care and then participate in a class ranging from a variety of topics like parenting, baby health, pregnancy, etc. This day our group of ladies threw a Christmas party for the girls and blessed each young mom with a box of baby clothes, formula, diapers, etc.

 Working with teen moms is something that the Lord seems to keep bringing across my path! I have had  several experiences with teen moms in the Rio and now here in Cancun I found myself surrounded again by young moms and precious babies... I was in seventh heaven! I had a chance to talk to a social worker about the program details and was super encouraged by what they offered. I'm excited about seeing if this program is offered in Monterrey and if I can get my friend from the Rio hooked up with it there.

Teen moms at the program. The girl in the blue is 12 and was about to give birth any day. 

Our skit team ready to perform for the young moms. 

 You may think the above picture is out of order, but it's not. The day before Priscilla (B2B staff) and myself felt burdened by the Lord to not just give a Christmas party to these moms, but to communicate to them the Lord's heart for them as well... this was a little difficult considering we were working in a government facility and not technically allowed to preach Christ. However, God gave us the inspiration for a skit all about a princess who gets stripped of her identity by evil in the world, but then is rescued by a prince who knows who she truly is and what she is truly worth. The message went across beautifully and the girls cheered as the prince saved the princess and restored her crown back to her. We were then able to explain how the Lord sees each of those girls as a princess, no matter what the world says, or what has been done to them, or what choices they have made. He knows who they are and desires to rescue them... it was powerful!

I love working with teen moms and babies because for me, this is the heart of orphan prevention. Young moms are at high risk of one day dropping off their children at a children's home. If we can intervene before they become desperate we can truly save children from becoming orphans, and teach the entire family about our Heavenly Father.

Me and a baby :)

 While the Christmas party was going on I was recruited to watch the babies.... yay! There were about 30 babies in this room and a good 20 of us watching them. At one point I had two infants, one in each arm! Usually there are only 4 social workers to take care of all the babies!! They were glad to see us women... many of which were experienced moms and grandmas.

Okay, this picture does not do it justice... there were so many more babies yet to arrive! 

Writing prayers on the drywall, claiming the pregnancy counseling center for Christ. 

 After ministering to the teen moms and babies in the morning, Matt and Julie took us to the new pregnancy counseling center a few blocks away. Currently there are about 20 offices in one very small room in which the social workers and counselors do their jobs. This does not give the girls much privacy as they are sharing some rather heart wrenching stories with the case workers. B2B is helping the DIF to construct cubicles in the new building that will give the girls and social workers more privacy as they work. We went over to the new facility to pray and dedicate the space to the Lord. It was really powerful to write prayers and scripture on the back of the drywall that is being put up in the offices. It is cool to know that hidden in the walls of the government counseling facility are scriptures, prayers, and truth. Our prayer is that God would put His people into this building, His counselors, that they would speak His words and His truth to these young moms and babies.

Writing prayers and scripture on the walls 

Oti and 7 of her 8 children

 After the pregnancy center we loaded up in white vans and drove to visit a women by the name of Oti. Oti lives in a middle-class neighborhood, but is far from middle-class. She has 8 children 14 and under and her husband recently passed away. Her living conditions reminded me of some of the families I work with in the Rio... very impoverished. About a week before we came, Matt and Julie received a call from the DIF director asking if they could help Oti out. Upon arrival they learned that she had 8 children and only one had ever been to school, and he had only attended through the first grade. They did not have sufficient food nor sufficient clothes or beds. Matt and Julie brought our group to pray for the family and deliver Christmas gifts to the children. The kids were sooo excited! Oti told us that they never have extra money to spend on gifts, so the kids did not have many toys. The girls almost didn't know how to contain themselves! The oldest, a boy, at first seemed like he was too embarrassed to even leave the little room they all shared. Eventually he came out but hid behind his sisters, not expecting anything for himself. We got the impression that a lot of attention is  given to the girls or to his baby brother, while he is leaned on by his mother to help provide for the family. When we pulled out a gift for this boy his grin was uncontainable! We were told later that the kids stayed up till 2am that night pulling all the gifts out of their bags and arranging the items they had gotten, then putting them back in and doing it over again... really makes us think twice about the gifts we are so accustomed to getting at Christmas, huh?