AIM completed another successful group trip to Mexico over the weekend. This was part of the annual school supplies trip. We had been collecting everything for over a month and loaded it into the vehicles to take to the kids in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. It’s about a 5 hour drive from Phoenix. Besides handing out backpacks to the kids, family food distribution is done, and clothing provided to the community. We have help from the Shiloh team, Sam’s team from the west valley, a few missionaries, and other locals that join in.
Shiloh Community Church group: L-R Virgil, Evan, Jay, Andre, Rose, Dave, Hunter, Kevin, Chloe, Paulita, Kaelyn, Isaiah, Micah.
Friday morning, everyone gathers at the Silva’s, loading up vehicles, and getting ready to hit the road.
Items for Mexico: 5 benches, disassembled and loaded into my truck with several suitcases full of school supplies.
We stopped in Gila Bend to gas up and traveled south towards the Mexican border. The drive is fairly flat, with a few interesting landscapes along the way.
We made it to the border. Follow that white van.
We always look forward to laughing at Evan’s favorite billboard.
Unloading at the community center. The 5 benches have been reassembled and placed in the patio area. This should allow them to trash the old church pew on the right that is falling apart and dangerous to sit on. The benches can also be moved around, used on the patio, out front, or around the basketball court.
All of the school supplies are unpacked from the suitcases and vehicles and sorted on tables. The generosity of everyone is amazing to see when everything is lined up. We had more than enough supplies to fill all of the backpacks. The extras were taken to other churches we support in Mexico.
The assembly line begins. Everyone grabs a backpack and progresses through the tables of supplies, making sure each is packed with the appropriate level of items.
We packed 85 backpacks, plus quite a few grocery sacks extra to hand out to the kids.
Each kid had their photo taken at VBS in June. They would find their photo, then be given a school backpack.
The bulk food was delivered and repackaged in family portions. Every sack included rice, beans, potatoes, cucumber, carrots, onion, and a mango.
The kids packed into the community center to hear some music and dance, Sam delivered a message, and school backpacks were handed out.
As crazy hot and humid as it was outside, a bunch of the kids stayed to play basketball on the upgraded hoops we had brought down in April.
Most of the Shiloh Community Church group posed for a photo. Jay, Rose, and Andre had already taken off to the rental house to get supper prepared.
We had some free time on Sunday morning before needing to depart for home. I awoke before the sun, put on my flip flops, and went outside to take a sunrise photo. Unplanned, I started hiking the big hill to the west of our rental house to get a better vantage point of the rising sun. I ended up hiking over a mile, maybe 2, in my flip flops. I topped the hill, explored some abandoned buildings, saw views of the tourist areas, boats in the marina, and captured a few decent sunrise photos. I’d like to return here at sunset sometime as the view to the west was even better.
Young Adults: L-R Isaiah, Hunter, Kevin, Chloe, Kaelyn.
Help, we need bail money! On the northbound crossing, I was pulled aside by the Mexican border patrol and they scanned my truck with this giant x-ray machine. It wasn’t that big of a deal, except it delayed us 30 minutes or so from getting home.
