Faces of Mazatlan

Just of sampling of some of the fabulous faces of the children here in Mazatlan. They are why we are here.

Rancho de Los Ninos

Rancho de Los Ninos is a childrens home here in Mazatlan that serves primarily special needs children. Right now they have 17 boys and 1 girl (grandchild of a worker) living at Rancho. Yes, just one girl! She is pictured below with my sweet Sofia :) We have already built a strong connection with this home and our staff is already planning some great projects to help strengthen and improve the facilities here. We have been so impressed by the directors and workers at this home and their deep love for the children. Their needs are many but there is really a spirit of peace and contentment in this home. We are excited to support them and help them address the many needs of the children here.

Salvation Army

A few photos from one of the casa hogares we will be working with here in Mazatlan: Salvation Army. Directors David & Marianela(pictured below with JJ), have great hearts and have created an atmosphere of love and respect in this home.  You can feel it when you spend time there and with the children. You can tell they feel loved and a part of a family. We are blessed to be able to come alongside these directors and children and be a part of the work God is already doing there. As JJ mentioned in a previous post, this home was the site of our first official Back2Back group. What a special place it is!! Come see it for yourself :)

Our First Group

This week we had the privilege of having a few friends visit us from Cincinnati.  Amy and Amy, who have been to our Monterrey site a number of times, were visiting some relatives here in Mazatlan and connected with us for our first unofficial group day and staff outing since Rodo and Becca Arguello joined our Mazatlan team on Monday.  We decided to head to the Salvation Army home and make a big spaghetti and meatball dinner with and for the kids.  It was a great afternoon and evening where most of the kids at the home joined the Amys in the kitchen to help with chopping and preparing veggies, making the cakes with Becca, and hand rolling all the meatballs.

The directors at this home, David and Marianela Sanchez, love Jesus and love the kids God has placed with them.  You can see the impact their relationship is having on the lives of the kids there.  Rodo and I had a time to walk around their property and to ask them about their needs and the things they would like to change/add/update about their facility so that they can better care for their kids.  God has placed it on my heart that He wants to use Back2Back here in Mazatlan to help bring to fruition the dreams that the directors of the orphanages have for their homes and their kids.  I shared with them that I have been praying that God would do something so much bigger than me, our staff team or Back2Back as an organization.  I want to be a part of something that will demonstrate the power and love of our Heavenly Father and that will bring HIM glory.  You could see that they had such dreams but weren't used to people asking about how they could help to fulfill them.

Pray with us that God would show up in a way that is way bigger than all of us could even imagine.

Amy B and Amy T getting ready to serve the first plate

Azucena, Jan, and Vicente chopping veggies with JJ

Claudia with only about a third of the meatballs they prepared

Vicente, Roberto, Juan, Pavel, and Jonathan enjoying their meal

Thanks as always for your prayers and support.