The girls on our trip were in charge of the children's ministry this week. Five girls did bible story lessons and Mayerly interpreted for the group. Having never been before myself I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I've always heard that the culture in Mexico tends to be much more laid back, unscheduled and flexible. That could not have been more true this week. There was a general layout of things we had planned, but every day was different. In general a typical day of ministry would be getting to Cristo Rey, our church site, and going out to invite kids to come to the bible club that day. Kids would begin to gather and we'd play games, kick ball, jump rope and soccer. The girls would get things going shortly after by leading singing...children's songs we'd learned in Spanish. A girl would present the verse of the day and we'd all practice together. Another girl would give her bible lesson giving an invitation at the end allowing kids to have a time to respond to what they learned, ask questions and pray together with a leader if they wanted to. At the end of the lesson we'd do a craft together and go out and play with whatever time was left. There was never a set beginning and ending time, we just started when the kids showed up and they would leave any time after craft, sometimes staying around until we had dinner.

From what I could tell, most of the kids that came to our bible club were kids that already attend Cristo Rey. Throughout the week we had between 20-35 kids each day. There were two evenings that we did children's ministry as well. We were not prepared for this having been told prior to leaving that we would not be doing evening ministry, but again, FLEXIBILITY was the theme. Emily gave her lesson Tuesday night because we skipped Wednesday afternoon's club time and I did an impromptu lesson Thursday night on John 15:5. The kids made the props and I had them act out a skit to that verse then asked them questions about it.

I think the relaxed atmosphere and forgiving scheduling helped the girls relax and let down their guard a lot quicker. Most of the girls that went were nervous about leading ministry, but after the first day they opened up loved on the kids, led the club time and filled in as needed. I loved being able to sit back and watch them step up and not hold back as we (myself included) often do back home. They made me proud!