As you may have heard, the first few weeks of summer were spent doing VBS camps for the school-aged children.These camps were three busy weeks for our staff and several days of fun for the children. Many got to make crafts for the very first time ever and were proud to take their creations home. During these weeks of camp at the Casa MARKED base, children also got the chance to participate in games and hear more about who Jesus is. About 80-100 children showed up each week which was a great turn-out considering many use summer breaks to help their families work in the fields or retrieve firewood from the forest up on the hills surrounding the villages for cooking.
However, the summer fun and surprises are not over yet! Programs are paused until school picks up in another week but the doors to Casa MARKED remain open for anyone in the community to arrive at, have a safe place to play, get a snack or to simply talk with someone and that's not all. While friends and families drop in throughout the day, there are construction workers from the area busy helping remodel portions of the base and the best part, build a large outdoor kitchen for our staff to provide even more hot meals to more children. A local church in Guadalajara organized and has generously gifted the construction of the kitchen, architects, and the hands to build this new kitchen which we cannot wait to show you. We look forward to welcoming a team who will add the final touches this week, just in time to pick up feeding programs in the schools!
This past school year, we began partnering with schools in the area directly to provide meals to their students and we are thrilled to have been asked to continue. Even other schools in villages nearby are asking about how they can partner with MARKED too which will put this new kitchen to great use and what a blessing it is to receive this massive gift to be able to answer the needs of the community. As a team, we are praying that through this kitchen, many bellies can be filled, lives can be touched, and more opportunities for sharing the gospel to families can arise.