Have just spent a very interesting morning that made me once again realize how blessed I am. A bunch of us distributed many hundreds of the Samaritan Purse shoeboxes in a poor Mexican school on the outskirts of the city. This school is close to being in the middle of nowhere. All of you reading this probably went to a school that had running water, offices, segregated washrooms, grass playing fields etc. If this little one room school had running water or washrooms I did not see them. The one and only office was part of the almost non-existant library and storage area. There were no proper desks to speak of. The 'playground' was a very dusty area of dirt. Most of the kids in this school were 5-9 year olds. It is hard to realize that there are hundreds if not thousands of schools like this and even poorer in Mexico and other parts of the world. How I wish I had lots of money to help out in places like this. For those of you that do not know what Samaratan's Purse is go to ww.samaratanpursae.org. I am not affiliated with them.<br>If any of you want to contribute money to help the poor Mexican's I can find many places to funnel it into and will make sure that 100% goes to where it is intended. No skimming off the top.<br>To show their appreciation for what we had done the mothers of some of the kids prepared a true Mexican lunch for us. Folks, these people have NOTHING and yet they gave what little they had to make a meal for us. Tears my heart out!! :'(

 

Mexstan,<br><br>My wife and I work each year with Samaritan's Purse and also preprare two shoeboxes - one for a girl and one for a boy - for Christmas. We have a ball going around trying to find as much as we possibly can to stuff into this box and trying to imagine the looks of pure joy on the kids' faces when they open those boxes. <br><br>It's such a blessing. For both sides. PM me and let me know what more we can do to help you there.<br><br>DW

 

I was shocked, amazed and changed when I went to Guatemala to build a church that had been destroyed by the guerillas. The people have nothing in this little village. The toy of choice is a rubber tire off an old tricycle that they push with a forked stick. Amazing little people. We built a block church, built the trusses, set them along with tin roofing, set the windows and doors and built benches in 6 days. In our spare time :P we built three rooms of housing on the back for the pastor - - he thought it was going to be for Sunday School - - was he ever shocked. We even had a bathroom in both the church and his housing. The people helped all they could, but mostly just stood and watched and cried they were so grateful. Most of us went home with nothing in our suitcases - - I know someone had to do some major taking in to make my clothes fit those little people, but they were so grateful. Unbelievable experience. <br><br>We have so much in the USA we don't realize how lucky we are. God Bless America and may we always remember we are who we are because of Him.<br><br>ThankfulBob