T

he Single Focus class traveled to Ciudad de Angeles for the second year in a row on May 21-25. Our five jam-packed days started Thursday morning with a 5:30am flight from Nashville to Cozumel via Miami. Once we arrived in the early afternoon at our Cozumel casa, we met up with Ciudad officials and were given a brief overview before heading to campus for the first night. Our first night included icebreaker games, pizza and happy reunions- as most of the 16-person team had been there the previous year.

Bright and early on Friday morning, we walked the 1.1 miles from our casa to the Ciudad campus and were able to knock out a few work projects needed while the children were in school. The projects ranged from cleaning and painting a house and planting small beds of grass, to backfilling the recently laid sewer lines.

After a quick team lunch the kids arrived back on campus and we kicked off a VBS featuring the story of Esther. Through the story, we were able to chat about the special relationship Esther and her cousin Mordecai shared. We talked about how she was an orphan, like they had been, and how Mordecai looked after her much like the staff at Ciudad does for them.

This provided us an opportunity to celebrate the special relationships they have with the entire staff at Ciudad and all the kids made gifts – aprons, tissue flowers, wooden popsicle boxes, thank you notes – for those who have dedicated their time and energy to raising them.

We also made sure to include the swords and shields that were a hit during the VBS back home at Harpeth Hills too! We ended the day by joining one of the houses for their weekly life group meeting at a neighbors house.

Our Saturday was spent finishing up the gifts and giving them to the staff, followed by sharing lunch and a quick dip in the ocean off campus with the grandes (teenagers). We hosted an afternoon carnival in the park for all of the “Angeles”, as well as the surrounding neighborhood kids and anybody else who stopped by. After wrapping up the carnival our team with went to dinner with the three Angeles whose sponsors were on our team.

Sunday, of course, started at church with each of the houses. One church was a brightly colored building with fans just a few blocks from our casa, the other was behind campus under a tin roof.

Following church the entire Ciudad family prepared us a special Mexican lunch with homemade everything from salsas to drinks. That afternoon was especially hot as we played on the black top- everything from soccer, to basketball, four-square, an organized game of sweetheart kickball, and an ongoing game of (wooden) sword fighting- before saying good-bye at dusk.

Monday morning we had a chance to be tourists by going snorkeling, shopping, or one last run to the paleta stand! We left Cozumel that afternoon and arrived back in Nashville around 1am on Tuesday after flying around thunderstorms and tornados in the mid-west.

-Suzann Hollingsworth

We praise God for the safe return of this team and pray the seeds that were planted in the hearts of the children at Ciudad de Angeles will grow and multiply for His glory.