Closing Thoughts from Layne

It's now less than an hour until we leave the home and drive across the border to McAllen, where we fly out at 5:30 Central Time. There is so much to communicate that I won't even try. I walked in as Mark was concluding his blog post and I agree that if you really want to get a clear picture of our experience you need to experience it yourself. I especially encourage families with grade school or jr. high age children to participate in an upcoming missions trip. It has been great for Bronte to see another part of the world and to realize that the material blessings we take for granted aren't shared by many people in our world.

I'd like to pick up where I left off on Thursday evening (I believe it was Thursday). I asked you to pray specifically for our kids--they were experiencing physical and emotional fatigue and several were struggling significantly with breathing issues. PRAISE GOD, Friday and the following days were much better. Much of the asthma/allergy issues lessened and the kids seemed to do much better in the days since then. Thank you so much for praying.

This morning during our debriefing time following breakfast Tru (Pastor Dave) asked the kids and adults to highlight the things we've done during the past 5 days. It was significant to reflect on all we were able to accomplish and experience in a relatively short time. It was also a blessing to me to hear the director report that we were very "low maintenance." That meant a lot to us, becuase our desire was to be a blessing, not a burden to them. The director also mentioned that we were very flexible with schedules and "Mexican time." Again, it was encouraging to hear this because most of us are very time conscious, "do oriented" people, and it was challenging for us to keep our attitudes in a good place and focus on serving even when we thought we had better ways of doing things.

I hope you realize that even though you're not physically with us, you've been an integral part of our team. Thanks again for your prayers and financial support! I look forward to seeing many of you over the course of the next week and at church on Sunday.

Your partner in ministry,

Layne


PS We're scheduled to arrive at BWI at 12:03 tonight...or Tuesday morning, actually. We anticpate arriving back in Mechanicsburg around 3 AM. Please keep us in your prayers as we get a few hours of sleep and then try to resume our normal lives on Tuesday morning/afternoon.