Missionship members celebrate their day.
One of the children after being painted.
Through translators, Pastora Mariela explained Vida Abundante’s mission. “We were called to (move the church) to this neighborhood—the one with the highest rate of suicide on the island.”
Pastora Mariela and her husband Pastor Salomón are initiating programs to support women and further the education of children. Mission Ships organizers learned some of their needs from Friends of Cozumel and arrived prepared.
Over 190 pair of flip flops were brought for distribution.
Families from the church congregation and curious neighbors streamed into the church’s outdoor worship space to accept the chanclas being given away. Meanwhile, other volunteers offered the excited children a chance to learn to make rubber band bracelets, have their face painted, see a puppet show and receive a new toothbrush.
Lucie helping one of the children.
Vera never could act her age!
Mission Ships organizer Deanne loved seeing both the volunteers and the children so engaged. “This takes it to a whole new level,” she said. “I get a little emotional around so many beautiful faces. I know this is what I’m called to do.”
The group enjoyed devotions and songs prior to the childrens’ activities.
Since the group’s return home, their Facebook messages show evidence of the special feeling created during their Cozumel visit. “People are talking about it as a life-changing experience,” said Deanne.
Asked how she felt about the Mission Ships experience, Pastora Mariela said “Very beautiful, very tired, very happy.”
“This exceeded my expectations by about a million times,” said Dee, Mission Ships’ co-organizer. “I stand in awe.”
Mary Alice bonded with Pastor Mariela.
Most of the children loved having their nails painted.
Belinda bonding with Jose at Casita Corazon.
Chalo was ready with his hammer as Mariela provided encouragement.[/caption]Once the frame was assembled, we had the children nail the roof and back piece into place. Hammers were flying as nails bent, were pulled and straightened, then tried again. This was a great first-time experience for most of these kids and they were excited to see their structures take shape.
The children placed the figurines and added some fabric, moss and grass for effect.[/caption]
Special needs children sponsored by Carrie’s Heart and their families gathered at the Casita Corazon Cozumel on October 30 for a Halloween fiesta . . . Mexican style. Events like this are special opportunities these families look forward to where they can celebrate in a very caring environment. 
HTMA college students from the AIB College of Business in Des Moines, Iowa supported education for Cozumel kids in 2011 and 2012 by buying school supplies on sale in July-August. This has been a tremendous help in filling 180+ backpacks for children from families with very limited resources. 
We visited Margarita (mother at left), her husband and their four children just before they went to a school Mother’s Day program. Margarita’s family lives in one room apartment with a patio. The children receive backpacks with school supplies and a pair of athletic shoes as part of our School Project. Shirley Larsen, a Friends of Cozumel mission volunteer from California, helped them start container gardening in February. Margarita was excited to receive a couple of additional plants for Mother’s Day as well as a baked pastry to share with the family.
Friends of Cozumel volunteers grew cherry tomato plants, Spanish oregano and various ornamental potted plants to give as Mother’s Day gifts to six families. April’s labor of love each year is to put together personal gifts of hygiene, beauty products, make-up samples and other goodies in decorative bags to give to a dozen mothers and grandmothers of families FOC supports. Many of them are mothers caring for children with disabilities and/or single mothers supporting their family. It is a special treat for these moms because most of them don’t have the funds to be able to buy nice soap, shampoo, toothpaste, body lotion, etc. 
It was so fun to see the pride that the younger children in Jose’s family had when they arrived home from school and raced to give their mother a gift they made in class. Lili is mother of four children (back center holding photo); Francesca is mother of four (at right) and Antonia (seated in center) is their grandmother.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you! In Mexico, they celebrate Mother’s Day on May 10th regardless of which day of the week it lands. I’ve been playing keyboard with the Vida Abundante Church and we had a group that was practicing some songs to sing in honor of Mother’s Day. (I assumed they would be sung during this week’s church service) Last week, Pastor Salomon told us “We’ll practice one more time next Thursday evening and we will be ready”. I inquired as to what time we would meet to practice and he said “alas once” (11 p.m.). I asked him why we might be practicing so late in the evening and he explained that way the songs would be fresh when we went out to sing them beginning at midnight? WHAT???? I thought that he was simply joking with me and I asked if this was a joke….he then explained that it’s tradition to go out and serenade the mothers beginning at midnight and that our plan would be to go to every mother’s house from our church until all had been visited. I asked how long that would take and he thought perhaps 4-5 hours.
A key focus for Friends of Cozumel is to engage in projects that have “sustainability”. We’ve all heard the phrase “Buy a man a fish and feed him for a day – teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” We’re all about teaching people to fish. The garden project we initiated with six families in February fits beautifully with this concept.
Antonia is pictured here checking her compost container. She and her husband are patriarchs of “Jose’s family”, a multi-generational extended family of 10 children and 6 adults living together in a modest settlement several miles from town. They are now in their late 50’s. Antonia’s husband worked for years as a laborer clearing trees from jungle land for development, hand stripping the branches and carrying logs on his shoulders. He’s been out of work for months because he isn’t physically able to continue carrying heavy loads and machinery now replaces some manual labor. 
Lack of resources is a consistent challenge for them. We assumed that if/when they were ready to expand their garden, assistance would be needed with materials for garden beds, purchasing soil, seeds, etc. Yesterday we visited them and were completely blown away to discover in the past four weeks they tripled the size of their garden entirely on their own by adding two more raised beds. 
You can see and feel Antonia’s excitement as she discusses their garden. Several months ago when she first started selling a couple of things for a few pesos, she made it clear this was not a business . . . she was just “growing things”. Now she’s thinking ahead, making decisions and “investments” for her small home based business. For example, she’s decided to plant more cilantro because that’s what people want and she can sell it for 5 pesos (about 40 cents) per handful. She “invested” in buying small plastic bags to fill with dirt to start flowering plants to sell. She’s changed her mind and now would like a sign or two listing items for sell. And she has ideas for future expansion. 
