Coyoacan Mexico city

The major event of our time in Mexico city was Coyoacan. This is a large plaza in a beautiful part of the city where a lot of young people hang out on the weekends. With the 'insecurities' in Mexico in recent months the municipality  had denied everyone permits to perform in this area. But when the team in Mexico city approached the local municipality for a permit, they happily gave it as they said that everyone had become very depressed with all the recent problems in the country and they needed something to cheer people up and remind everyone to 'love their neighbour' again. So our mission was to bring a message of hope and love to the plaza. We invited all the other youth missions in the area to join us, and ended up with a large group. We started off by going around the plaza and offering 'free hugs' to anyone who was interested..... this spread like wildfire and soon people were reaching out to those around them. During this time we also invited everyone to join us later in the afternoon so watch our show. At 5:30 a large crowd had gathered to watch the show, the audience sat spellbound and silent throughout the program,except to applause at the end of each section. We ended with having the audience join us for some 'camp fire' style dancing. Viva Mexico!
Click this link to watch the new and improved version of the Everything drama performed at Coyoacan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnTvRWuMKVM

                                                          All the young volunteers for the mission.

 Happy recipients.

 The crowd intently watches the box skit.

 The girls performing one of their dances.

 Singing in Spanish.

A member of the audience who used to come to Bible studies with Chris when he was in Mexico 15 years ago, but he had lost contact. He just happened to be there that day, he still does bible studies in the same plaza with the books Chris gave to him. He was so happy to make contact again, and will stay in contact with the local mission center.

The crowd join in with the dancing- Mexicans are such lively people.

These boys some how missed out on the free hugs, we found them later, sadly sitting on a park bench with a small white sign they had made them selves which said ' we need free hugs' in spanish. This problem was quickly solved.

Preparation for youth ministry in Mexico city.

In Mexico city we were able to meet up with some of  our full time volunteers from the Family in Mexico, one of whom is also a dancer. Chloe and Jesse will team up to do a duet for one of our dramas and are at present practising very hard for our show on friday.

Mexico city

 We arrived safely in Mexico city on monday night after a long drive. We did our first performance on Tuesday night at one of our Family volunteer centers in Mexico city. Chris did all the emceeing in Spanish and added 'Jesus the light' in Spanish to our repertoire of songs.

Interview with Santiago TV in Mexico

Today we had the opportunity to do a short interview for a Mexican TV station highlighting our work with HIV/AIDS in Africa and also talk about our the programs we will be doing while in Mexico. The interviewer was of course very interested in the fact that Chris worked as a missionary in Mexico for 10 years, and that we have a Mexican working with us at our center in Johannesburg. We also touched on the programs that we had done during the FIFA World cup 2010 as many fans from Mexico visited Johannesburg. Photographs of our work were also shown during the interview.

The Team goes to Mexico

Today our youth team heads over the border into Mexico, first stop Monterry and then on to Mexico city where we will continue to perform. We will keep you updated.

Teen Challenge

 On Wednesday night we performed for Teen Challenge ( an organization that works with Youth at risk-specifically with drug problems) in a rough area of LA, the crime there actually reminded us of South Africa. Our performance consisted of our band playing songs that cover teen age issues, two dramas- the box skit and the everything drama, and a some videos clips of our work in Africa. At the end we really challenged the audience to do their part to change the world- by starting with themselves. After the program a few individuals came up to us and told us that they had cried throughout the  'Everything Drama' and that it had told the story of their own lives. Many more were visably moved. The whole program went over so well and really made an impact on many lives.

                                                                      The Band performing

                                                                         Triple Fusion

                                                    The Box Skit with Chris and Chloe

The Everything Drama

                              A few young people from the audience after the program

                     Amie and Beth collecting emails from the audience after the show