It's been a tough week

A few things come to mind:
1) Coco came on Monday to tell us he had gotten drunk, and high over the weekend. First "fall" since starting rehab 5 months ago.

2) We were told this week we will no longer be able to use our second Club 121 house because the owners are selling it and raising the rent in the meantime. So we're scrambling to find another location.

3) Went to Laredo mid week to renew a vehicle permit and got the worst diarhea that I'd ever experienced. It took it out of me (literally) in a way that I'm still feeling a bit.

4) Polo (15) is being a punk. He borrowed a bike, didn't return it till I went and got it back from him, at which point he started talking to his friend, who was with him, about going smoking. I think he does stuff like this to try to get a reaction from me. It makes me ask, have we even made a difference with this kid? How could we have done better? How can we do better mentoring and doing discipleship with him?

5) Some of the ladies from Torre Fuerte church taught a lesson for Club 121. They dropped a few frustrating surprises on us, and left us feeling like, why do we even try to collaberate? (more on this a little below)

So yeah, I feel a bit worn out from the week. Some weeks are like that.

Here's the story with the church ladies helping with the Club 121 lesson:
We invited a couple of the "hermanas" (ladies from our "partner" church, Torre Fuerte) to teach a Bible lesson to our Club 121 (after-school program) kids. They told us they'd love to help, but we'd need to ask Pastor Martinez first. I don't know how many of you know much about the difficult relationship we have with the Torre Fuerte church (pastors particularly), but that's a small example of the pastor's absolute control over the church member's lives. So we asked him and he told us yes, they could help, but "don't pay them". We were like, "ok, we wouldn't pay them to come teach a Bible lesson, so no problem." We don't pay people to volunteer with us, only our full time staff. So then a couple days later the assistant pastor, Samuel, approached Christy worriedly and told her we need to ask ALL the main "hermanas" from the church to get involved so some didn't feel left out, and that we'd have to manage them so that each one took an equal role so no one would get upset. At that point we were like, is this even worth it? (no, but we were too far along.)

Christy had asked the ladies to teach about Jesus, from the New Testament. We told them we were specific like that because last semester we did a lot of old testament lessons and this semester we're focusing on the life and ministry of Jesus, trying to help the kids get to know who this Jesus really is. They showed up with a lesson about Jonah and focused the lesson on obediancy and punishment for disobediancy. We were thinking, man, this really isn't turning out well, but at least it's just one time. But no, it wasn't to be. After the lesson they told the kids, "see you next week to talk more about Johan", at which point my blood pressure went up I'm sure. Turns out they have a four-part series we didn't see coming. What do you even do with stuff like this? You try to plan, and then to communicate clearly, specifically. "Flex and flow" is our motto. Sometimes easier to say than to live out.