Lately...

 OUR STAFF TEAM IS GROWING!

 After a year and 2 months of Rodo and I living in Mazatlan, Mexico, God continues to bring people to serve alongside Back2Back Ministries here! Here is the latest Staff picture.
From Left to Right: Rodo and Becca Arguello, Adam Gellenbeck (behind Becca), Gabo and Kelly Velasco (DIRECTORS), Chad and Kristin Huber, Matt and Dana Metzger. 

Excited for new adventures as we grow our Mazatlan B2B Community! 

My sweet friend, Amanda Krewall, came to visit us in Mazatlan. It was her last college spring break. She graduates in May and then immediately starts living and working in the real world. We had a blast going to all of the childrens homes and showing her around our new city. She had interned in Monterrey a couple of summers ago and was ready to embark on our adventure here in Mazatlan. 
I love when people from Oklahoma get a chance to come here and catch the vision of what we do. It is such a blessing to us that she wanted to come here. She blessed us with her presence, some goodies from the states, and great friendship! Thanks girl for all you did for us while you were here! 

Hip Hop Classes

Something I have wanted to do for a while is here!  
I drive out to the all girls home (Floreser), weekly if possible, and we have HIP HOP class where we work on Technique and learn Dance Moves. The girls are really enjoying it because every time I see them or they see Rodo, they ask when our next class is:) 

Makes my heart happy to know the girls are getting exercise and are enjoying it!  

Carnaval

Mazatlan is a beach city. Things happen in this town that don't happen all over Mexico. For example, once a year they hold a carnaval. Each year has a theme, a parade, a fair, tons of people, and schools get out for 4 days. 

I received a call from the director of Floreser and she asked if i would be willing to go the parade with the girls. There is only 1 caregiver with the girls at a time and so they needed more eyes. I figured it would be a good time to get to be with the girls and decided to do a hip hop class before that. 

I have found out that the girls don't do anything when there is no school or on the weekends. I had been talking about doing classes with them forever and it finally happened. I was so excited to share the joy i have for dancing with them. They loved it and have asked me repeatedly when the next class is:)

So, we had our class and then we got ready to go to the parade. There were TONS of people there and the floats were amazing. As you can tell from pictures above this years theme was all about the movies. They had floats of Spiderman, Avatar, ET, Mary Poppins, Grease, Toy Story, Jurassic Park, Troy, and much more. It lasted around 3 1/2 hours. Standing that long with people squashed up next to you is the only bummer of it all. Other than that, we had a blast. The girls would yell for the people throwing stuff to the crowd and they got lots of things like glow sticks, t-shirts, and towels. As you can tell from the picture above with the girls in it, we were all exhausted afterwards. 

It was a great night of being with them from 2 in the afternoon until around 9 in the evening. The more i am there, i get to learn more of who they are and what they want out of life. I know God has some great plans for that home and I am praying for the steps that need to be taken. 

Please pray along with us as a staff team to see where and how God wants us to move forward in this home specifically.

Our Sweet Valentines

Our Valentines Day was split into 2 parts. We had the opportunity to go and celebrate the 9th anniversary of Rancho De Los Ninos. We celebrated with some guapo (handsome) children and we were blessed to be served by the caretakers. They wanted it to be a special event. They invited the local church, Back2Back, and some other volunteers that have helped throughout the years. They served tamales, beans, and cake. We offered up our help, but the caretakers refused. They kept telling us we were their guests for the day and because we are always serving, they wanted to serve us. What a humbling experience. They also handed out roses to all of the ladies, Kristin Huber and I (Becca) received roses from the little guys and felt pretty special:) 

We also had a meeting with the director of Floreser. We were blessed in many ways by this meeting and once again so thankful for the people we partner with here in Mazatlan. The girls all gave us BIG valentines hugs and told us about their day in school! We continue to love every chance we get to be out at that home:) 
We love our little valentines!


Part 2:

The second part of our Valentines Day was our date night. A couple on our staff team has the coolest car ever and since they have lived in Mazatlan (since October) I (Becca) have wanted so badly to ride in their cool car. So, Rodo surprised me and we were able to take their car on a ride cruising along the boardwalk. This is our second Valentines Day here in Mazatlan and I will never get used to that sunset. 
We then had plans to go to the local fair that is in town. We ate lots of bread, tacos, brochetas and then Rodo insisted on winning me something. So, he starting shooting away. The prize was a little stuffed foot with eyes! We gave it to our dogs to see how long it would last. It is still holding together:) 

We hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day too. 

Michigan

As soon as my plane landed in Michigan, I knew I was in for a treat:) 

Snow everywhere and huge beautiful flakes falling. I didn't even know planes could fly in the snow. I did the math and it had been 4 years since I have seen snow! And every morning I woke up, it was snowing. 

My whirlwind of a weekend in Holt, Eagle, and Lansing Michigan was incredible. It was fun being shown lots of places that people have talked about while on groups here. And by far my favorite part of the weekend was being able to see sweet friends that I have made just by them being on a group. 

I saw some interesting things along the way too.Walking in the store one day, I came across bacon glazed doughnuts. (Picture above) I thought that was by far the most creative doughnut I have ever seen. I didn't try it because I had just come from an incredible breakfast joint called Golden Harvest. 

I ate great food, I got to see a Target for the first time in a year, but most of all God was so faithful in showing up for the orphan children of Mazatlan. 

My intention of being able to go to Riverview church was to speak to the church about signing up for possible groups and talking about our Child Sponsorship Program. I am proud to announce that 12 children got sponsored and 25 extra people signed up for a trip. Praise God for the plans He has for us and the way He pursues the Orphan Child. 

Another big thing that happened when I was in town was an art show fundraiser for Back2Back Mazatlan. They had already picked the date out and I just happened to be there for that weekend. I love when things like that work out. The Theme was The 100 Show! They had different artists pitch in pieces and sold each piece for $100 and 100% of the proceeds went to Back2Back. They also had a coffee bar and some real mexican treats:) It was a successful evening and as you can see from pictures above the artwork was incredible. A big THANK YOU to Kristen and Jeremy Mason for putting this event together. Blessed to call you my sister and brother in Christ. 

Another BIG THANK YOU to Ian and Lisa Mattoon! I had the privilege of staying with them during my visit. You both helped out in huge ways. Thanks for everything you did for me while I was there and thank you for the heart you have for Mazatlan. Things that happened this weekend wouldn't have been possible without the 2 of you! 

Thanks to everyone from the church who showed up and represented. It is incredible to think about the way your church has caught the vision and is catching the vision to defend the cause of the orphan child. Thank you for showing me your city and being so welcoming and friendly. My time with each of you was wonderful! 

Xenos Trip

We started the New Year off great with a group of 20 from Columbus, Ohio. They are from a church called Xenos. 

They have been partners with us in Monterrey for many years and members from their church are now faithfully serving in Jos, Nigeria with us. 

This was their first time serving with us here in Mazatlan. Serving in every way from doing cement projects, working in the garden, playing with purpose, to taking the girls shoe shopping for new gym shoes and cookouts. 

This group was such an encouragement to our staff. I personally loved how verbal they are about their love for our Savior and for life. I was thinking back on the week and every person i was privileged to have a conversation with was so open and real. That is what i LOVED about this group. It challenged me to be more "in the moment" with things. It also challenged me in a way that if  i feel appreciative of someone, then to not just tell my husband or God how thankful i am, but to tell the person that i feel appreciative of. 

I also now have a special place in my heart for this church because my cousin just moved to Columbus and started attending Xenos. She is living in one of the ministry houses along with 10 other girls. YIKES i say. 
God brought people in this group here to Mazatlan as a sign for me to know my cousin is being taken care of. She literally moved the week before this group came down. What a blessing to get to know some of her new community:) It made me thankful knowing those are the kinds of Christians my cousin will be around. 

Thank you Xenos for how real you each were. Thank you for serving alongside us here to bring healing and restoration to the children we serve. Thank you for the prayers for our staff, the children, and this town. What a blessing every single one of you were! 



I hope that in the near future there will be more Xenos Groups coming. 

Parents

What a blessing it was for us to host my PARENTS here in Mazatlan for Christmas. I haven't seen them in a year! 

This was their first time visiting us since we have been on the mission field(4 1/2 years) . It was so surreal to me that they were here and we were FINALLY showing them a little bit of what we do. 

One of my favorite moments when they were here, was at Rancho. 

Here is what happened: 

At rancho most of the kids can't speak clearly. So, most of the time you pretend like you know what they are saying. 
Well on the day that Rancho children met my parents there was no confusion as to what they were saying. Carlitos (1st picture) ran up to my dad and said " HO HO HO" 
Then all the kids started asking if my dad was SANTA CLAUS! It was hilarious. Carlitos would not let my dad put him down. He wanted ALL of his attention. And my sweet dad gave him all the attention he wanted. 
Angeles  wanted my moms attention the entire time too:) It was so sweet watching them interact with the children we are serving here in Mazatlan. My dad keeps saying he wishes he would have brought a big red bag with presents for the kids. I told him the attention he gave them is all they need and want:) 

The Salvation Army kids came and caroled as a little surprise for us one night! So, my parents got to interact with them for a little bit. 

Floreser had a Christmas Party that we were all able to attend. My parents danced the night aways with us and all the girls. 


Like i said earlier, there are so many sweet moments from this trip.  My parents getting to see what we are doing first hand was amazing. Interacting with the kids at the homes was incredible. Getting to take them to our favorite spots and letting them be tourists was great too! We had such a wonderful time with them while they were here. It was hard to say good-bye because I am not sure the next time that we will see them. But, with all the stuff we did while they were here, after they left, we slept almost an entire day:) 

A trip I hope will turn into more:)