Quick update

I'm sorry for the 'radio silence' .. We've have an incredible couple of days which will take us all a long time to fully process.  On Thursday morning we went back to see the mayor as we realised that our schedule is so busy that it was the only chance we had to give him any feedback.  It was a fantastic meeting and he really wants us to return whilst he is still in office.

After that we went to the cultural centre and some downtown shops before going back to pack overnight bags.  We had our lunch in the El Rancho Hotel which is an iconic Route 66 hotel patronised by every old black and white movie star you can think of.

We then dropped off the flip flops at the detox centre and headed out to Grants.  We met the prison chaplain at the entrance of the women's facility where we went through heavy security and then taken to the gym.  It was a huge room and the acoustics were terrible.  We had to work hard with our little speaker to get the sound right!  Over 180 women came.  Josh and Colette led worship, Josh sang a song, Julie sang 'I look to you' and their hearts melted, Helen and Colette shared testimony and Alice preached.  We also did our 'labels' drama and 'changed'.  The women raised their hands, stood, wept, shouted, clapped, etc. it was very powerful.  At the end we prayed with them.  It was amazing and exhausting.

We stopped at McD's for supper and got to the motel quite late.

Friday morning we had to be in the breakfast room by 6.30am packed and ready to go!  We shared half our devotions before heading out to the men's facility.  We always know we are on the right road when we see the 'don't pick up hitchhikers' sign.  Again we were in the gym but with a projector and sound system.  We saw two groups with quite a gap in between so we finished our devotions and also had our lunch in the prison canteen - that was interesting.

I should add that Dave and Mark shared testimony at both men's programmes and Richard and CJ preached, Julie and Josh sang.

We left Gramts at about 2.30 to drive into Albuquerque to meet up with Eleanor McKinney an old friend of Alice's that she met in Amman, Jordan at a women's conference, Ellie is 92 and still driving and working!  And an awesome woman of God.  The team had a couple of hours free time and then we met Calvin Robinson for our evening meal, driving back the two hours arriving back in Gallup very, very late.

So today is Saturday.  It's 6.45am and we are due to meet up for breakfast at 7.00am, flea market outreach and kids party planned for today and maybe ceremonial dancing outreach tonight!  Crazy busy but very fruitful.  Photos to follow.