Well, it is monday we are home and have had some rest.

Now that we are home, and have had some rest :) Maybe I can start slowly putting the mission trip together for you. It was an amazing experience. God brought together an amazing team of people this year. Everyone had such great attributes to add to the team, even down to the three young boys Eli, Owen, and Zac. We couldn't have done it with out them. We arrived Friday as you know from previous posts, and we got settled in and met Pedro, Ana, and their beautiful children.

Saturday we started working on their home. Saturday was one of the warmest days we had down there, it was pretty intense. :) Part of the team worked on Pedro & Ana's house, while another part of the team stayed at Dave and Lynne's base to do necessary work around there for them. After lunch Don, Carol, Jaime, Owen, Bobbi, & Ken went to visit Freddi & Adrianna at their place. The rest of us went with Dave down to a beach a little north of San Vicente. Wow had the storm in January really changed that beach. Dave said that it used to have sand all over it, and now it was just rocks. The extent of the storm damage was still very evident around there.

Sunday we attended church with Dave and Lynne at the church they serve with. Pastor Jose gave a wonderful sermon on joy. It was amazing. I can say that because Jaime was so wonderful to translate it for us. That is not an easy task. Translating conversations is one thing, but translating a sermon is so difficult to make sure you are conveying what the pastor is trying to say. She did a fantastic job and we were all so thankful for her talents. The church service there starts with an amazing worship time of singing. What is so awesome is you do not need to be able to understand the language to be able to feel the Holy Spirit moving there. You can feel Him touching your heart. When this church worships...they worship! I don't mean that it is over the top and something that is flamboyant...It is truly moving by the Holy Spirit. They have several alter calls during their services. Sometimes just one or two during song time and then another one during the service. What I thought was so amazing was while people were down on their knees praying and pouring out to the Lord, others in the church would form a semi-circle behind them with their arms up praying and just putting up a wall of "prayer protection" for them. It was amazing. Others would kneel and pray with them. It wasn't a silent time of prayer, there was singing still continuing, there was others still praying out-loud for those who were praying. It was truly moving.

The remainder of the day a group went again to see Freddi & Adrianna. I wish I could write to you about their time there. The rest of us took a walk around town, and to a local flea market, and to some shops in town. We walked through a park that until just about 2 weeks ago still was under water from the storm. Shawn, Craig, Briton found some incredibly wonderful pigskins that have chile & limon (jalapeno & lime). They searched every store and stand for BIG bags of those. LOL

Monday started VBS- What an experience the week showed it was going to be. The drive to Santo Tomas was about 45min-hour depending on the vehicles on the road. We had our group plus the 6 "Angels" which are the youth girls from the church. Being it was at a migrant work camp we had to check in at the gates and then proceed. The kids didn't know we were coming at first, so the first day we had about 26 with some on the outskirts. We played lots of soccer, bubbles, nerf football, and just plain old spending time. Then it was time "cantar" to sing. Ken, Lindsey, and Craig led the kids with their guitars. What joy it was to see them playing and the kids singing. Briton and Tara were up front to help the kids see the words and follow along. After the singing was done then it was time for the puppet show. Oh what a hit the puppet show was. That show was definitely a team effort. When the puppet show would start we would have more kids show up, but even the mama's and the dads would come and sit. It was really neat. Then when the puppet show was finished one of the Angels would give a bible story to the kids. They did a fantastic job. While that was going on, I would slip off and set up the craft for the kids. On Monday they all made name tags that looked a lot like our name tags. :) Then they got to line up in a girls line and boys line, we prayed and then had snack. After that we had time to play some more with them before we had to load everything back up and start off for home. I don't think any of us had any idea how rewarding yet exhausting that would be. LOL When we arrived home the kids asked if the Angels could stay and play for awhile. It was really neat to see them bonding that way. Then it was time for dinner, a meeting to go over how the day went and anything Dave saw that maybe we should do different. What our favorite thing of the day was, get cleaned up and then it was bedtime. LOL

Tuesday- Again....work work work on Pedro and Ana's house the guys and gals that worked on that house were amazing. Some of the work party though was thinned out because the ladies from the church offered to teach us how to make tortillas. So quite a few of us took that opportunity. We had the option to learn flour of corn. What an amazing gift they gave to us. I have to say though, I think I will stick to my rolling pin with handles. I do not know how those ladies can get a circle with a piece of pvc pipe. They use their hands on the pvc pipe to make it roll and it works for them, but not so well for us from the states. LOL We had some interesting shapes showing up, which created a lot of laughter. Marianna would just grab that mis-shapen tortilla and stretch it right out into a circle. She was fabulous. I do think I'm onto something one of my tortillas had a unique shape with wings and a small tail, I used that one and it held it's contents really well! LOL The other team had corn tortillas and had to press theirs in a press, so shape wasn't a problem. However, they had to put theirs on the hot oven and pull them off with their hands. I guess figuring that out caused some great laughter also. The ladies made us some salsa to nibble on with our tortillas and we found some HOT salsa. More laughter. We definitely had joy that day. The ladies from the church were so kind and gracious. Language barrier... what language barrier? Of course Jaime was there to translate the important things we needed translated, but your eyes and smiles, and kindness go a long way.
VBS- on Tuesday was more of the same format. We played when we got there, and then started the program with singing. The children wanted to hold the song books for Ken, Lindsey and Craig. That was so precious to see. Ken was definitely in his element playing his guitar with the children. We then moved on to the puppet show. Again the puppet show was a huge hit. There was some laughter because one of the boys had the same name as the puppet. They really really enjoyed the puppets. We then had another bible story from one of the Angels. They are such an attribute to this ministry. What a privilege to work with them. I then went and got the craft that Bobbi had put together. The spinner buttons. It is one of the neatest crafts, however you either got it or you don't on making them work. Usually the kids got it! I however don't, so I use Eli or Zac or Owen to demonstrate. LOL The little kids were having a difficult time getting theirs to start spinning, but Craig was a spinner master! He could get them to spin No Problemo! LOL It was neat to watch them try and try and not quit. And how creative they were if they could not get them to work. I saw one boy turn it into a belt. One girl made a head band. By the time we left there were a lot of them spinning though. Of course snack time came. That is always a favorite! And some more playtime before we had to reluctantly load up in our rigs to head back to base. Again there was playing with the Angels before they had to go home, and then dinner and clean up and bed. We didn't get much down time, but it was awesome. :)

Wednesday-Work work work on the house, with again missing some workers because the ladies offered tamale making lessons. But they still had enough workers to continue on and complete a lot! Plus back at the base Ken and Lindsey fixed a toilet in the kitchen area that Dave & Lynne were in need of having fixed. (I know it works I tested it for them. LOL Good job!) I'm not sure if the toilet was fixed on Tue or Wed, but either way great job. Wednesday I didn't go make tamales (I stayed to work on making the VBS craft go quicker (we needed to shorten our time because we had church that night.) However, the information that was relayed back to me was they had NO IDEA that it involved so many steps and was so complicated. We ate lunch at the church and ate the tamales! They were fabulous!! They may be complicated but they sure were good. Pastor Jose said that the ladies from the church felt so honored and so special that they were able to teach us AMERICAN ladies how to do something. It's always the other way around it seems, so for it to be this way now was really something special to them. After lunch we met up prayed for the VBS day and off we went for our travel time. I know it seems like a lot of wasted time...45-60 min one way to get to VBS, but what a time to bond with our other team members. To ask them what has impacted them, what they've seen that they will never forget. God used every minute of this trip.
VBS- so we get there on Wednesday and the order of events was slightly different. Our play time was shortened because our overall time was going to be shortened and the craft that we were making was tambourines. We wanted to not only play songs at the beginning but at the end so they could use them. So we played, then sang some songs with Tara using one of the pre-made tambourines. The kids were over excited and of course they all wanted one. So, then we moved into the puppets. Which was the big hit it always is! These kids big and small love the puppet show. Then we had another bible story by one of the Angels, and then came the craft. The craft of the tambourine is probably the most involved one we had. So thanks to Craig volunteering his experience of teaching and dealing with crafts in class. We had a game plan in place! GO CRAIG!!! We had four stations, each station had two people who would give the children their beans to place in their pre-glued plates.(That's what I was busy doing all morning.) And then glue the small opening closed. The kids would then move past them to the people waiting behind them with ribbons and beads. We called them our "R&B" section. :) They then helped the kids lace the ribbon through the pre-punched holes, tie them, and then tie beads on them. The kids could then place foam stickers of crosses, Jesus fish, etc to decorate, and it was done. It went pretty smooth! We had Jaime and Alma out front helping the kids with where to go, and what to do next, and then everyone else at stations. Dave even became a worker bee with Wendy (one of the Angels) as his boss. LOL We got done and then went back over to sing three more songs so the kids could use their tambourines. They had so much fun with their tambourines during the song time. Then we handed out the snacks of course after prayer. And off we were running. Wednesday was not over for us.
Church- We arrived at church to an awesome worship service. Their worship leader had put some special thought to us being there. He had us read Psalm 150 in English please. He could speak some English. Then as we were singing one of the songs tunes sounded so familiar. It was Lord I Lift Your Name On High. He had us from Oregon sing it in English, apparently we didn't sing it loud enough for him, because he said again louder...LOL He didn't realize most of us were losing our voices.... So we did and we dug deep and sang it to our Lord. Then he brought it together with the church singing in Spanish and us singing in English. It was so amazing. To hear that, us worshiping together.... there's no words to describe how it really felt. We also sang our song "Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord" funny enough we sang it better in Spanish then we did in English. LOL Craig bless his heart plays faster when he is nervous, so that's probably the fastest they have ever heard it. JK It was great. I didn't stay for the sermon. Zac and I went to children's church. That was a great experience. We got to sing with the class, and play a game that we had no idea how to play but we just jumped right in. Zac and I even lead the class in a song when the teacher had to step out for a moment with a small girl to take her potty. It was fun. The teacher was so kind. The little girls were so amazed with Zac's Blond hair. He made so many friends. One little boy was so excited because he and Zac were the same age, and his dad's name was Zacarias also. I am so blessed that my son let me go with him to children's church. :) I had so much fun as did he. After church the pastor asked if families from his congregation would like to host a family from Oregon for a night. They seemed a little surprised, which confused us because this is a program they have been doing for 2 years. Well, apparently Pastor Jose, we found out later, purposely did not tell his congregation about us. It works perfectly into his sermon yesterday on Sunday about being prepared for the Lord. He told Dave they know about the next group in 2 weeks, but I purposely did not tell them about your group. And he was planning on using the verse about entertaining angels unaware. He was also going to equate the keeping your hearts prepared for Christ's return, to keeping your homes prepared for unexpected visits from missionaries. So, that made us feel a little better, some of us felt a little like we were on the auction block there for a moment. LOL I didn't because it was all over when I came in from children's church.
Host Families What an amazing experience. I could've spent all week with my host family. I heard only positive things from everyone who went and stayed. It was not a mandatory thing to do. You didn't have to go, but I am so glad my family did. Shawn and Kirstyn went to a different home then Zac and I. Shawn and Kirstyn went to Elizabeth's home with her family. They had a great time even though their Spanish was limited, they were able to talk and find out about each others families. Elizabeth's dad could speak some limited English so they were able to make their way through. Her family had worked in Colorado at some point, so they had what you would consider a very very nice home down there. It would be considered a nice home here in the U.S. Zac and I stayed with Mario and Paula (pronounced) "Paw-oo-la" they have a little girl in Kindergarten whose name is Keyla. In the U.S. we would spell their daughters name "Kayla". They were so kind and gracious. We went to their home and had caldo de pollo which is my favorite, however hers is way better than Si Casa's LOL. We had coffee and laughed and talked for several hours that evening. In the morning I woke up and watched Paula make breakfast and fresh tortillas. She is amazing. We had such wonderful time. Jean, Randi, and Tara taught their host family how to play "spoons". They said they had so much fun. Bobbi and Ken's family wanted them to come back and spend the night again. Even though they hadn't been expecting them. Craig & Eli stayed with someone who has a home for troubled youth. Craig was able to learn so much he said from staying there. It was a great time. Like I said no one that I spoke to had a negative experience. Everyone loved it.

Thurs-Everyone straggled in from their host families. Everyone was supposed to be back to base by 9am. Paula walked Zac and I home while on their way to taking Keyla to school. I was excited for her to be able to meet Shawn and Kirstyn. Mario was already at work. Everyone came in and got ready for their quiet time, and then work day. We took a 1/2hr every morning to spend with our bibles and God. I pray that it is something everyone will continue to do. It was such a wonderful thing to make sure we took that time each day. Then it was off to work. We had to push today to get our work projects at a point where they could be stopped and picked up by the next team coming in. Painting was finished at the base, trusses were finished being built and moved over to the house. Ana was there, and she pulled me to the side and wanted to give me one of her tulips. This brought tears to my eyes. She does not have many flowers, yet she knows that is a common bond between her and I, and she wanted to share it with me. Ana will be a Best Friend Forever...as Carol put it... it has a different meaning to me now. Even if you may never see them again this side of heaven it's ok, because you know, they will be your friend forever...you will see them in Heaven. Thursday is always a hard day. Or Friday, whichever is your last work day....last VBS day.... we finished up at the house and cleaned up...off to lunch....
VBS our LAST DAY We arrive knowing that it is our last day. Some of the kids understand and know...others don't get it. We play, we sing they don't want to stop singing, we have the amazing puppet show...then the bible story... now time for the last craft of the week.... they get to make their OWN puppets! YES!!! Sock Puppets!! Thanks by the way to Dianne Dunas and Karen Swearingen for all 4 of these awesome vbs craft ideas!!! You ladies ROCK!!! The kids love them!! They are so ecstatic over them. Even some of the older kids who are to cool....wanted to make them, but just hung on the edges... so we gave them the outs of.. para tu hermano o hermana? that's for your brother or sister... that's all they needed was an excuse! One boy worked with me and Miss Anita and when he finished had his puppet say "Hola" LOL it was awesome. The mama's made them for their babies, the kids made them, we made them.... we had so much fun. We then gave them their snack and then played.... It then came time to say goodbye. Some of the kids, the older ones, understood, goodbye meant we were not coming again.... the little ones I'm sure were looking for the Red Van, White Van, and Grey Truck again Friday. Our hearts broke as we said goodbye, we just hope and pray that the seeds were planted and that we see them again in Heaven. We went to dinner that night at a local restaurant and the girls came with us. What an amazing time that was. Our youth and the church's youth all at one table. They were singing... laughing.... oh... they did not want the night to end. Ken and Bobbi were awesome enough to say they would drive all the kids home in one van. What a rocking van that was! LOL Then after we got back to the base and said our tearful goodbye to the girls they ALL loaded up again and off they went singing... LOL We had some pretty sad kids that night. But laughter and joy came back quickly as they started reliving what made them laugh and what they would not forget.

Fri- We had our quiet time and breakfast, which by the way was phenomenal every morning, what a blessing that was! The ladies from our team, Carol, Jean, Anita, Shirley, Bobbi.....would get up and make the most amazing breakfasts. I offered to help but I think they were forewarned about my culinary skills. LOL Coffee was as far as they would let me help and carrying stuff. LOL We then loaded up and headed to La Esperanza to see Steve and Teresa and her husband Bucci (sp) and Stevito, Michelle was even down visiting from the base at San Diego and of course Junior. We got to tour the base there and find out about the bible school and medical services. We then ate lunch and headed back north. We tried to stop at the Village where the team from Casa de la Luz served last year so we could see the church that we built onto, but the storm had washed out one of the main roads, and the roads cutting across the fields, so everything was completely different looking. Unfortunately we couldn't find it. So onto Casa de la Luz. We got to see Todd and Letsy Fink. They are doing great and look wonderful. Their base seemed to have weathered the storm fairly well. Letsy said they lost a couple trees that were small in size, and they had water standing in the compound about ankle deep. It didn't make it into their house thank goodness. They showed us the new addition that they just built on to house more groups when they come. It was nice to be able to visit them. We then headed back up north to San Vicente again. We arrived in time for dinner and then to have our debriefing meeting. There were tears, and laughter. Austin Shirley's grandson really liked the time he had playing soccer with the kids at VBS, Tara I think left a huge part of her heart down there, they may have to mail it back up to the U.S. for her. :) Lindsey was so encouraged by what a family this team was. Kirstyn again fell in love with a small child, she said darn those lovable kids. Owen said they helped take his soccer playing to a higher level. LOL Briton felt that he had a lot of personal growth on this trip. I'm trying my best to remember what everyone said but there was 20 some people...LOL We all felt God stretch us and grow us in amazing ways. It was late before we got to bed, and we were going to have an early morning.

Sat-Load up-Clean up the base....you know the saying LEAVE IT BETTER THAN WHEN YOU FOUND IT. I hope and pray we did a good job of doing that. Then Pastor Jose came and prayed with us, I did forewarn him that if Mario asked to start having coffee with church not to be surprised... LOL we had talked about that. That Pastor Pablo is very smart, he knows how to make the people stay awake... LOL although I did not know the word for smart, so I improvised with light bulb in head.... it worked he knew what I meant. Then we were off and driving. We got through the checkpoints with minimal inspections. The first one we just explained that the trailer was for all the persons in the red van and white van and us. It worked they didn't want to look. One check point they just briefly looked inside and had us all step out, but it was no big deal. They had another mission team it looked like pulled out in another lane also. They were very kind and not unfriendly at all. We stopped in Ensenada where Amy Fuller met us and visited and shopped with us. We broke into groups and got to do the tourist thing. We had a lot of fun. We ate some good food, and it was nice. Then back in the rigs to go cross the border. We only missed one exit...(in the grey truck...maybe we weren't ready to come home... LOL we wanted to stay in Mexico) We turned around easy enough, and were all together again. The border crossing went rather quickly compared to last year, and then when I asked for all the passports in the grey truck.... It was Shawn who did not have his. It was in the trailer in his suitcase. Thank goodness he was the one who packed the trailer and knew where to look. Out of the truck he jumps not 5 or 6 cars away (50 yards is all) from the border check point. Throws open the trailer to get it. While doing it, one of the extra first aid kits goes sprawling out on the road, dumping, Randy (the awesome guy from Ohio who we hope comes again) jumps out and picks it all up. Shawn finds the passport, shuts the trailer, jumps back in the truck, and we never even lost our place in line. Now that's moving. We get up there and scan the passports... move forward talk to the guard and of course as we are expecting he says to pull up they want to look in the trailer. We tell them that it is the gear for us and the two vans behind us. We are thinking well duh, yeah you do especially after Shawn was just digging in it. LOL So, he pulls over and tells the guards that they wanted it searched. They start to ask for Shawn to open it and he tells them it's unlocked already for them. They were surprised by that, so Shawn explains about not having his passport in line when I asked and that he needs to make it back across the border he is a Deputy in Douglas County Oregon. LOL And that if he was them he'd be searching this trailer too, especially seeing someone digging through it right before. LOL They had been looking up until that point and then they said you're good. We've seen enough. We were free to go! My mom said they just took his word for it? I said mom, at the first person we talked to they had his passport they ran, which says Deputy as occupation, plus they ran our plates which are registered to the courthouse. I'm sure they had all the confirmation they needed. LOL They had all of his info on him back there... LOL The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. Just drive, stop get gas, go potty, drive..... Oh I forgot the singing and the laughing and the visiting about our amazing experiences.

When we arrived Craig, who he and Pastor Ed, Eli, Cori, and Jaime had come home Thurs after VBS and arrived Fri, had all the area cleared out for us to park the vans and trailer to unload. The team work doesn't stop because we are home. :) It just continues because you have become as Lindsey puts it...a family. I know if you have never gone it's hard to understand, but it just does. They are relationships that are built deeper than they ever were before. Please keep in mind that this is just from one perspective... and I'm sure I will remember more of what was said and want to and will add to this.... I would like to have the kids and adults get on and add their own perspectives... I'll try to make that happen... I just want everyone to be able to share as best they can what we experienced. More slide show to come later today. Jen or in Mexico- Isabel