This Blog Is So Last Week.

Go to the new site.

Aaron’s MT video

Youth Retreat pictures, Day 2!

Youth Retreat, Day 2!

Youth Retreat Pictures, Day 1!!

Youth Retreat, Day 1!

Doughnut Photos!

Doughnuts!!!

One Month To Live

So lately we’ve been going through this whole idea of “one month to live” lately in our high school group. The idea is this: If you only had one month left to live… how would you live? What would you change about your life? What would you do differently?

I’d love to hear from anyone visiting this blog: What would you do, if you only had one month to live? Any thoughts?

Mexico Mission Trip – Day 9

Hey all! This is intern Kelsey along with Kendra, Anna, and Julie. After a night of restful sleep in wonderfully comfortable beds we had breakfast at Denny’s before hitting the road for a full day of driving. We spent much of the car ride today playing movie trivia (which caused much mother/daughter arguing between Shanon and Karleigh), singing songs, and discussing a certain bodily function that many of our team members were experiencing. Lana had an important vocabulary lesson today when Shane educated her on the meaning of the word “diarrhea.” She had been at a loss all day and finally understood all of Teri’s jokes.

We had a yeah God moment when a phone call from Shanon prevented Teri from driving all the way to San Francisco on the wrong highway.

Tanner had a nice surprise when he awoke from his nap with lipstick hearts and smiley faces all over him.

Health update!
Tanner is better…no more car window episodes.
Shanon can thank Kristin for sharing her sore throat.
Teri is slightly under the weather but in good spirits.
Everyone is kind of tired but healthy!

We finally arrived at our Best Western hotel in Northern California and enjoyed a yummy dinner from Round Table Pizza. We then had a time of worship lead by Aaron and Anna followed by a devotional led by Kendra and Krislyn. Aaron won everyone over when he shared one of his original songs. Currently, all of the students are relaxing in their rooms, watching the Olympics and heading to bed.

We can’t wait to see all of you tomorrow! Thank you all sooooo much for the prayers and encouraging messages. This has been an amazing experience for everyone involved so thank you for the continued support. Hasta manana!

Speaking of Manana, we have asked the students to please, not state a time of arrival to their families…we have a lot to do still, including our church service on the road, and we ask that parents PLEASE support our leaders as we finish up a few super important details tomorrow upon our arrival home. Once we have completed the cleaning out and cleaning of the vehicles, we will have the students call home and request you come and pick them up! If parents are there, it takes double the time to get it done as students are talking with parents and parents talking with students. We are all excited to see you and we know you are all excited to see your students, but really ask for your help in allowing us to finish the mission in a speedy manor. Everyone is tired and anxious to get home and share! So thank you in advance for honoring our request I can tell you that it will probably be early afternoon, but any more specific would not be accurate as anything and everything happens once we hit the road! Thanks again for reading and commenting!

Mexico Mission Trip – Day 8

It is 11:10pm and we are settling in to our hotel rooms. We were up at 5:15am and on the road by 6:00am. I think everyone was sad to leave our compound we called home for the last 5 days! We knew as we pulled away, waving goodbye to Lucy the adorable camp dog, that we would miss all our new friends! Jesus and Janet, their family and all those precious children at VBS! Their stories, the joy in their hearts, which they share with us through their smiles, will be seared in to our hearts forever, I am sure! I doubt anyone from this team will forget the hideous conditions we found the VBS children living in and the filth. Nor will we forget how much joy and laughter they displayed over the simplest things….such as tossing a little glass pebble to each other or receiving a hug from a new friend!

As we left Ensenada and headed for the border, we again had two students feeling a little queasy. The heat, the lack of sleep and the hard work has started to catch up. But we persevered, even got re-routed near the border, loosing about an hour of driving time! We got Joel dropped at the airport and prayed he would be able to stand-by on an earlier flight….he was wanting to get home to prep for this weekends message….can’t blame him! Then we drove on to Sea World for the day. It was very hot, so getting wet was NOT a problem! The students had a fun time just hanging with each other and getting a bit wet! Later in the afternoon, we made the 2nd drop at the airport so that the other 6 students/leader could make it to their evening flights! Then we headed north to southern Orange County where I am now sitting at the desk in our hotel room. It is a great feeling to be headed home! We look for safe travels tomorrow and again we thank you for your prayers!

Mexico Mission Trip – Day 7, evening

Yeah God, the house is done and the VBS was a huge success!!! Thank you so much for the prayers today! We really needed them and we really felt them! The Great Physician helped out sickies feel better by this evening. That is a huge Yeah God as being sick on the road is no fun for anyone!!! Trust me, we have been down that road before! Aub’s, Kristin, Karleigh, Spencer, and Kalie recovered enough to join the group this afternoon for the house dedication, (Kalie actually rallied this morning to head out with the team as did Spencer. However, Spencer was back at the compound by lunch!

With the reduced number of team members, the challenge was on for us as we needed to get a lot done on the house and we knew we would have probably 100 or more students at VBS for the final day and BBQ! At the VBS, the team worked on clearing rocks from the volleyball court and prepared for the BBQ. The kids arrived so eager to play and see our students! They just light up with joy. Again, the babies came and the toddlers came and the elementary kids came! We passed out the “Jesus Me Ama” shirts and the kids were thrilled! It was hard for the team to leave as all the kids were saying, “See you tomorrow”, (in spanish of course) and unfortunately, we won’t be there tomorrow. You can’t do enough down here, it is a bit overwhelming! But hanging on to the images of the dirty, smiling faces of the children fuel us to keep making as much effort as possible! GOd will take care of the rest, we are simple to shine the light!

On the construction site today, we had an all out assault system in place. With 4 team member down, we had our work cut out for us! Let me just say, these students impress the heck out of me and the other leaders! They were sore and aching this morning, half of them left the compound with their eyes barely open….But, they pushed through for Christ and got it done! We asked Janet and Jesus if they would leave for the afternoon so we could paint the inside of the house, get the lights up, the beds in and the gift baskets in place. The gift baskets contain, bedding, towels, dishes and other misc. household essentials! We cranked up the pass after lunch and were feeling a little stressed when our VBS team showed up and jumped in to help get it done. Aaron and Tanner were amazing as they built the two full size beds while pretty much everyone else painted the inside of the house. Joel, Bernd, and Roy were focused on getting all the trim cut and installed around the windows and doors. The kids were asking for Karlgih and Anna from the moment we arrived…Karleigh was back at the compound, trying to regain some composure and Anna was at VBS. After lunch when I went to get Karleigh and drop Spencer, the kids were so excited for their playmate to arrive! Then when Anna arrived, they were excited again. Great connections were made with these kids and Anna and Karleigh, as well as the other girls, I am sure, will be sharing stories for quite some time!

Anyway, we got the house completed at about 4:15pm, Janet and Jesus returned, with their entire extended family, just about and we gathered in a circle in front of the house. I had the keys and as we began to pray, I passed the keys to the person on my left. This allowed each person to touch the keys and pray for this house. After passing through the hands of about 38 people, the keys arrived to the hands of Jesus and Janet! With at least half our team in total tears, they expressed their gratitude. Janet was very emotional and crying as she said thank you! I turned to her and gave her a hug and I could feel her emotions run through her body and in to mine! She was crying, I was cryng. The hug lasted about 20 seconds as she didn’t want to let go. We both caught our breath and parted to allow every other person to hug them too! They used the keys to open the door and enter their first home! You could see the joy, the appreciation, the pride, the comfort and the peace as their prayers for the last 3 years had been answered! It was almost as big a blessing for all of us to be allowed to serve this family in this way!! I believe our students are forever changed!!

We are excited to share the stories when we return in a few days! Again, thank you for putting comments up on the blog and photos. It became a nightly ritual for us to gather, pray, do the devotional and then read the latest responses posted!

We will be up and outta here at 6:00am, headed for the border. Please be praying for a speedy, uneventful crossing!

Mexico Mission Trip – Day 7, morning

Hello Everyone, I apologize for my possible rambling last night, I was very, very tired, but wanting to get a post up! It was a long night too. We had a couple girls up most of the night, not feeling well and a couple more this morning. SO, I am asking for prayer for healing today and for energy for the team! We are all tired, our bodies are sore and we need to push through to complete our house and VBS today! Please lift this team up in prayer and praise again for the 7 students who got baptized last night! It was an awesome time in the ocean! For me personally, I need serious energy as I was up with the girls and I am feeling it! We appreciate you all and the prayers!