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!

Mexico Mission Trip – Day 6

WOW, I am not sure where to begin with today’s events!! It was a huge day in so many ways! You gotta read this whole thing to hear ALL th news! Let’s see if I can recap for you….our team was strong this morning, had a yummy french toast breakfast with, what we all agreed, was some of the best whip cream we had had in a long time! We had our morning devotion time where Chase Sramek shared and challenged us. Joel shared a little bit about baptism as we had three people request to be baptized in the ocean while in Mexico! Then we were off for our day of serving Christ. The VBS site was still in need of more sand sifting, (they use the sand to make cement to build the building. So, Karleigh, Kristin, and Mackenzie D. proceeded to shovel dirt, throw it against a screen so the rocks fell on their side and the sand went through to the other side. Then they scooped up the sand and hauled it over to the building site. Zack, Shanon and Julie headed to the second floor to finish nailing the floor down. Anna and Aubrey were busy keeping a few of the early arrival kids, happy by spinning them around and playing soccer with them. Just before lunch we took a tour of the migrant workers camps/homes. It is just beyond description, but let me just say, that all those “60 Minute”, 20/20 investigative reporter shows that have done mini documentary/reports about the camps, don’t even begin to show the extent of the poverty and filthiness! It is just horrible. We came across a little girl who had been attacked by a cat and had scrapes and punctures all over her foot and ankle. It was already swollen and on its way to being severely infected. We took her to the hospital to get some good care! These kids don’t get baths, but rarely and they literally live in dirt, so infections are common. We had three babies, a 6 week old, (roughly), a 8 month old and 2 year old, all show up with out a parent and two of them were not well at all! Their 6-7 year old siblings brought them! We had a little girl who couldn’t walk because she had broken her hip. We had to carry her out of the car. We had about 70 kids today and we had a great time playing soccer, singing songs, sharing with them another Bible story, making a craft and having a snack. The kids just love to play and get so excited when they see our car pull up! We ended our VBS time by passing out a ‘hot wheel’ car to each boy and a beanie baby to each little girl! They were all so happy.

The construction crew had a tough day….mudding the sheet rock and roofing! It doesn’t get much worse than that! They had an amazing team though and they got it done! They also got all the outside trim on the house and the rest of the main painting completed….touch-up pain is all that is let. We found out that Jesus and Janet will be having his parents live with them too. SO, we have decided to make them two queen beds for the house. It is so hard to put in to words the energy and joy that beams on their faces when they take a moment to embrace the idea of this being their home!

When we arrived back to the compound, most of us held off on our showers, pretty stinky actually, but we were headed to the beach after dinner. What a beautiful night…warm, the water was warm and that was awesome. Everyone hit the water, with a few exceptions After our kitchen crew who had KP after dinner was able to make it to the beach to join the rest of the group, we were able to share together as not just three students wanted to get babptized…..we had 4 others make a decision to be baptized! So we had an amazing time out in the water about hip deep. First, Joel baptized Julie Olson and Alex Riggen. Then Bernd baptized Kelsey Domann and then Kelsey Domann was able to enjoy baptizing her sister, Mackenzie Domann. Then it was Shanon’s turn, she was beyond excited and emotional as she was able to baptized Tamra Schelot, Sam Roberts and yes, her very own daughter, Karleigh Vroman!! Yeah God in a mighty way!! Most of us spent another chunk of time just floating about, playing in the waves and just enjoying being together! Just before dark, we were able to finally get our bon-fire started. We gathered around it and sang some songs as well as shared some of the things that we had experienced so far on this trip? How had this trip impacted you and your life! We shared a bunch of Kudos and just really lifted each other up. We had our time of Yeah God’s. Then it was back to the compound to review the blog and share all of your comments.

An exciting day, filled with blessings for everyone!

Tomorrow is our final day on the work site and the VBS. Most of us are torn about which project we want to go to for the final day….all team members will end up at the construction site for the house dedication. We will be passing out the yellow t-shirts that many of you graciously sponsored for the children down here….thank you, thank you, thank you!!

It is 11:25pm and I am falling asleep at the computer….everyone else is zonked out already! Til tomorrow…….

More Construction Pics from Shanon!

More construction pics from Shanon

Mexico Mission Trip – Day 5

We started the day by singing to Svetlana as it is her birthday today!! 19 years old and just a sweetie!!! We love her spirit around the work site as she is willing to do anything and does anything well and with her whole heart!! We presented her with some candy, a bracelet and the cards her mom supplied me before we left West Linn….Kris, so on top of her parenting!!

OK, Friends…we are tired today….another long day in the heat for this mission team. But we served God well as we put the wiring in the house, the roof on and the sheet rock up. Roy had Spencer up on the tops of the walls, nailing rafters in place for the roof. After getting his day started, as usual, with his French-press coffee (see photo), Bernd had Aaron doing the same on the other side. Aaron forewarned us all that he is short on the construction/handy with tools kinds of skills, but he was amazing today….God does great things when we get out of his way and our own way and let Him use us in ways we would never imagine. The ladies finished the painting before we took on the sheet rock! And let us just say, sheet rock is one tough task! The girls rocked it on the ceilings…On ladders, with their heads cranked around to reach the nails to secure the ceiling sheet rock! Sam, Sveta, Chase, Kristin, Krislyn, Mackenzie D. and Julie all put walls in rooms and helped to make the house start to feel like a home! Alex was again our cutter and did a phenomenal job! He is also really great at cutting out windows, doors and electrical outlets!

Julie, Mackenzie D., and Krislyn created a race track for the boys to play with their cars. They were so happy and they spent a big chunk of time just pushing the cars around the track. The littlest boy also liked to put the puppy on the bridge (see photo), and get him to sit Karleigh once again led the charge on the vbs/crafts/playing with the kids….she was stuck in the back of an old clunky van, playing TROUBLE with the kids for at least 1 1/2 hours. How many times can you push that silly button to make the dice pop???? Christie joined her to help add some excitement to the game! (see photo).

At VBS, they worked first and did the VBS in the afternoon. They started by moving rocks, sifting sand and hammering nails. Zack, aka “The Machine”, can’t get enough of VBS and the kids. He plans to spend the whole week there. We have been switching students around so they all get a chance to be at VBS and the house site, but not Zack, he is all about those kids and the projects to help make the building suitable for a church! After they did some work in the morning, they drove around and picked up kids, about 60 of them today. They played games, sang songs, did crafts and shared the Parable of the Lost Sheep. The memory verse was Luke 19:10. Connections started to really happen today with many of the students and the Hispanic kids. It was fun to hear our students share the things they see, the impact it has on them and the response the children have to them and what is being shared.

When we all arrived back at the compound, there was an amazing authentic Mexican dinner for us….the local Taco Stand owner set up his kitchen in the courtyard of the compound and made Tacos for everyone….most of us had at least two, but many had 3-4 because they were so darn good! As I speak of tonight’s food, I should mention that the food has been unbelievable good this year! Fettuccine Alfredo and garlic bread, Pancakes, sausage and eggs, with an unlimited supply, so Tanner has not be short on food at all! The lunches leave a lot to be desired, but the dinners and breakfast are tasty! Tonights chapel time included a mini concert from a local Hispanic group that was really great! Also, a time of sharing from a local Pastor. It was all very uplifting! Then we headed upstairs to have our team time where Anna and Amanda shared. Again, for uplifting and a great reminder of what we are doing here in Mexico! “Kudo’s” were shared all around! SO many great and wonderful things happening, Joel tried to remind us that we only got to share one Kudo’s, but he is a newbie, so what does he know…..you can share multiple “kudos”, there are no real rules around them! SO we managed to share many, many, many. The team over all is just working so hard and being so supportive of each other and Karleigh has yet to complain on the job site which she, of course, got a “kudo’s” for!

Updates….Kristin has made a turn for the better and spent the day at the work site, Sveta’s finger is healing just fine, but her butt is a little sore form the shot, (no worries mom and dad, nothing serious and all was just precautionary)! A little band aid and some neosporin and she was back on the site hammering nails like a pro! Sam has stayed nasal passage clear…breathing easily….Yeah God! Our bunk house is all quite, after two warnings from the camp coordinator…..so I am going to sign-off til tomorrow! We got some new photos up and will try for some more in the morning!! Thanks for reading and for commenting and for praying for us! We very thankful and happy to heare from you all!

Building Photos! (Sam’s Camera)

Building Site Pics (Sam's Camera)

Building Photos (Bernd’s Camera)

Day 4 and 5 Building Photos (Bernd's Camera)

VBS Photos!

Mexico Day 4 – VBS Pics!