Today was our first day at the worksite, and it was wonderful! We drove out into an area that was completely uncivilized a year ago and that is now growing up into a neighborhood of homes. Our team is building a home for Maricruz and Jesus and their two children. Several other teams are working in the same neighborhood building houses, so it was fun to have lots of interaction with many families. When we pulled up, Alex jumped out of the van and yelled, "I see friends!" and took off up the hillside to a home where a couple little boys were playing. I managed to help him step around the stream of sewage before he plowed right through it, and he was off making friends. It was such a delight to watch him. It was interesting to watch how each of the kids approached this new setting with the language difference. Some jumped in, some were reluctant but with a little encouragement, were out in the street playing soccer or interacting with others. Maria, Ella and Alex sat down with a pile of scrap wood and nails and hammered away to their hearts content for quite a long time! Max played soccer, Kyler helped out with some building (as did all the kids at some time), and Beth collected water bottles from the students and staff to take them to be refilled, making sure everyone stayed well hydrated.
It was on one of these errands that she tripped stepping down the hillside (this neighborhood is on the side of a hill with a beautiful view out over the valley and hills), and caught her fall with her hand, hurting her wrist. She came and told me that she fell and I could see that she was dirty, so I said some encouraging word and told her to brush off. A minute later I turned around to see her and saw that she was on the verge of tears. She was so stoic that I hadn't realized how badly she was hurt! We looked at her wrist, which behaved suspiciously like it was broken, but took her to an air conditioned van to rest for a few minutes and see if that helped. It didn't help, she still wasn't able to move it without extreme pain, so we took her to the clinic to have it checked out (the same one Jeremy worked at). She was such a trooper! We were sent from the clinic on a drive to another tiny little building where we had x-rays taken. Beth, sitting quietly with tears springing to her eyes when they repositioned her wrist, but not saying a word.
We took the x-rays back to the clinic, where we met with the doctor (maybe?) All this in Spanish, of course, which I have a very limited command of. Actually, I shouldn't even use the word "command," because I can't command anything in Spanish! He pronounced to us that it was not broken, but that he wanted to cast her all the way up past her elbow. Hmm.. I had to ask for a bit more clarification on that one, which seemed to confuse him. Why is this crazy American lady asking all these questions of him?
It sounds like he thinks she has a bad sprain and wants her to immobilize it and rest it "because of all the trauma." I'm not entirely sure it's not broken, so a cast didn't seem like such a bad idea. Either way, it will be the easiest was to take care of it this next week with our limited accommodations and being out on the worksites each day. She now has a good old fashioned heavy plaster cast to haul around, and also to hit anyone with who bothers her. :-) She's going to have one great Tijuana souvenir!
Ella's 6th birthday is today, and we hope to make it special for her with a little party tonight. The cooks are serving a cake tonight for all the people who have birthdays this week.
We hope to have a less medically eventful day tomorrow, but today was not too bad. Beth and I had a fun adventure and experienced new things in Tijuana together!
We're in Mexico!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
We made it safely, police escort and all. :-) What an experience. I'd love to write more about it later, but Aaron is running off in just a couple moments with the computer to an internet cafe in town.
The weather is quite nice, not too hot with a super breeze that blows across the hilltop our camp is on. The sun is hot, but the evenings are cool enough that we all bundle up in our sweatshirts for our evening worship session. The kids are doing ok... playing hard, making friends and getting quite tired, which, unfortunately, is leading to some grumpy and disrespectful talk. Please pray for wisdom and patience for me as I respond to them and try to help them grow through this experience. It's hard sometimes to balance the needs of the group (and expectations) with what I know works best with my kids. Especially hard when I'm very tired. :-)
Well, Aaron is standing over me waiting for the computer, so I'd best go. We're off to our first worksite tomorrow!
The weather is quite nice, not too hot with a super breeze that blows across the hilltop our camp is on. The sun is hot, but the evenings are cool enough that we all bundle up in our sweatshirts for our evening worship session. The kids are doing ok... playing hard, making friends and getting quite tired, which, unfortunately, is leading to some grumpy and disrespectful talk. Please pray for wisdom and patience for me as I respond to them and try to help them grow through this experience. It's hard sometimes to balance the needs of the group (and expectations) with what I know works best with my kids. Especially hard when I'm very tired. :-)
Well, Aaron is standing over me waiting for the computer, so I'd best go. We're off to our first worksite tomorrow!
Mexico tomorrow!
Friday, July 9, 2010
This may be my last post for awhile as we head into Mexico tomorrow morning. The team blog will continue to be updated, but my ability to post to our personal blog will likely be limited.
We enjoyed a hot sunny day here (though not nearly as hot as it's been at home!) and were graciously invited by family members of one of our students to their home nearby for the afternoon. We had a ton of fun relaxing and playing in their pool for a couple hours! Our kids loved the playtime with the students and are really building some neat relationships.
Aaron left with the "A Team" this morning about 9 am for Mexico. He took an advance crew of about 10 students a day early to set up camp, aka "Servelandia," and to cut and deliver lumber to all the work sites. We're looking forward to meeting up with him again tomorrow.
We are being very careful in regard to safety issues as we head across the border into Mexico. The organization we are working with has an excellent reputation in the area and are well aware of any safety concerns and how best to avoid any "trouble." The new chief of police in Tijuana is apparently a big fan of this ministry and is providing a police escort for our group (!) once across the border, and an officer at our campsite. We were joking (mostly) tonight that we're not sure if this will help us or put a big target on us! :-) Really, we know that we are safely in God's hands and He has people here that He loves dearly and cares about, and the Body of Christ needs to be His hands and feet to the hurting people of this world. If we let fear hold us back from everything.. eventually it will eliminate all we do! Of course, we are proceeding wisely in human knowledge, but ultimately trusting in God's knowledge and plan.
I'm trying to fit our stuff back in our bags and do laundry. Quite a challenge with one washer for two floors of dorm rooms and everyone needing to do laundry at once! This is where teamwork really comes in... coordinating laundry one day, building a house the next...
We enjoyed a hot sunny day here (though not nearly as hot as it's been at home!) and were graciously invited by family members of one of our students to their home nearby for the afternoon. We had a ton of fun relaxing and playing in their pool for a couple hours! Our kids loved the playtime with the students and are really building some neat relationships.
Aaron left with the "A Team" this morning about 9 am for Mexico. He took an advance crew of about 10 students a day early to set up camp, aka "Servelandia," and to cut and deliver lumber to all the work sites. We're looking forward to meeting up with him again tomorrow.
We are being very careful in regard to safety issues as we head across the border into Mexico. The organization we are working with has an excellent reputation in the area and are well aware of any safety concerns and how best to avoid any "trouble." The new chief of police in Tijuana is apparently a big fan of this ministry and is providing a police escort for our group (!) once across the border, and an officer at our campsite. We were joking (mostly) tonight that we're not sure if this will help us or put a big target on us! :-) Really, we know that we are safely in God's hands and He has people here that He loves dearly and cares about, and the Body of Christ needs to be His hands and feet to the hurting people of this world. If we let fear hold us back from everything.. eventually it will eliminate all we do! Of course, we are proceeding wisely in human knowledge, but ultimately trusting in God's knowledge and plan.
I'm trying to fit our stuff back in our bags and do laundry. Quite a challenge with one washer for two floors of dorm rooms and everyone needing to do laundry at once! This is where teamwork really comes in... coordinating laundry one day, building a house the next...
Magic Mountain
Thursday, July 8, 2010
This morning went well as we all attended the session after breakfast. For the most part, the kids enjoyed (or tolerated!) the meeting. I guess they hear the great wisdom of this morning's speaker every day, so that part wasn't new to them... ;-) Aaron challenged us all this morning to consider our response to sin in our lives. Do we feel that we have failed ourselves, have not lived up to the goals and standards we have set? Or are we grieved that we have sinned against God? The difference is relationship. With the first, we really think of only ourselves. However,if we have a vital relationship with God, our sin will break our hearts because of how it breaks our relationship with God. Aaron, of course, expressed it much more eloquently and with a few more stories, but you get the late night, I-spent-the-whole-day-at-an-amusement-park-in-the-sun-chasing-six-kids version.
The aformentioned kids had a BLAST at Magic Mountain today! Tons of fun, lots of rides, an amazing (and a little too inspiring I think!) daredevil motorbike/skateboard/bike stunt show, exceedingly overpriced food, Cold Stone ice cream, sore feet, lots of sun and sunscreen, run-ins with Superheroes and Looney Tunes characters ("Are you the REAL Batman?" asked Alex. "For reals?"), 220 of us in orange SERVE 2010 shirts (comically, I saw several other groups in orange shirts today- all daycares!), and an adventurous search for our rental van at the end of the day in the enormous parking lot. Kyler saved the day by remembering which Looney Tune lot we had parked in. Apparently, I did not bring my brain with me today because it never ONCE occurred to me to note where I had parked in a strange van and completely unknown-to-me parking lot about the size of my town, to which you take a shuttle bus that has THREE different lots it stops in. Thank goodness for observant Kyler at least getting us to the right lot from which to continue our search!
Before we get too far into our trip, I must make note of a great blessing to us. One of the students is joining us from another church as both a participant and our "nanny." She's a wonderful gift to me as I try to juggle the varying needs of the kids within our group's schedule, and my desire to also serve as a leader (at least part time!) with our team. Yeah, yeah, yeah for Alicia!!! Alicia and I are working out how to balance our schedule so that we all can be involved as much as possible with the team events. It will probably change every day... :-)
The rest of the team just got back, so I'll sign off here and head to our leader's meeting. For more on the team, you can also check out the team's blog at youthmark.com/faith_kent.
The aformentioned kids had a BLAST at Magic Mountain today! Tons of fun, lots of rides, an amazing (and a little too inspiring I think!) daredevil motorbike/skateboard/bike stunt show, exceedingly overpriced food, Cold Stone ice cream, sore feet, lots of sun and sunscreen, run-ins with Superheroes and Looney Tunes characters ("Are you the REAL Batman?" asked Alex. "For reals?"), 220 of us in orange SERVE 2010 shirts (comically, I saw several other groups in orange shirts today- all daycares!), and an adventurous search for our rental van at the end of the day in the enormous parking lot. Kyler saved the day by remembering which Looney Tune lot we had parked in. Apparently, I did not bring my brain with me today because it never ONCE occurred to me to note where I had parked in a strange van and completely unknown-to-me parking lot about the size of my town, to which you take a shuttle bus that has THREE different lots it stops in. Thank goodness for observant Kyler at least getting us to the right lot from which to continue our search!
Before we get too far into our trip, I must make note of a great blessing to us. One of the students is joining us from another church as both a participant and our "nanny." She's a wonderful gift to me as I try to juggle the varying needs of the kids within our group's schedule, and my desire to also serve as a leader (at least part time!) with our team. Yeah, yeah, yeah for Alicia!!! Alicia and I are working out how to balance our schedule so that we all can be involved as much as possible with the team events. It will probably change every day... :-)
The rest of the team just got back, so I'll sign off here and head to our leader's meeting. For more on the team, you can also check out the team's blog at youthmark.com/faith_kent.
SERVE 2010 has begun
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
We made it to Master's College today and the kids had a wild and wonderfully fun afternoon of hanging out with the "big kids" after we all got our luggage into our rooms. I absolutely could not believe how much energy they had after getting up at 4:15 am- and only one of them took a 10 minute nap on the plane! Alex was running up and down the hallways with big boys chasing after him, Max was engrossed in card games, foosball and basketball in the dorm lobby, the girls were in heaven making friendship bracelets with the older girls, and Kyler was building Lego creations with a new student friend. All I wanted to do was take a nap. :-)
They were still running at 7 pm- racing each other up enormously long flights of stairs up the hillside, reveling in the all you can eat buffet of the cafeteria (with soft serve ice cream cones!), chatting and visiting with all the students, and thanking me profusely for bringing them on this trip.
By 7:30 or so, seated in the worship center for our first session, the comments were changing... "I'm so tired..." "When can we go back?" "Why are we here?" "Don't touch me!" Some of the comments were non-verbal but still very clear, and Alex couldn't say anything because he was asleep in my arms. :-) Max could have held out longer, and indeed wondered why we decided to leave so early in the session, but leave we did and began the long walk back to our dorms up the hill. A bit less racing this time as we started, but by the time we got halfway there the races began again and I started to hear, "Why couldn't we stay longer?" "I wanted to stay for singing!" "Why did you make us leave?" Ah, such a cruel, thoughtless Mom I am, obviously not in tune with what they really wanted... :-)
Within about 15 minutes, all were asleep in their beds, and of course they look like sweet sleepy angels all sprawled out. Except Max. He's still awake. I know this because I just sneezed and heard "Bless you," from the floor.
Tomorrow we have an early morning with breakfast at 7 am followed by our morning worship session. I hope that they are all able to appreciate and learn what they can from these times together, according to their ages. For some, it may just be a sense of community and common purpose, coming together as many people to serve our one Lord Jesus. I hope that several of them will truly allow God to show them more about Himself, and that they will be challenged and grow in the ways that God has for them these coming weeks.
Fatigue, tiredness and trial have a way of bringing out all kinds of things in us... things we generally would rather not see! I pray that we will have grace and patience with each other, and will be an encouragement and support to each other as we follow Christ together.
After our morning session, we're all off to spend the majority of the day at Magic Mountain. I think it's called "team building," or something like that. :-)
I'm pretty sure I'll have some elated and tired kids in my van at the end of the day!
They were still running at 7 pm- racing each other up enormously long flights of stairs up the hillside, reveling in the all you can eat buffet of the cafeteria (with soft serve ice cream cones!), chatting and visiting with all the students, and thanking me profusely for bringing them on this trip.
By 7:30 or so, seated in the worship center for our first session, the comments were changing... "I'm so tired..." "When can we go back?" "Why are we here?" "Don't touch me!" Some of the comments were non-verbal but still very clear, and Alex couldn't say anything because he was asleep in my arms. :-) Max could have held out longer, and indeed wondered why we decided to leave so early in the session, but leave we did and began the long walk back to our dorms up the hill. A bit less racing this time as we started, but by the time we got halfway there the races began again and I started to hear, "Why couldn't we stay longer?" "I wanted to stay for singing!" "Why did you make us leave?" Ah, such a cruel, thoughtless Mom I am, obviously not in tune with what they really wanted... :-)
Within about 15 minutes, all were asleep in their beds, and of course they look like sweet sleepy angels all sprawled out. Except Max. He's still awake. I know this because I just sneezed and heard "Bless you," from the floor.
Tomorrow we have an early morning with breakfast at 7 am followed by our morning worship session. I hope that they are all able to appreciate and learn what they can from these times together, according to their ages. For some, it may just be a sense of community and common purpose, coming together as many people to serve our one Lord Jesus. I hope that several of them will truly allow God to show them more about Himself, and that they will be challenged and grow in the ways that God has for them these coming weeks.
Fatigue, tiredness and trial have a way of bringing out all kinds of things in us... things we generally would rather not see! I pray that we will have grace and patience with each other, and will be an encouragement and support to each other as we follow Christ together.
After our morning session, we're all off to spend the majority of the day at Magic Mountain. I think it's called "team building," or something like that. :-)
I'm pretty sure I'll have some elated and tired kids in my van at the end of the day!
100th Post! Off to Mexico...
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Wow. This is my 100th post and it seems as if that should be very significant. Not sure why... Aaron just wondered if I was going to give away any prizes. Hadn't considered that, but maybe I should look into it... :-)
Anyway, of far greater significance than what number precedes this post (and the reason I'm actually writing) is the fact that we leave our house tomorrow morning at 4:45 am to head to the airport. The kids and I are finally getting to go with Aaron on SERVE, the mission trip to Mexico that happens every three years to El Florido, about 20 minutes east of Tijuana along the border. Every previous trip, we've either just brought someone home to join our family, been about to bring someone home, or been waiting for passports or citizenship after finalizing the bringing home of several someones. This year marks a new era: the number of people in our family has plateaued, and we are all passport holding US citizens. Whoo-hoo!
All our bags are packed and actually already on their way to southern CA, along with the luggage of the 220 other students and leaders on SERVE 2010. All that's left for us to do is get our tired little selves out of bed at a truly unkind hour, get dressed, and grab our backpacks. We'll fly to LA and stay at The Master's College for a couple of days for team building and training, then drive across the border into Mexico. I'll try to update as I can, although I'm not sure when I'll have access to the internet.
It will be quite the adventure, as we head into a lot of unknowns. Living in a tent with all my kids in the midst of 220 other people leaves one feeling rather on display. :-) And, as we all know, we'd rather our kids displayed the best behavior and attitudes when out in public (well, I guess myself, too!)... what are the odds THAT'S going to happen for 2 weeks straight? Pretty slim, I'd say.
Real life. That's what we will "display." Real life.
I just hope I do real life well these coming weeks. :-)
Anyway, of far greater significance than what number precedes this post (and the reason I'm actually writing) is the fact that we leave our house tomorrow morning at 4:45 am to head to the airport. The kids and I are finally getting to go with Aaron on SERVE, the mission trip to Mexico that happens every three years to El Florido, about 20 minutes east of Tijuana along the border. Every previous trip, we've either just brought someone home to join our family, been about to bring someone home, or been waiting for passports or citizenship after finalizing the bringing home of several someones. This year marks a new era: the number of people in our family has plateaued, and we are all passport holding US citizens. Whoo-hoo!
All our bags are packed and actually already on their way to southern CA, along with the luggage of the 220 other students and leaders on SERVE 2010. All that's left for us to do is get our tired little selves out of bed at a truly unkind hour, get dressed, and grab our backpacks. We'll fly to LA and stay at The Master's College for a couple of days for team building and training, then drive across the border into Mexico. I'll try to update as I can, although I'm not sure when I'll have access to the internet.
It will be quite the adventure, as we head into a lot of unknowns. Living in a tent with all my kids in the midst of 220 other people leaves one feeling rather on display. :-) And, as we all know, we'd rather our kids displayed the best behavior and attitudes when out in public (well, I guess myself, too!)... what are the odds THAT'S going to happen for 2 weeks straight? Pretty slim, I'd say.
Real life. That's what we will "display." Real life.
I just hope I do real life well these coming weeks. :-)
Conversations of note
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Ella sneezes. "Oh! I think I'm catching up to someone's cold."
This afternoon I had a great request from Alex as we were conversing together: "Mom? Can you "pause" the talking 'cuz I have to go to the bathroom."
Alex and I are in the van today in a hurry to leave when I can't get the garage door to close... something seems to be in the way. "Oh, for crying out loud!" I said as I got out to investigate. It turns out that a rope had fallen across the sensor and so every time I started to close the door it sensed something under it and opened back up again. I moved the rope, successfully closed the door, and hopped back in the van. As we started to drive away, Alex cautiously said to me, "Mom? When are you going to cry out loud?"
Late night update (can't pass this one up):
Max and Kyler just came out of their room to inform me that they are scared.
"What are you scared of?"
"That the angels of death might make... what's that woman's name that cut Samson's hair?"
"Delilah."
"Yeah, that they'll make Delilah come back to life and they'll surround us and she'll cut off our hair and we'll lose our strength."
This from two boys whose hair is less than an inch long. And was just cut two nights ago. Which apparently didn't impair their mighty and world-renowned strength then.
And really? Delilah?
They seemed more afraid of her than the angels of death in their story... ah, the power of a woman. ;-)
This afternoon I had a great request from Alex as we were conversing together: "Mom? Can you "pause" the talking 'cuz I have to go to the bathroom."
Alex and I are in the van today in a hurry to leave when I can't get the garage door to close... something seems to be in the way. "Oh, for crying out loud!" I said as I got out to investigate. It turns out that a rope had fallen across the sensor and so every time I started to close the door it sensed something under it and opened back up again. I moved the rope, successfully closed the door, and hopped back in the van. As we started to drive away, Alex cautiously said to me, "Mom? When are you going to cry out loud?"
Late night update (can't pass this one up):
Max and Kyler just came out of their room to inform me that they are scared.
"What are you scared of?"
"That the angels of death might make... what's that woman's name that cut Samson's hair?"
"Delilah."
"Yeah, that they'll make Delilah come back to life and they'll surround us and she'll cut off our hair and we'll lose our strength."
This from two boys whose hair is less than an inch long. And was just cut two nights ago. Which apparently didn't impair their mighty and world-renowned strength then.
And really? Delilah?
They seemed more afraid of her than the angels of death in their story... ah, the power of a woman. ;-)
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