Ok, I'm such a blog posting slacker....
There, now that that's out of the way, I'll share this with you:
As I was nearing the school the first day, my son begged me to "just park here," a block away from his drop off point. "I don't want anyone to see you, I'm going to go by myself."
Already? Really? I thought I had a few more years before I heard that!
Sigh. All grown up and independent. First day of preschool. He's 4.
Driving to the airport- going home!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
We're sitting here on the road in Santa Clarita, attempting to make our way onto I-5 toward the airport. Traffic is nearly stopped due to an earlier accident, and the signs are announcing a 75 minute delay at this point on I-5. Our flight doesn't leave until 3:30, so we should be just fine, but our churches that fly out earlier are questioning whether they will make it in time.
As we creep along, we're laughing here in the "Family Van" that our old rental van would have been just fine for this trip! Yes, we got a new van after we hit a new low on Sunday night. Our Faith work teams went out as individual teams to talk, reflect and debrief our time together. Each of us shared our "One-Minute Talk" (the answer to the question"How was Mexico?") with our team and enjoyed some Starbucks. :-)
On the way there, we experienced "Reduced Engine Power" again, and were thrilled when we made it all the way up to 21 mph on a long stretch of flat road. We poked our way back to the college from Starbucks and headed toward the dorms to park. The dorm parking lot is past a little security station, over two speed bumps and up a steep curve. We made it past the guard shack, waved to security, got up over the speed bumps and proceeded to creep up the hill. Sadly, we couldn't make it this time and our van stopped several feet up the hill, unwilling to advance another inch. Aaron put the van in reverse, backed down the hill switching over to the exit lane, and we backed out the exit. We waved to security again as we drove out backwards, receiving a surprised look in return.
When we couldn't even make it over the speed bump on the way out, we knew it was time for a new van! The rental company brought us out a new van yesterday, and we just giggle thinking about what their drive back was like! I'm sure it took them about one block to decide to call a tow truck.
So, now we have a van with reliable engine power and no place to use it. :-)
As we creep along, we're laughing here in the "Family Van" that our old rental van would have been just fine for this trip! Yes, we got a new van after we hit a new low on Sunday night. Our Faith work teams went out as individual teams to talk, reflect and debrief our time together. Each of us shared our "One-Minute Talk" (the answer to the question"How was Mexico?") with our team and enjoyed some Starbucks. :-)
On the way there, we experienced "Reduced Engine Power" again, and were thrilled when we made it all the way up to 21 mph on a long stretch of flat road. We poked our way back to the college from Starbucks and headed toward the dorms to park. The dorm parking lot is past a little security station, over two speed bumps and up a steep curve. We made it past the guard shack, waved to security, got up over the speed bumps and proceeded to creep up the hill. Sadly, we couldn't make it this time and our van stopped several feet up the hill, unwilling to advance another inch. Aaron put the van in reverse, backed down the hill switching over to the exit lane, and we backed out the exit. We waved to security again as we drove out backwards, receiving a surprised look in return.
When we couldn't even make it over the speed bump on the way out, we knew it was time for a new van! The rental company brought us out a new van yesterday, and we just giggle thinking about what their drive back was like! I'm sure it took them about one block to decide to call a tow truck.
So, now we have a van with reliable engine power and no place to use it. :-)
Home sweet home
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Home safe at last...
I wrote a blog post from the freeway this morning but it's on the youth group travel computer and I forgot to upload it once I had a connection... oops.
Will do that soon, but we're home for now!
I wrote a blog post from the freeway this morning but it's on the youth group travel computer and I forgot to upload it once I had a connection... oops.
Will do that soon, but we're home for now!
Last night of SERVE 2010 and fire alarms
Monday, July 19, 2010
We fly home tomorrow and just had a sweet night of singing, preaching and communion together. Well, most of us were together... I was out in the courtyard with 5 of my kids, one of whom could not quite understand how making faces and grinning at people coming up for communion was not the appropriate action for the time and place.
No, this was not the youngest one.
After our final session tonight, our Faith girls met together for one last talk. We shared areas that we committed to be more obedient to God in, and wrestled with questions about these unreached people groups that we have been learning about all week: how is it fair that many will die without ever having the opportunity to hear of Jesus? What about in Romans where it talks about how all men are without excuse because God has made Himself known? Can they be saved even if they don't know the name of Jesus?
We finally had to wrap it up because, while this was a great discussion, most of us were about to fall asleep sitting up. We've had many late nights and early mornings (about 14 of them), and I for one am looking forward with great anticipation to my own clean bed and no alarm set for the morning! :-)
Most of us were just getting snuggled into our beds here in the dorms at Master's College (well, the girls at least) when we were jolted from our "eyes just closed drifting off to sleep" slumber by the fire alarm going off. Loudly. Which is good, in case of an actual fire, but really loud when it's just some boys smacking powder between their hands in the hallway which was close enough to the detector to set off the alarm. Of course, all we could see from the girls' end of the hall was "thick," smoky-looking air down at the end of the boys' hall.
We all evacuated the building, several wonderful students arriving at the doorways for all the rooms our kids were in to make sure they were out and to help carry them. All six of the kids slept through the evacuation, waiting, and return to their rooms; some looking up groggily and rather confused as they were returned to their beds.
No experience as amazing as this has been should end without fanfare... right? :-)
No, this was not the youngest one.
After our final session tonight, our Faith girls met together for one last talk. We shared areas that we committed to be more obedient to God in, and wrestled with questions about these unreached people groups that we have been learning about all week: how is it fair that many will die without ever having the opportunity to hear of Jesus? What about in Romans where it talks about how all men are without excuse because God has made Himself known? Can they be saved even if they don't know the name of Jesus?
We finally had to wrap it up because, while this was a great discussion, most of us were about to fall asleep sitting up. We've had many late nights and early mornings (about 14 of them), and I for one am looking forward with great anticipation to my own clean bed and no alarm set for the morning! :-)
Most of us were just getting snuggled into our beds here in the dorms at Master's College (well, the girls at least) when we were jolted from our "eyes just closed drifting off to sleep" slumber by the fire alarm going off. Loudly. Which is good, in case of an actual fire, but really loud when it's just some boys smacking powder between their hands in the hallway which was close enough to the detector to set off the alarm. Of course, all we could see from the girls' end of the hall was "thick," smoky-looking air down at the end of the boys' hall.
We all evacuated the building, several wonderful students arriving at the doorways for all the rooms our kids were in to make sure they were out and to help carry them. All six of the kids slept through the evacuation, waiting, and return to their rooms; some looking up groggily and rather confused as they were returned to their beds.
No experience as amazing as this has been should end without fanfare... right? :-)
Back in the USA!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Across the border and I think all 200+ of us stopped at the same IN N OUT for lunch. Aaaaahh, flushing toilets are wonderful, running water a dream, and washed hands pure bliss! Those bathrooms were mighty popular this afternoon!
Several of our group brought a change of clothes and sandals or flip flops to change into once we were across the border. Even breaking camp this morning to head back to the US, we still followed our Mexico dress code of long pants, tennis shoes, and t-shirts. At the first available opportunity, clothes were changed! A few even got to walk in bare feet on green grass.
Stomachs seem to be settling in this van for which we are quite thankful. Several from Faith are still struggling with the effects of several days of heat and dehydration, sensitive stomachs included. Hopefully, air conditioning, shade and lots of water will help that over the next couple of days.
On to the college!
Several of our group brought a change of clothes and sandals or flip flops to change into once we were across the border. Even breaking camp this morning to head back to the US, we still followed our Mexico dress code of long pants, tennis shoes, and t-shirts. At the first available opportunity, clothes were changed! A few even got to walk in bare feet on green grass.
Stomachs seem to be settling in this van for which we are quite thankful. Several from Faith are still struggling with the effects of several days of heat and dehydration, sensitive stomachs included. Hopefully, air conditioning, shade and lots of water will help that over the next couple of days.
On to the college!
At the border
Our caravan of 20+ vehicles is sitting on the freeway waiting in line at the border in Mexico. We're moving slowly enough that maybe I can post this along the way if I can get an internet connection picked up from somewhere. :-)
We broke camp this morning and got everything loaded up ion our cube trucks and vans. Everything is SO filthy and covered in dust! Our sleeping bags are disgusting, clothes and towels dirty and dusty, and bodies desparately in need of showers after three days! I'm sure many of us are also bringing home crickets and other critters packed in our bags, as they seemed to love to jump on into our tents and chirp at us all night long. Beth was most certainly not a fan of them in our tent. Ella thinks they are cute.
Someone found another tarantula this morning out by our "tooth brush spitting area," hopefully no one is bringing one of those home!
We have a few students not feeling well from the heat and dehydration, including three of our kids (two of whom are currently throwing up this very morning). Yesterday won out as the hottest day, which was also our hardest working day with several ambitious projects. The thermometer registered 111 degrees out at our Faith teams' worksites! It was a really hot day for roofing, for sure!
Our team had the delight of visiting with Maricruz and Jesus, the couple for whom we buillt on Monday and Tuesday. She invited us into her new casita to see what she had done with it. They had moved couches and chairs into the room, as well as their TV, radio and kids toys. Photos of the kids were up on the wall, and they had built a shelf along one of the upper walls. Curtains were in the windows and across the door to allow a breeze while keeping out the heat and bugs. She invited us to sit down on the couch, and Alex promptly made himself at home with the toys and watching TV. After visiting for a moment, we excused ourselves to go next door where we were repairing the roof. I asked Alex to come with me, because we "needed to check on the work we were doing next door." He reluctantly came with me outside, stepped out into the yard, looked next door, announced, "The work is going fine," and went back into Maricruz's house! I told her what he had said as best as I could in Spanish, and we laughed together over him. She welcomed him to stay there while we worked, and they even started a movie for the kids. It was a welcome relief for me to have him out of the sun for awhile on such a hot day.
The other teams also got to visit with the families they had built for earlier this week, which was such a joy!
We made one of the vans into a "relief van," with the air conditioning running for people to come and take a break from working, or for those who weren't feeling well. It was a hard day to stay hydrated, and after we drank all the water in our water bottles and the 6 five gallon water jugs we brought out to the site, we bought out all the little local neighborhood stores of all their cold water! It was SO very hot.
A local church was on site in the neighborhood yesterday doing an outreach program for the kids. We learned from the pastor that they had been there also on Wednesday and a woman had decided to follow Jesus that day, in large part because of the team that had been there serving her by building her a house the days before!
We were able to give that church team all of our remaining craft supplies and puppets to continue to use in Tijuana through their ministry!
I'll keep checking for a Wi-Fi signal and try to get this posted- otherwise I'll do it when we get back to Master's College. However, if I have to wait, you better know that it will be later because there is no way that any unscheduled, required task is going to come before that shower! :-)
We broke camp this morning and got everything loaded up ion our cube trucks and vans. Everything is SO filthy and covered in dust! Our sleeping bags are disgusting, clothes and towels dirty and dusty, and bodies desparately in need of showers after three days! I'm sure many of us are also bringing home crickets and other critters packed in our bags, as they seemed to love to jump on into our tents and chirp at us all night long. Beth was most certainly not a fan of them in our tent. Ella thinks they are cute.
Someone found another tarantula this morning out by our "tooth brush spitting area," hopefully no one is bringing one of those home!
We have a few students not feeling well from the heat and dehydration, including three of our kids (two of whom are currently throwing up this very morning). Yesterday won out as the hottest day, which was also our hardest working day with several ambitious projects. The thermometer registered 111 degrees out at our Faith teams' worksites! It was a really hot day for roofing, for sure!
Our team had the delight of visiting with Maricruz and Jesus, the couple for whom we buillt on Monday and Tuesday. She invited us into her new casita to see what she had done with it. They had moved couches and chairs into the room, as well as their TV, radio and kids toys. Photos of the kids were up on the wall, and they had built a shelf along one of the upper walls. Curtains were in the windows and across the door to allow a breeze while keeping out the heat and bugs. She invited us to sit down on the couch, and Alex promptly made himself at home with the toys and watching TV. After visiting for a moment, we excused ourselves to go next door where we were repairing the roof. I asked Alex to come with me, because we "needed to check on the work we were doing next door." He reluctantly came with me outside, stepped out into the yard, looked next door, announced, "The work is going fine," and went back into Maricruz's house! I told her what he had said as best as I could in Spanish, and we laughed together over him. She welcomed him to stay there while we worked, and they even started a movie for the kids. It was a welcome relief for me to have him out of the sun for awhile on such a hot day.
The other teams also got to visit with the families they had built for earlier this week, which was such a joy!
We made one of the vans into a "relief van," with the air conditioning running for people to come and take a break from working, or for those who weren't feeling well. It was a hard day to stay hydrated, and after we drank all the water in our water bottles and the 6 five gallon water jugs we brought out to the site, we bought out all the little local neighborhood stores of all their cold water! It was SO very hot.
A local church was on site in the neighborhood yesterday doing an outreach program for the kids. We learned from the pastor that they had been there also on Wednesday and a woman had decided to follow Jesus that day, in large part because of the team that had been there serving her by building her a house the days before!
We were able to give that church team all of our remaining craft supplies and puppets to continue to use in Tijuana through their ministry!
I'll keep checking for a Wi-Fi signal and try to get this posted- otherwise I'll do it when we get back to Master's College. However, if I have to wait, you better know that it will be later because there is no way that any unscheduled, required task is going to come before that shower! :-)
Wednesday and Thursday
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Wednesday:
We started a new build today for Saul and Nancy. They have two children, Bethsaida and Jesus, who enjoyed doing crafts with our kids and students. The kids made bracelets and necklaces, and Nancy set up a matchbox car race track in her kitchen for Alex. He had so much fun and was one sweaty boy!
It is getting much hotter here, and our team worked fast and got the floor and walls mostly built before lunch. After lunch, we were able to spend most of our time sitting and visiting with the family under the tarp they had stretched out for shade. Nancy shared her photos with us, which were helpful as we talked together about her life without a shared language! They are a family of believers who travel an hour and a half to their church to worship. They have been praying for a church to be established in their neighborhood. Aaron and a some of our guys walked a few blocks to check on our other work site, and came back with the wonderful news that two women there (neighbors) had decided to follow Christ! We drove Nancy down there to meet her new sisters in Christ.
We left the site to head to the showers (YEAH!YEHAH!YEAH!!!) and gathered together again after that to eat at Tacos Rene. We had a wonderful joyful fun meal together, complete with a bit of dance party at the end, encouraged by the guys who worked there who kept playing the same song over and over again. :-)
The "Family Van" (rental van Faith #4) has been having a bit of trouble with "reduced engine power." Driving in Tijuana is an experience in itself. Stop signs are a suggestion, speed bumps are serious, enormous potholes are the norm, the majority of the roads we drive on to get to our sites are dirt roads and very bumpy, and everything is up and down steep hills or ramps. I was doing pretty well until Wednesday afternoon on our way back from the site when my engine light came on and this "reduced angine power" signal. It meant it! The next hill I encountered my van slowly crept up as we prayed to make it to a spot I could pull over. We did, and from there drove up the rest of the hill in first gear at a snail's pace! It's been on and off since then- we haven't figured out what the problem is, but sometimes it works great and other times not! Last night on our way back from tacos, the warning lights came on again. I sailed along okay on level ground, but I could barely crawl up the hills to camp with it floored in first gear! We were seriously going about 2 miles per hour, waitng for the van to die at any moment. We barely got to a parking spot and were making arrangements to drop down to three vans for Thursday, but of course, today it was completely fine!
Thursday:
We finished the house today at Nancy's. She is going to use it as a work room and hopefully teach craft classes out of it as well. She was so very sweet and taught the kids how to make crepe paper crafts today, which we learned briefly in Guatemala but didn't have the chance to try ourselves. At the end of the day, she gifted each of the kids with an item she had made- they are really incredible and quite time consuming. As this is her source of income, I know that she gave them great treasures. Five more people in the neighborhood accepted Christ today- I think Nancy may see a church there before she thought she would!
Despite Aaron's best attempts to get the van to "break down" again today (we were close to a site where a mechanic from our group was working), it functioned just fine all day. He left it idling in the 103 degree weather (yeah, it was HOT today!), zoomed over bumps and up hills, drove it around forever, and it behaved just perfectly. :-)
As we were leaving our work site today, the clouds moved in a gifted us with a few welcomne drops of rain. They felt so good! We are all so hot and sweaty, but our team is really great. They work well together, are kind and gracious, and a total pleasure to sweat with. :-)
The kids are still loving hanging out with the students. the biggest "problem" we're having now is that our little ones are starting to think that they are "big kids" and feeling pretty put out when they have to go to bed early or not do everything the students are doing. I keep reminding them that their time will come!
We have one more day of work here. Tommorow we will go out to the neighborhood we were in on Monday and Tuesday and our three teams with complete three different projects there: rebuild three roofs and build a bano (bathroom). Our three teams have been building in the same neighborhoods for our builds this week and it's been great to be so close. While we are each at our own site with our own experiences, there is a real sense of community as we are in the same neighborhood.
We started a new build today for Saul and Nancy. They have two children, Bethsaida and Jesus, who enjoyed doing crafts with our kids and students. The kids made bracelets and necklaces, and Nancy set up a matchbox car race track in her kitchen for Alex. He had so much fun and was one sweaty boy!
It is getting much hotter here, and our team worked fast and got the floor and walls mostly built before lunch. After lunch, we were able to spend most of our time sitting and visiting with the family under the tarp they had stretched out for shade. Nancy shared her photos with us, which were helpful as we talked together about her life without a shared language! They are a family of believers who travel an hour and a half to their church to worship. They have been praying for a church to be established in their neighborhood. Aaron and a some of our guys walked a few blocks to check on our other work site, and came back with the wonderful news that two women there (neighbors) had decided to follow Christ! We drove Nancy down there to meet her new sisters in Christ.
We left the site to head to the showers (YEAH!YEHAH!YEAH!!!) and gathered together again after that to eat at Tacos Rene. We had a wonderful joyful fun meal together, complete with a bit of dance party at the end, encouraged by the guys who worked there who kept playing the same song over and over again. :-)
The "Family Van" (rental van Faith #4) has been having a bit of trouble with "reduced engine power." Driving in Tijuana is an experience in itself. Stop signs are a suggestion, speed bumps are serious, enormous potholes are the norm, the majority of the roads we drive on to get to our sites are dirt roads and very bumpy, and everything is up and down steep hills or ramps. I was doing pretty well until Wednesday afternoon on our way back from the site when my engine light came on and this "reduced angine power" signal. It meant it! The next hill I encountered my van slowly crept up as we prayed to make it to a spot I could pull over. We did, and from there drove up the rest of the hill in first gear at a snail's pace! It's been on and off since then- we haven't figured out what the problem is, but sometimes it works great and other times not! Last night on our way back from tacos, the warning lights came on again. I sailed along okay on level ground, but I could barely crawl up the hills to camp with it floored in first gear! We were seriously going about 2 miles per hour, waitng for the van to die at any moment. We barely got to a parking spot and were making arrangements to drop down to three vans for Thursday, but of course, today it was completely fine!
Thursday:
We finished the house today at Nancy's. She is going to use it as a work room and hopefully teach craft classes out of it as well. She was so very sweet and taught the kids how to make crepe paper crafts today, which we learned briefly in Guatemala but didn't have the chance to try ourselves. At the end of the day, she gifted each of the kids with an item she had made- they are really incredible and quite time consuming. As this is her source of income, I know that she gave them great treasures. Five more people in the neighborhood accepted Christ today- I think Nancy may see a church there before she thought she would!
Despite Aaron's best attempts to get the van to "break down" again today (we were close to a site where a mechanic from our group was working), it functioned just fine all day. He left it idling in the 103 degree weather (yeah, it was HOT today!), zoomed over bumps and up hills, drove it around forever, and it behaved just perfectly. :-)
As we were leaving our work site today, the clouds moved in a gifted us with a few welcomne drops of rain. They felt so good! We are all so hot and sweaty, but our team is really great. They work well together, are kind and gracious, and a total pleasure to sweat with. :-)
The kids are still loving hanging out with the students. the biggest "problem" we're having now is that our little ones are starting to think that they are "big kids" and feeling pretty put out when they have to go to bed early or not do everything the students are doing. I keep reminding them that their time will come!
We have one more day of work here. Tommorow we will go out to the neighborhood we were in on Monday and Tuesday and our three teams with complete three different projects there: rebuild three roofs and build a bano (bathroom). Our three teams have been building in the same neighborhoods for our builds this week and it's been great to be so close. While we are each at our own site with our own experiences, there is a real sense of community as we are in the same neighborhood.
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