Slideshow Video

Thanks to all who came out last night for our Mexico sharing time! Here is a copy of the video that we showed. It only represents photos from 4 or 5 people, so there are lots of other great pics out there! Enjoy!

Wednesday Night

Just a quick reminder to all our Mexico Students, Families, and friends:

We will be having a sharing time at our regular youth group time on Wednesday night! All are welcome to join us from 7-8:30 PM upstairs in the Ballroom on Broadway.

If you havent been there before, just enter the doorway in between Starbucks and Pita Pit and continue going up the stairs till you arrive in the ballroom!

B

Home

We are home after a great week... Here is one more photo album from Tom.

In sac. All vehicles will arrive between 4:40 to 5:00

At lunch in kettleman city. We should be in chico at 4:30. I will update the time when we go thru SAC.

Back in the USA!

We had the easiest border crossing ever! Having lunch at I5 exit 1a! Then heading to Orange County.

B

Back in the USA!

We had the easiest border crossing ever! Having lunch at I5 exit 1a! Then heading to Orange County.

B

Thursday Student Thought

This week I am proud to say has been a memory maker...and I don't just mean for me. The beauty that is enclosed in this heart wrenching place has enraptured all of us. From building a home for a needy family, to doing arts and crafts with little kids, to throwing a pick-axe into solid rock, our lives have been changed. This morning I had the amazing opportunity to serve breakfast to children who literally live in a dump. If the smell wasn't enough, the children covered in grime surely put me over. To top it off tonight, your beautiful children/family brought chills to many of your young missionaries backs. We sang "God of Wonders" and as the chorus was starting, a group of the girls sang the most beautiful harmony part I have ever heard. The voices started to rise and I sat their taking in the glorious noise. Once again I have been overwhelmed by God's love because of his gift of music. Good night and we will see you on Saturday! --Gwen

I was going to have some others write, but after that, why bother...

This team has worked their tails off... here is a look at what today consisted of:

1. A team went up to the upper campground here at the orphanage and went through all the dorms and bathrooms, cleaning them for the coming spring break groups. They also pulled a lot of weeds and shoveled away the horse poop! (bidwell park has feral cats, here they have feral horses...)

2. A team repainted all of the play structures in the playground.

3. A team finished painting the kitchen building.

4. A team painted another of the children's dorm buildings. Plus just started painting anything they could find...

5. A team continued hand excavating a hillside behind one of the children's dorms. I would estimate they filled a pickup truck 50 times with dirt... perhaps the hardest working team i have ever seen.

6. A team prepped another area for a future garden, pulling all the weeds and hand rototilling the soil.

7. The house team, continued work on the house and was able to hand it over to the family for completion. The tears of joy from the homeowners was the greatest payment ever.

8. We sent one of our nurses to the local clinic to treat patients with her expertise.

9. A team prepared craft projects and did them with the kids.

10. A team of 23 people again got up at 5am to travel one hour to a Tijuana dump where the poorest of the poor live in conditions that should be illegal. They fed them breakfast and kicked soccer balls.

11. Of course, we played with the orphanage kids every spare moment....

These are your teenagers. They love and serve well... I know, you are thinking, "not at my house..." Tonight we started talking about how we continue what we have been learning and doing when we return home... We hope and pray it sticks!

Tomorrow morning we pull out around 10am. We will spend the afternoon and night in Huntington Beach and be back in Chico on Saturday afternoon. We are still estimating arriving around 4:30.

And another photo album (album #3) from Tom if you click here...
B

Wednesday Student Thoughts

It was a great day today! We managed to get the rafters up on the house and will be closing it all in tomorrow. We made a ton of progress excavating for a retaining wall at the orphanage and also managed to get the kitchen painted. Along with all sorts of other projects, of course much playing with the orphanage kids occurred. We definitely are worn out today, but tomorrow is our last day here with the people and we are all encouraged to just work and love this kids till we are empty. We have two days in the car to recover, so why not?

Everyone is busy sleeping already, hanging around the campfire, or participating in giving Spencer his annual mullet haircut, So only one thought from a student today!

B

If you didnt see Tom Devol's pics yet, here are the two links:

Album 1
Album 2

Today we went to the garbage dump. I never realized how good of a life i have back at home. These houses that we saw were in such a bad condition. There is no way that anything i saw today was the least bit legal. There were wires every which way you looked and piles upon piles of tires and garbage. When we first showed up it reeked of sewage. This scene really opened my eyes on how the rest of the world lives.
~Maddie L

More Tom pics!

Here are some more great pics from a great day!

Click here

we are all healthy and wiped out!

More later

b

Tuesday Students Thoughts...

The last two days i have worked at the house work site. Although neither any of us working nor any of the family we are building for speak the same language, it has been great to see how God has helped us overcome this challenge. Through blundering hand motions and broken spanglish, we were able to joke and converse with the Father of the family. The highlight of my week thus far was when we had just finished raising the second wall of the house and it was beginning to look more like a house than a pile of wood and nails. I glanced over at the father and his eyes were brimming with tears as he stared at the outline of his new home. It was great to see the joy he had in participating in the building of the house. --Morgan

OH! Where do I start? It was the most AWESOME birthday I've ever had. It was great cause I got to share it with Richard Somphithack, one of the greatest Youth Leaders I've ever known. If you don't know this guy you should really get to know him. He tried to hide the fact that it was his birthday too but we surprised him at the end of the day after worship and the kitchen crew came out with the biggest cake I've ever seen! So many times today I've seen God's love shown so clearly. Through the students, the kids at the orphanage, the leaders, the adults and through nature. Especially the nature... I woke up around 6AM to hike to the top of this half mountain half hill thing that has a cross up at the top. We beat the sun and hung out there till the beautiful yellow ball rose and nearly blinded us. I brought my ukulele and played the prettiest things I knew. I dunno if they were any good but the sky appreciated it or decided to be just gorgeous. Finished my piece of cake and deciding whether I ever wanna play Sets again considering I suck at it. Peg Devol and I would make a good loser team....
all in all great, wait scratch that.
supercalifragalisticly awesome day!---- Sophia H

Oh my gosh...... Why must Brian Wainwright always bring the totally creepy and freaky candy? What is up with that? I tried it all! From the Chili Covered Mango Fruit Whips, to the Lemon Salted Dried Apricot Seeds! The Chili things were great! The Apricots..... Not so much. Only two people could actually finish the apricot seeds, Brian and Josiah. I got through five sucks and had to spit it out. I'm so glad the young kids didn't see that. They would have still been laughing all the time as I tried to get the taste out. Oh man.......... This day has been great
---- Scott H.

Update and photos!

We are having a great morning. The 5am team that fed bfast to the kids in the dump just returned, the house team is building away and the orphanage team is prepping a great garden area!

All are healthy and working away!

click here for some photos from Tom D

B

Student thoughts from Monday...

Today was the first day of building on the house project and we got the 4 outside walls and we squared off the bathroom. The family was there and we got to talk and play with kids while the mom brought us delicious burritos and soda and the dad helped us build. The best part of my day was probably when we were waiting for lumber. For about 20 minutes we got to just take a break and sit and talk and take it all in. We got to meet the youngest daughter who is 4 and her name is Lupita. She likes to draw and she said something about her mom's butt? Her favorite colors are green and red and is one of the cutest kids I've ever seen.I miss my dog alot --Maddie B.

Today we erected the exterior walls on the house, it was really neat to see the family friends eye's fill with joy. I have noticed that it is the simple things that are so great and sometimes we lose site of those simple things and a day like today makes you realize how awesome the simple things are. --Spencer C

I was on the team that stayed at the orphanage today. We crossed the language barriers and made bracelets and necklaces with all the children as today was a holiday and they were all on the home base instead of at school. From playing games with them, to watching their smiles as they received beads and string, God was apparent in the smiles of these children. God even blessed me today with my 4 years of spanish coming back into good use. Wonderful students on this trip. All you parents should be proud of your hard workers! -Katie A.

The Great Goat Escape: Disaster struck tonight before dinner, when Allie and Megan managed to somehow open the gate to the goats. (ok, they were really just standing there when the goat pushed it open...) As we prepared dinner, goats started streaming out and running for the canyon. Luckily the wise Brian W. took off running to head them off in the ravine. The goats turned back and ran from him, right back down the road into their pen. I am not sure if they were afraid of his smell, his fearsome scream and arm waving, or if he is just a talented goat-herder....

It was an awesome day, all of the students worked like crazy and loved one another and the Mexican people we are spending our days with. (well except two, who did a lot of "supervising". I will leave it to your wondering if it was your student.. ;)) It was a great day and tomorrow we will have our first team heading to the regional garbage dump to spend the morning making breakfast for the 100-150 small children who live there. It will surely be an eye-opening experience.
All are healthy and worn out from the work, sun and play...

Brian

(Hi Mommy and Daddy I miss you!!!!!!!! From, Allie)

Off for the morning!

All healthy and working away! Today is a holiday so all 100 orphanage kids are on site! Fun times!

B

Some students thoughts from Sunday...

Okay, I loved getting across the border easily, and then getting pulled over by the Mexican Border Patrol. Turns out, one of our group members put the words, "Don't look back here," on our back window. The guys pulled us over to make sure we weren't smugglers or anything. Then the border patrol laughed when he saw that our very back window said in Spanish, "The donkey is smarter than you." Also, the young kids here are totally cool. --Scott H.

Just came back from brushing my teeth and washing my face, which felt AMAZING after a long day in the car and around the Door of Faith Orphanage! But anyway, today we got into La Mission around 1:00, with the help of some bum directions. Once we were finally settled in ( I know, flexico) our team went down the road a few yards to the orphanage. I was really surprised by the childrens' general love for life and their loving sprit; i felt very welcomed here, dispite lack of spanish knowhow. There was some awkward moments of silience that were immediately fixed by some nervous and real laughter. I think this could work... --Melanie C.

Today I found the power of music. You can feel completely sick, and on your last step and then when that perfect song comes on, the whole car starts rocking. I guess that's not just the power of music, that's the power of friends. This trip is amazing so far and I am totally blessed to be spending it with your amazing children/ family. We are not exactly all healthy but if I was to take a poll I would say we are all happy. My wish for you is to listen to the song "Oh, Happiness" by David Crowder and dance along as we have! Will keep you updated! --Gwen

All in All it was a great day...

B

PS: "Fletcher Rocks" --that is from Fletcher..

All is good!

We arrived at the orphanage today about 12:30. It is an absolutely amazing place. Our students were really impacted by a tour of this awesome place. Will update more later!

B

PS: Our potential stomach bug seems to be staying away! Keep praying for that.

Awake and moving

It sure is fun to have "spring forward" on a mission trip. It isn't early enough at 6am as it is. We are all up, eating and getting ready to hit the road. One of our nurses is concerned that we brought a stomach bug with us from Chico. If so, please pray that it does not spread!

We should be at the orphanage by about 1pm!

B

It's a miracle!

10pm and everyone is pretty much asleep! Early morning tomorrow...

Good night all!

We are in the OC!

We have arrived and are hungry!!

B

We are eating lunch here in kettleman city. I could not even estimate how many mission trip lunches i've had at this in-n-out.

Luggage Day is tomorrow!

Don't forget that tomorrow is luggage drop off day! Drop it off at the church between NOON and 7:00 PM. Don't forget to bring your passport, turn it all in and check your name off the list! PLEASE be there during that time frame, if you are not there during that period, nobody will be here to collect your stuff!

It is going to be an awesome time! Here is a cool video showing the orphanage to get you excited! See you Saturday Morning at 7:00AM

Mexico 2010

Check back here regularly as we get ready to head out for our AWESOME week in Mexico! Next Saturday we hit the road! Yahoo!