Flush Toilets

Why a blog about flush toilets? Well ... let's just say that everyone is anxious to return to the States for flush toilets! Here in Mexico City, absolutely no toilet paper is allowed in the toilets. Nada. None. Zilch. One of the many sacrifices in coming to visit Mexico City.

Okay, so yes, this does create an interesting dilemma. Something you need to learn to adjust to. There are wastebaskets with plastic liners in each bathroom next to each toilet to help dispose of the, ummm, "used" paper. Sometimes, if you're not so fortunate, there are no plastic liners. Yuck! And yes, the the nostrils do notice ... particularly the Chica's bathroom which had blockage in their shower which created a situation in which the smelly water overflowed out onto the bathroom floor. mmmm mmmmm smelling good! Such are some of the sacrifices of the "little things" one deals with on a mission trip to Mexico City.

Thursday Blog

Today we opted to stay home, opposed to getting up early for another day in Mexico City. People are wiped out, sick, emotionally spent and on top of a short nights sleep and another long driving day, it just wasn’t sounding very appealing. So we slept in, had pancakes and eggs, played a lot of cards, watched movies, read, then went shopping again in Texcoco and ate dinner in downtown Texcoco. Nice lazy day ... which was just what the doctor ordered. Spirits are up and nobody has killed anybody yet ... yet that is. ;-) We did make a visit to Rolland’s favorite ice cream spot, Santa Clara ... good old fashioned hard ice cream.

We’re anxious to get back home to Salem and see you all again! Tomorrow we’re still on for our raw fish delicacy with a local Mexican family and the Smiths and Nevins, and we’ll be picking up some carne asada on the way to bring just to be safe ... mmmmmmm.

Wednesday Blog

Mexico City today. We first drove to the Basilica, home of the Mexican Catholic church. Very interesting to observe all of the people who come daily, many on their knees to “pay” for their salvation. They are literally taking in millions of dollars daily from all of the various holy water sprinkling, penance, pictures of guadalupe (the virgin Mary), etc. We observed a mass in session, saw the statue of the Pope (holding a very small cross with Christ on it, demonstrating where they place their emphasis), and saw guadalupe’s everywhere. People also come to kiss a replica of what they believe is the actual cloth the baby Jesus was wrapped in at the manger for extra blessings they think they will receive.

A Mexican woman who spoke English came up to me, asking where we were from to start a little conversation. She pointed out that she had stage four cancer just a few months ago, and after visiting the Basilica and getting “healed” that her cancer is now gone. She wanted us to know just how “real” everything we were seeing was.

We spent the afternoon in a market in the middle of Mexico City doing some more shopping. Lots more trinkets and fun times. Carl then took us to a fabulous dinner in downtown Mexico City. I think that the consensus was that this would be like a Mexican Denny’s ... ;) With a few getting sick and “loopy,” we opted to have Antonio drive us to a Starbucks for a little pick-me-up. Much needed!

Enter Mexican Ballet at 8:30. This was a treat for everyone ... tremendous performance with some serious high energy dancing throughout the entire 1 1/2 hours. The history of Mexico, their culture, etc. was all depicted through dance ... lots of stomping, tap dance, many colorful outfits and dresses, sombraros, sword fighting, marichi bands and singers, drums, a hunter and deer dance, various marriage ceremony dances, and on and on. Cheeks purchased a DVD on the way out ... a real “deal” out in the parking lot! You’ll have to check it out when Cheeks gets back for those who want to see it firsthand.

Tuesday Blog

Today was a sleep in day. Ya! For the most part, a good nights sleep at that. We secured a Combi (VW van taxi) and all piled in for a trip into Texcoco. Mexican breakfast at Laura's favorite coffee house was enjoyable to everyone. Did some more shopping at the local markets and we ran into Angel and Austre from 2008 VBS! Carl, Noah, Beth and Noah all knew both boys as well as their mom and we took a picture and visited with them. They were unable to attend VBS this year since both boys were sick during our VBS week. Good to catch up with them.

We are gearing up for two Mexico City tour days and we likely won't be able to blog until Friday so I'll give you an idea of the plans to keep us in your prayers. Tomorrow morning we're heading to the Ballista (the largest Catholic Cathedral of Mexico City) and we will enjoy an authentic Mexican dinner out. They serve authentic fried grubs ... yes, the plan is to order a plate and pass it around to EVERYONE to sample the grubs. Tasty stuff! Tomorrow evening we plan on attending the Mexican ballet. This is song, dance, performance, etc. depicting the history of Mexico, Cortez, the famous "ball game," etc. and should be enjoyable. We likely won't be back home until midnight.

Then Thursday morning we're up at the crack of dawn (yes, after getting home around midnight) to visit the dinosaur exhibit (full size dino skeletons, some robotics, etc.) in Mexico City, the Mexico City zoo, archeological museum, more shopping, and another authentic dinner. Hopefully all goes well regarding safety, travels, food, and fun. We'll try to blog some before we pack up for home.

Friday, one of the Mexican families has invited us out for dinner. He has a family member who is a butcher and they want to treat us to some delicacies ... squid, fish, and other items which sounds similar to sushy ... treated with lime, spices, etc. They suggested we bring some bbq chicken, etc. in case some of the young ones don't fancy the specialties. mmmmmmm.

Also, please continue to pray for our interactions with the missionaries, counseling opportunities, and support for Rolland and Jo Ann, Bryan and Susan, and anything else that comes up throughout the course of the week.

Maranatha!

Sam's Salon

So what about haircuts, manicures, etc. while staying in a foreign country you may wonder? Well, Sweet Cheeks got a haircut for 30 pesos, which he paid the guy 50 pesos (nice tip) ... 30 pesos is just over two bucks American. Now Noah on the other hand, is another story. Sam brought hair cutting scissors and ended up cutting/trimming Karen, Kayla, Kimmie, Beth, and Noah's hair. Now they were all trims, and Sam's first male customer of her life is Noah Chica! It's SHORT ... ;) And Cheeks is calling him a "cute little dude" ...

In Texcoco, the Bains purchased some nail polish for her since she cut three of their four heads, so now coming up in Sam's Salon are going to be toenails and fingernails. Fun fun fun!

Monday Blog

Today was a sleep in day with a light schedule. Everyone enjoyed getting some extended sleep before a nice big breakfast. After pushing so hard for the past two weeks, we played cards most of the morning and/or slept.

We had Antonio take us around Texcoco for some local ruin view in the downtown, some shopping, ice cream, churros as well as the cultural center. The presentation at the cultural center was interesting as we learned about the history about the area leading up to Cortez.

Carl and Laura stayed with Rolland and Jo Ann for some counseling with a gal who attends Rolland's church while the rest of us went back home to crash after a day on the town of Texcoco.

Baby Salamander

During our movie we watched Sunday night after all of the days activities, the kids discovered a little salamander scooting around inside our casa. Yes, this is of course very big news! The kids brought it over so everyone could check it out and it “slipped” out of one of their hands. They were standing directly behind Sam and she joked, “Where is it? Did it fall down my pants?” And Laura looked down stating, “Dude! You aren’t kidding!” Eiy Yi Yi! Eebee Jebeez!!! You'll have to ask Sam about the details ... :)

Sunday Blog

This morning we got to attend the Nevin’s and Smith’s church and Sam, Beth, and Kendra helped lead music and they sang a special number before Pastor Carl preached about faith. Following the sermon the Mexicans put on a pot luck for us to enjoy with some authentic fare ... mmmmm.

That afternoon we visited the ancient Aztek pyramids. Carl, Beth and Sam took their second trip there accompanying the family group as they were part of the student trip earlier. Very interesting to check out the ruins. However, today was a free day for the local Mexicans, so it was crowded and a 30 minute wait to climb the Pyramid of the Sun, whereas on the student trip there weren’t any lines at all. But we had a great time and did some more shopping at the market there to pick up some trinkets.

Fireworks have been a daily event as there is a Catholic saint assigned to every day and most regions have their saint, which is celebrated down here with fireworks. However, tonight must have been a more than significant saint or the local saint, because the fireworks outside our backyard window were nothing short of spectacular. Nice little bonus.

We heard from the students that their flight to Dallas was delayed and they missed their connecting flight, and then weren’t able to connect for the standby either. We are praying that they will be able to make it on the Sunday night flight. However, staying in the Hilton after Mexico City isn’t exactly roughing it either ... ;) Pray for their safety, we’re sure they are ready to get home to see you all!

Saturday Blog

Big day today for all of the girls - after sleeping in, they went to a local beauty salon in Texcoco for some nice nail work - paintings and extensions, etc.. Fun time ...

We invited the Nevins and Smiths over for dinner at our casa. Following dinner, the men met and Pastor Carl described our men’s discipleship, deacon and elder training programs. Rolland and Bryan are working on establishing an elder training program and are praying to have a couple of men rise up within their growing church. We encouraged them and spent time in prayer for them.

Photos Reminder

REMINDER ... photos are continually being added to at the BOTTOM of the blog ... scroll all the way down and click on the photos so see everything we continue to toss online. We will be returning with many many more photos, and have only limited amounts we can upload via the internet, but we continue to add more as often as possible.

Friday Blog

Today everyone attended VBS for our final day. There were over 50 kids again today and once again a group of kids were desiring to learn more about Christ and were presented the e-cube. The teenagers that had been a little bit stand-off-ish all week finally warmed up to us beyond playing soccer and basketball. We had the opportunity to share the e-cube with them after buying them some cokes, and one of them is a believer. The park where we held VBS all week is the neighborhood hangout for a couple of the older kids who deal drugs and are heading down a dark path. We discussed the options that these younger teenagers have before them regarding eternity and the choices they have before them, comparing what they see right in front of them. The older kids fully joined in by the end of VBS, which was a small miracle in itself. Rolland and Jo Ann Smith will continue to work with a local couple who is running an AWANA program from their house and attempt to follow up with many of these kids in the housing project.

We went to Pollo Argentina for a delicious lunch of bbq chicken and carne asada. Marcos and Sweet Cheeks prefer the spicy taco choice, but for most in the group this was the consensus favorito restaurant for the week.

Tonight we will have our final time together and will read from scripture and give testimonies as to what Christ accomplished over this past week. Thank you all so much for your prayers back home!

Thursday Blog

Today was our largest day with 55 clubbers, 10 of them new for the first time this week. The kids are really looking forward to coming and seeing our team and enjoying VBS. Many of the students took a trip to the local Texcoco market and did some shopping among the more authentic market (opposed to the more tourist type areas). The smells from the raw meat, pork rinds, and other various “authentic” foods permeated the scene. Mucho purses and trinkets ...

We also ate at one of the nicest authentic restaurants in Texcoco. Goat shoulder, raw meat (yes, no typo. Check with Sweet Cheeks to see how that one was!), tamarindo (nut juice), watermelon juice, horchata, Carne Asada and enchaladas were among the choices. We also visited a cathedral which was holding mass. In the front was a bed with Jesus in it, and every January first they lower the bed down for people to come and view it. A vivid reminder of the darkness that abounds down here.

Bug Attack

Mosquitos and flies have been in a full fledged frontal attack all week. We have been experimenting with sticky tape thingys you hang from the ceiling, which have caught some flies, room plug-in bug killers, deet bug repellant, and Senor Carlos even offered each of the young kids 5 pesos to each kid who showed him 5 dead bugs in an offensive effort. Mass bug bites and itchy-ness abound ...

Wednesday Blog

We had another great day at VBS with nearly 50 kids. Only Laura and Zach stayed home today, which means people are recovering well from various upset stomachs, etc. More kids raised hands and wanted to learn more about Christ and were presented with the e-cube.

The students and Pastor Carl visited the pyramids in the afternoon and got to see the Aztec ruins firsthand. The entire group then met back after the pyramid tour and went to El Guero (“The White Man”) for some authentic spicy tacos for dinner. Mucho picante!

Tonight Carl shared a scripture with the group and we each had opportunity to share how Christ is using or challenging us individually this week and how our hearts are bringing glory and worship to Him through our actions. God is growing each one of us in mighty ways! Although we are all tired, fully exhausted, mentally and/or emotionally worn down, God has been good. He has supernaturally energized everyone to represent Christ, both in our house as well as at VBS.

Tuesday Blog

We returned to Heroes today and our group of kids grew to 42 kids, many new today that didn't come yesterday. More parents showed up today as well from the community. This area is number 19 and is fairly new. It is 19 of 45 sectors, and overall there are 6 areas like this. Each sector has approximately 10 blocks that are equivalent to 90 - 100 homes jammed together and each also has a park identical to the one we hold our VBS in. We estimated that his type of housing in these areas alone hold approximately 500,000 people. Amazing!

Many of the older kids that have been checking us out softened up somewhat and we played soccer, basketball, and they hung out until the end and they stayed for snacks and we'll see how that progresses for the week. The kids have warmed up to all of our girls during club, playing games, loving on them, etc. Many of the moms and one dad who is a doctor at the university joined in with some jump roping after club with our team as well.

Also of note, everyones health has immensely improved today. Marcos was on "Agua Patrol" hounding everyone to pound the liquid. We also celebrated Ali's 19th birthday (one of our Mexican missionaries) and we surprised her after club by having the two of them along with Rolland and Jo Ann out to our casa and had a big chocolate cake, sang Spanish Happy Birthday, and enjoyed some fellowship together. Keep your prayers coming. Specific items to pray for: our team, maintaining the team unity (which has been Supernatural and of Him thus far), the kids and their families and the impact of hearing the Gospel, for Antonio our driver (who is not a believer, but has been very interested and hangs around during all of our clubs both last week and this week and also asked Carl why people would come down here for their vacation) and for the individual growth of everyone here from Oregon. God Bless!

Shout Outs!

Ma and Pa Kelly - Holahey! I get to use mi spanglish here. I miss you all (including David and Joey and all those married folk). See you soon with the traditional spanish “buzz kiss.” I may need to move here as well as Germany. I will have to make up for all of the “1000 words a day” for the whole week for the Lord has been doing so much!! Love, Kristin :-D

Jan and Phil~

I miss you guys tons. We are doing great here... only a little sickness and some broken things :) I hope everything is going great. Hope Pete and Nessa aren’t too much trouble ;) See you in a few days. Love you.

~Ash

Mom and Dad and Hannah and Heather Williams:

HOLA! I love and miss all...would have called a long time ago, but don’t have phone access. :) Hope you’re all doing well. I sure am! Thanks for your cards...they made my day! Love you all and i’ll see you soon! I’ll try to call in Texas. :) Love: Caley Bug

Hola family and friends-- God is good! All is well. Thankful for plenty of rest and no sickness. I am using my Spanish A LOT. I love sharing Christ with the kids. I love you all. -Beth

Hey there Dan and my 3 lil kiddos! I miss you guys a TON, but that is NOT stopping me from serving God and the people here! I can’t wait to see ya’ll on Saturday...or the kids that is on Sunday! Hope you are staying out of trouble and being good for Dad! :) Love you all! And “hola” to my other family (mom, dad, sisses, etc) and friends! Can’t wait to see you either!

-Love, Anna

Hey family!!

I miss you all!! It has been such an amazing experience so far! The kiddos are sooooo cute and my spanish is much better this year so it is a lot easier to communicate, even though I still have no idea what they are saying a lot of the time haha. Yesterday and the night before was not super comfortable...i shall explain later as Pastor Carl says that I must be careful with my words on here... :) Anywho! I love you all! Ttyl!

~Amanda

Hola Mis Galver Padres y hermana:)

I miss ya’ll tons...BUT I’m having a wonderful time QUE BUENO! The Lord has been so evident during this trip it’s been awesome and I’ve been tested in many ways already...but growing like a plant, fertilized with the word of God! No sickness yet...maybe my Mexican genes play in my favor down here :) The Lord has opened my Spanish translation skills but the speaking is still a bit rocky...but many fun moments:) Te amo todos!

SAMJO

Communication Faux Paux

So one of our groups first International blunders came at the expense of Mr. Drain, formerly known as Mr. Bain. Carl and Mark had gone out to grab a burger with Rolland and Jo Ann and on the way out, Marcos turned around and nearly ran over a small Mexican girl and said “Excusa Me!” Marcos confidently had been working on his Spanglish. Once out on the sidewalk, Jo Ann nicely informed us that Marcos had just requested that the little girl flush him down the toilet! No wonder she looked at us with such a peculiar stare!

Now Pastor Carl laughed most of the rest of the night, made a lengthly retelling of the story the next morning at breakfast to our group, and finally retold the entire story to Antonio, our van driver, on the way to Monday morning VBS. And yes, the “encouragement card wall” mysteriously filled up with sorted images of toilets with Mr. Drain being disposed of in a variety of ways ...

All About Sinks and Windows

Another of life’s little mysteries is, “How exactly do they build sinks and windows down in Mexico City?” Hey, I’m so glad you asked! Let’s start with the bunkhouse. Now, not being female, nor living in the bunkhouse, I can really only provide you with the report and results. The actual contents of the story will have to come from one of the girls involved. Now I do know how men act in a group shower situation. Depending upon your towel snapping prowess, you either play “offense” or “defense” and no, age really has nothing to do with this “immature” activity. Now whether towel snapping, or simply leaping off the sinks in some sort of display was involved, again, you will have to ask the girls for a first hand account. But what I do know is one of the sinks ended up on the floor, broken. Now the other two (yes, they had no less than three sinks ... speaking from the “house” side where the Bain’s share one bathroom (not too bad) and the Chica’s share one bathroom ... yes, if you are thinking seven people and one sink you are starting to get the picture) sinks in the bunkhouse are sketchy at best regarding how solidly attached they are. But Ashley, oops, did I mention a name? I forgot we weren’t going to do that.

Okay, so why wonder about windows? Wells, they have bars on the windows, which are installed on the inside. This seems nice, allows one to open the windows to let in a breeze, etc. So during the family day, Noah and others of us, along with the Mexicans, engage in a favorite activity down here of playing soccer. Competition being what it is, a nicely placed kick landed a soccer ball in middle of one of the windows of the bunkhouse. Now there are bars on the windows as you recall, but they are on the inside of the window. Right, so not much good here other than keeping the ball out of the house. Now since one broken window isn’t enough, Cheeks, Noah, and company thought hey, we gotta finish our game! Okay, so you see this one coming from a mile away. The window directly above the previously broken one becomes the next target. Noah is now able to join the Mexicans in feelings of remorse and guilt ... poor little Noah ... actually it was difficult to show that sympathy amidst laughing so hard, but Noah, there was sympathy for ya! Builds character. Toughens one up. Okay, back to VBS and enough pondering for now...

Water and Electricity

So, how exactly does one’s hot water arrive in his or her shower you may wonder from time to time. So glad you asked. First, the Mexican mechanics. The girls bunkhouse with Beth and Anna, as well as the Chica and Bain house, each have an underground tank of water. This tank has an electric pump that pumps water from the underground tank through a small pipe to a large black tank on the roof of the house. (Yes, I do realize the questions you may already have ... hang on). Once there, gravity takes the water from the big black tank down another small pipe to the water heater, all of this still outdoors mind you. The pilot light needs to be lit for heat, in which reading Spanish instructions is mildly helpful during this process. Now that the water is hot, when you turn it on in the house (bathroom, kitchen, etc.) gravity is how fast you can get it.

So exactly how big is the hot water tank? Thanks for asking. There are those of us with the privilege of finding out that the water tank holds exactly 8 1/2 showers ... give or take. What does it look like to find this seemingly trivial information out? Well, let’s walk through the process. After a long days activities and not enough sleep, it’s time to shower. Amidst a hot refreshing shower, shampoo nicely lathered up in your hair ... BAM! ... just like that, no water. Not just no hot water mind you. No water. Done. Nada. Yeah ... that sinking feeling that started up in your gut finally makes its way to your brain and you only then realize just how limited your options really are. You see, a call for help at that point becomes a rather delicate situation. Help can arrive in the form of involving others ... “Hey, did all the rest of you guys know what’s happened to ... ?” Or your help may involved your spouse handing you cold water from the sink, glass by glass (yes, this is not the fastest or most comfortable of processes) until you have sufficiently rinsed out enough shampoo to be “done.”

Now from here, we begin to ponder electricity. What does electricity have to do with an uncomfortable shower? Hey, so glad you wondered. Recall how the water gets pumped to the roof of the house, so that gravity can do it’s thing to get water into the tank? Right. So why not just turn on the switch and be done? There is nothing to stop the pump from continuing to pump once it’s full, so it manually needs to be turned off. You’re right ... you want to do this before 8 1/2 showers, give or take, have taken place. But it’s not that simple. The fuse box, previously mentioned by Carl’s small miracle in a blog, does not provide enough electricity for the fridge, lights, curling irons, iPod and phone and camera chargers, clocks we plugged in, coffee, and cooking griddles. Now understand that often the straw that breaks the camels back is that coffee maker (Laura), not that we’re mentioning any names (Laura) in order to protect the innocent (Laura). The situation is quite different for the one (Laura) in the kitchen. Fully clothed, able to freely walk about and make many of lifes trivial decisions such as, “hmmmm ... coffee really sounds good about now. I think I’ll turn it on.” Yes, this blows the fuse, stops the electricity, and becomes a frustration due to lack of coffee and lighting until the fuse (yes, a Mexican fuse and a Mexican fuse job) gets repaired. (I can only imagine just how much fun Pastor Justin might be able to have playing with the fuse box). But this frustration of the “trial” of patience waiting for hot coffee and lights differs just slightly from that of the sudsy shampoo-ridden unlucky shower number nine victim. Not being clothed, wet, shampoo dripping from your head, your options literally shrink right before your very eyes and you envy the options of, well let’s face it, anyone else in the house. So now you know and you don’t any longer need to wonder.

Monday Blog

Today we departed for Heroes (pronounced like Arrow-ess) for our second week of Club de Ninos, first week for most of the students and Beth and Anna. However, following our family day yesterday, the injured reserves list (out with “mal” stomach or other assorted issues) included: Laura, Kendra, Sophia, Caley, Brittnay, Amanda, Ashley, and Karen. However, in order to field a full team, we only benched Laura, Kendra, Anna and Zach who stayed home with mucho resto. Everyone else played through the pain. Attaway! “Diah Poo Poo” became the talk of the day for the girls. We attribute this widespread catastrophe to an “authentic” pot of beans that was served yesterday. Perhaps it was the mystery meat ...

Our two Mexican missionaries this week are Samai and Ale (pronounced Samm-ah-ee and Ali) who are both very nice girls. Our VBS at Heroes is in a track housing area, with some government assistance. Many casas literally identical, and if you make a wrong turn on a street it’s time for a hail mary pass to find your way out. There is a very nice park that we will have for the week with a basketball court, soccer court, cement area for chalk, jump rope, etc., an area to hang a tarp (way to climb the trees to secure the rope Noah, our in-house grease monkey) for shade, and a play area with swings, teeter totters, pummel horse, even bars, and other various play equipment.

We had 28 kids turn out for day one. The plan is to do additional canvasing early tomorrow morning. The entire area received fliers over the weekend. However, there were a lot of teenagers hanging around the park, so perhaps the moms were checking us out and the safety of the park before sending their kids. Several of the kids came after club got going today and we’ll see what the Lord has planned for the week. Also, our previous location Rolland and Jo Ann had been working in for many years, whereas they have only been working on this location for four months, and this is their first VBS at Heroes. Spirits are up, everyone is downing bottled water, and we continue to covet your prayers.

Monday Blog

Today we departed for Heroes (pronounced like Arrow-ess) for our second week of Club de Ninos, first week for most of the students and Beth and Anna. However, following our family day yesterday, the injured reserves list (out with “mal” stomach or other assorted issues) included: Laura, Kendra, Sophia, Caley, Brittnay, Amanda, Ashley, and Karen. However, in order to field a full team, we only benched Laura, Kendra, Anna and Zach who stayed home with mucho resto. Everyone else played through the pain. Attaway! “Diah Poo Poo” became the talk of the day for the girls. We attribute this widespread catastrophe to an “authentic” pot of beans that was served yesterday. Perhaps it was the mystery meat ...

Our two Mexican missionaries this week are Samai and Ale (pronounced Samm-ah-ee and Ali) who are both very nice girls. Our VBS at Heroes is in a track housing area, with some government assistance. Many casas literally identical, and if you make a wrong turn on a street it’s time for a hail mary pass to find your way out. There is a very nice park that we will have for the week with a basketball court, soccer court, cement area for chalk, jump rope, etc., an area to hang a tarp (way to climb the trees to secure the rope Noah, our in-house grease monkey) for shade, and a play area with swings, teeter totters, pummel horse, even bars, and other various play equipment.

We had 28 kids turn out for day one. The plan is to do additional canvasing early tomorrow morning. The entire area received fliers over the weekend. However, there were a lot of teenagers hanging around the park, so perhaps the moms were checking us out and the safety of the park before sending their kids. Several of the kids came after club got going today and we’ll see what the Lord has planned for the week. Also, our previous location Rolland and Jo Ann had been working in for many years, whereas they have only been working on this location for four months, and this is their first VBS at Heroes. Spirits are up, everyone is downing bottled water, and we continue to covet your prayers.

Sunday Update

Just a quick update. We did have one lady at todays family day accept Christ ... praise God! Also, remember to check at the bottom of the blog regularly as we are adding as many pictures as we can to the same bank of pictures. I haven't had time to grab the pics from family day yet from everyones SD cards ... so those will have to come next opportunity we have with Internet access. VBS starts tomorrow bright and early! Keep praying! God bless.

Sunday

Today we hosted a family day which included our group of 19, Rolland and Jo Ann, Bryan and Susan, and many of the local Mexicans from their church, their small group, as well as friends and neighbors they brought with them. We also met our two Mexican missionaries that will help lead the VBS this coming week, Alejandra and Samai. In total, our group was nearly 60. We presented music, the two missionaries gave their testimonies, Carl presented the gospel which was a change from what he was previously planning to preach as there were some that really needed that opposed to more talk on family, etc. The smaller ones of our group sang songs and taught their hand motions to the adults attending.

Amidst soccer, volleyball, visiting, etc. we had a great day. Only two broken windows, but a little plastic garbage bags and duct tape can go a long ways! Everyone stayed until 5 pm and invited us to attend a family day at their location next week to repay the favor.

Thursday - Day 4

Today we had another tremendous turnout ... just over 150 kids. Song time is very energetic, as the kids are learning most of the songs we have been introducing to them. Obed and Stephanie continued doing an outstanding job with running their teaching times. The Bain and Chica kids are leading groups during craft times, spending time working with the local children, speaking with them in Spanish and playing with them. The kids particularly love jumping rope. We brought in several really big ropes, one of which Carl cut in 1/2 and we tried some double dutch. Karen Bain did a great job demonstrating double dutch to the kids. Several of them tried it, but it is muy dificil (very difficult)! Coloring with crayons, chalk on the pavement, playing soccer, basketball are all enjoyable times.

This afternoon is laundry day. Right down the street from where we are staying is a laundry mat. It’s 20 pesos for a load if you provide your own soap, and 26 pesos if you have them just use their soap. Very reasonable. Today we also got the Ritz Carlton prepared for the rest of the team. It’s the bunkhouse on the property, but comes with it’s own facilities (all tiled, actually a bit nicer than the house!), figured out the water and got it running so we’re all set for them to arrive tomorrow.

Tonight, we’re all going out to have tacos with everyone who has been involved this week with VBS for a celebration dinner. We rescheduled it since tomorrow is when the rest of the Salem crew arrives.

Continue to pray for our team, both those here as well as those coming tomorrow. We’re going to be at the Nevin’s home to do some marriage counseling. Sunday is our day to host a major bbq for our entire group as well as the local missionaries and as many local Mexican families as can come.

The landscaping team showed up today and got the yard in ship shape. I only wish our yard at home got worked over like that in such a short amount of time. Wow.

Friday - Day 5

Our final day of the first week of VBS. We had over 150 kids once again and topped the day by presenting the gospel as well as reviewing the basics with the parents while the kids got to receive a balloon animal. Three of the moms accepted Christ and Rolland and Bryan will follow up with them. Praise the Lord for allowing each of us to be a part of such an incredible week and for the professions of salvation by the kids. What a great week.

The eight travelers made it safely ... and on time! Praise God for that. They were met by Carl at the new airport and were able to get moved in to their new “home” for the next week. Mark and Karen Bain accompanied Roland and Joanne Smith at Bryan and Susan Nevin’s home to help teach on marriage for their small group. After an inter-cultural game of Guestures, Bryan interpreted as Mark and Karen presented and helped lead a discussion. Many from their group will be planning on attending our bbq at our casa on Sunday following a teaching time from Pastor Carl.

Saturday - Day 6

Today was a fun day! Our team got up a little earlier than usual and had breakfast (19 of us now) and loaded up in one van and headed out to Mexico City. At Xochimilco we rented a boat and toured the canal, did some shopping at the market, and had a great authentic Mexican lunch. The canal area was an original Aztec area where the Aztecs filled in the lagoon to build their city on and have now been filled in for tourists as well as locals to tour and enjoy the scenery. There are over 1,000 boats and over 8 central areas that you can embark on a boat with miles upon miles of areas to see. Then we drove into Mexico City right into the heart of the city, around the circle at what is the “White House” of Mexico, museums, political and business centers, the zoo, Mexico’s largest soccer stadium, the tallest building in Mexico, and many other buildings and areas. Fortunately, we were driving opposed to walking through this as we got caught in a hard rain storm. Busy first day for the students and Beth and Anna! They all wanted to shout out to friends and family back home praying and know that spirits are up and everyone is excited, enthusiastic and ready to serve this upcoming week. No one sick ... very important detail!

Please remember to pray for us tomorrow as we entertain a large group of the Mexicans here at our casa for church, bbq and fellowship!

Wednesday - Day 3

We had a record turnout ... 158 kids today! Praise the Lord! For the teaching time we divided the younger and older kids up and held a mini-VBS for the little kids which Roland and Joanne Smith ran, while we took the older kids and continued with our same format as before. Great response from the kids.

We had a wonderful meal today at "The White Boy" (in Spanish "El Guero") - best meal so far in Mexico! Add spicy peppers, guac, etc. to tacos with a wide variety of meats. Cheeks loves his meat! Got to enjoy fellowship with Roland and Joanne Smith as well as with Obed and Stephanie.

Earlier today, Mark and Carl turned into Mini-Macgyver's and fixed our fuse box to regain electricity after Laura attempted to run the coffee maker along with everything else in the kitchen. Good thing they are both so well versed in electrical repair work of any kind. ;)

Praise God that no one has gotten sick thus far. We continue to down the water and rely on Him and what He is able to accomplish here.

We made it to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and were able to connect with Sherri Allen and toured the USO facilities where she works. It is a very impressive operation. It was one of their lightest 3-4 days annually, simply due to scheduling, which was nice for us to not crowd in and she was able to give us a first rate tour. We saw the book reading rooms where they video soldiers reading children's books and they create a DVD and ship them to the family they are leaving behind to go and serve our country.

This wouldn't be a mission trip without difficulty. Our gate to leave Dallas-Fort Worth airport got changed and our four hour layover got extended to a seven hour layover. We settled in at the airport ... home away from home. But we did make it in to Mexico City and Roland Smith and Brian Nevens met us there and our driver Antonio helped us load up luggage and we travelled to our new casa in Texcoco.

Bright and early Monday morning, we headed off to begin our first day of vacation Bible school. We divided up into two groups to canvas the local area with flyers and many of the Spanish speaking Bain and Chica children did very well. We also had the local helpers with us, who all speak fluent Spanish, which was a big help.

Our first day we had between 75-80 kids. The Bains were smart enough to not put on sunscreen, as the temperature wasn't all that bad. However, being over 6,000 feet altitude and sun, after all being sun, did a number on accelerating our tans. A little aloe later, all is well. ;) About 20 kids rose their hands to accept Christ and spent some time with Obed and Stephanie, our Spanish speaking local missionaries who are doing the primary teaching our first week of VBS, while the rest of the kids joined in for craft time. At this sharing time, Obed and Sephanie used the Evangelism Cube (e-cube) to share the Gospel. Praise God! The weather is very nice in the mornings during VBS, perhaps around 80 or so, then by late afternoon it flipped on a dime to provide rain and hail. Very brief, and done. They say that is typical.

Tuesday our numbers grew to 112 kids. Many mom's stayed, opposed to dropping of their kids and leaaving, and participate in the teaching time, crafts, and hang around. Today, Carl brought our huge e-cube. Obed and Stephanie have already been using the e-cube, so they were very familiar with it. However, they usually only have one small e-cube when they've done VBS in the past, so having multiple cubes, as well as the huge one to present to the kids, went over very well. Many more kids raised their hands to break off to learn more about Christ again today.

Everyone had a little more energy and had recovered from the plane ride, little sleep, and Monday morning VBS. Needless to say, we slept well Monday night. Our internet access is a short drive away from our casa to Roland and Joanne Smith's, and Carl and Mark will attempt to make more entries as often as is reasonable.

First Leg to Portland Airport

We arrived at PDX! Wow ... the 2:30 a.m. wake up call came early for the Bains and the Chicas. Much thanks to Matt for driving us to the airport. What a true servant! We got checked in successfully and have taken over our gate. Spirits are up and Sophia has the record for the lease sleep so far. Planned for our 4-hour layover in Dallas is a tour with Sherri Allen of her USO ministry she directs. We are looking forward to seeing her after getting to know she and Pastor David last week.

We are excited and will continue to keep you posted on our progress to Texcoco.

Texcoco Trip

Please keep us in your prayers! The trip is getting closer and closer and all of the details are coming together. We are wrapping up our final team meetings in preparation for the trip and can certainly use your prayers, both for the group as well as for us each individually as we prepare for what God has in store. The families and some of the students plan to leave Oregon for Mexico City on July 19th, and the rest of the students will be leaving July 25th. Our team has been meeting and preparing to go for the past few months, and even though the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the Swine Flu pandemic alert to phase 6 on June 11, 2009, at this point we still plan on going on the trip. Pastor Carl and been in close communication with Roland and Joanne Smith, who live in Texcoco, as well as praying with the Pastors and Elders at Salem Heights, and if at any point it is deemed unsafe we will change our plans accordingly. If you have any safety questions or concerns relating to the Mexico City mission trip, please feel free to contact Pastor Carl Chica regarding those. We know that God is sovereignly in control and we are preparing to be available to serve Him to further the Gospel.

Feel free to check this blogsite regularly, and we will try to keep you as up to date as possible throughout our 3-week trip.

In Him,

Mark