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