Thursday, August 28, 2008

I'm back!







Wow, what an amazingly difficult, rewarding, and amazing 10 days!!!! We left Thursday morning and drove and drove and drove. Our trailer tire blew out while I was driving but praise the Lord we were only a mile away from an exit where we could get it repaired. We drove to Riverbank, CA until 1 AM and then slept at a church. I was messing around and went to fake kick Abel and fell flat on my back. It knocked the wind out of me and hurt really bad but was pretty funny. That was until my tailbone was bruised for the next few days. :-) We got up and left for Mexico early the next morning. I had the privilege of driving through L.A. this year which took FOREVER! We went like 33 miles in 3 hours. It was ridiculous. When we finally saw the Mexico border sign we were all excited. Once we crossed the border, the exit we needed to go to Ensenada was closed. We pulled over and asked for directions and a Mexican policeman came up beside us and ask what we needed. We told him directions and he said that if we'd give him a "drink" he'd take us to the bypass. Our dear Miss Madeline offered him a bottle of water and he shook his head! :-) He then changed his request to dinner. Pastor Josh asked if $10 would do and he didn't seem pleased but pacified. He took us to the detour on ramp and then told us to slip the money in his glove. It was so crazy! But we got to our destination.
We stopped at Taco's Pablano for the beginning of many taco stand stops. I knew that Javon would not eat beef or pork on his taco so I asked if they could be a "queso" taco. They did and everyone else saw it and started getting them. Last time we thought we only had two choices, but our eyes were opened to a bean pot and cheese tacos this year!!!!
Here is what the majority of the farm workers' homes look like. It is basically made out of tarps, pallets, cardboard, and whatever else they can find. It is heartbreaking to see it.
The kids did amazing. They never backed away from anything we asked them to do! They jumped right in with both feet and shared Jesus' love with people. I am so proud of them.
We passed out a lot of food, helped build a home for a "working poor" family, held two community hot dog feeds where we sang and shared the gospel then passed out bags with toiletries and toys in them, plus did a service Sunday night and VBS on Wednesday at the church we went to last time. This time was more broken up than last time, but in the end we saw that God was in it all. Everyone did really great at being flexible. Javon played and played and played with the kids. He didn't care that they were dirty or didn't speak English, he just went right up to them and starting playing. As a mom, I can't even tell you how proud I was of him and how excited I was to see God using him. He just did things with Jesus' love because he wanted to and it felt right, not because we made him. It was so amazing to watch him serving and interacting with the kids. We also worked with the children's home kids this year. The girls would get up early each morning and brush the kids teeth, feed them breakfast, clean them up, we also spent all Sunday afternoon cleaning their entire childcare room. Everyone worked together and did great. Did I mention how proud of them I was?
I have tons of pictures that I'll keep posting. It's nice to be home, but Let the Little Children Come Home will remain in our hearts and we are excited to see what God has done when we return!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Power Lab was powerful!






I have about 20 seconds to post because I'm leaving for Mexico in about 3 hours. Yes, Mexico to do 2 more VBS's with 13 other wonderful people. Pray for me....I've been sick all weekend and this week. My voice is completely gone, but I wouldn't any of the crazy business! I love it all. 
See ya the end of August!

Friday, August 1, 2008