Saturday, August 11, 2012

August 10

Today marks the end of the journey. It was tiring, challenging and life changing, for all of us as well as the family we helped. Some amazing things happened along this journey and they will not soon be forgotten.

I feel so blessed to have been a part of such a great group of people. I could say much about each person that went on this trip and it would all be positive.The house we built was beautiful. The cameraderie was great. Our love for Jesus and each other was evident the whole time and willingness to serve permeated the whole group. I know I am gushing about the group but it is all true.

All in all I will remember this group for their teach ability, service, humility and authenticity. I will remember really long churros, rabbits, singing Jesus loves me more than Sam in Spanish, the faces of the family entering into their new home, the kids playing and helping us build, last years family excited about our visit, worship with other groups at the Amor camp and the many laughs and lessons learned.

Friday, August 10, 2012

August 9

Yesterday was Disneyland and it was really fun. Everyone enjoyed themselves and had very memorable experiences. I will let the kids tell you all about this day when they get home as everyone had different experiences.

Today we drove a really long time. The kids did well and slept a bunch. We are having a smooth trip in every aspect. There have only been a couple of small inconveniences. So far other than the great enjoyment I get from teasing Lois I, Alicia W, Nicole S and Sam A., it has been a really uneventful trip home. We should be home tomorrow (August 10) by 4 or 5 pm. Yeah! Family!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Disneyland!

Aug 7

Today we left Mexico and spent around four hours in the borderline while we were in the line a man's car broke down and so several of our guys got out and pushed his car almost all the way across the border. While they were pushing the car Nicole decided that she wanted to evangelize the man so she got out of the van and evangelized to him and found out that he had worked for Amor ministries for 25 years!

The border agent was kind of a jerk but we didn't let that steal our joy and we had a tremendous rest of the drive home in hot traffic on the southern California highway system's. We arrived at Life Pacific University at 5 o'clock and I went to pick up the tickets to Disneyland from a friend of mine. The kids have been having a good evening, had a nice dinner and have been resting and cleaning up preparing for a long day tomorrow in Disneyland.

I feel so blessed to be a part of this group as they have demonstrated time and time again that they are unified and willing to do whatever it takes to serve others. I am excited to see what tomorrow holds and I will have pictures tomorrow as well.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Aug 6th

Today was a tremendous day. Since we were done with our house we went to rosarito to visit our family from last year. It was so amazing! We took with us an Amor worker named Allegra and she speaks Spanish really well. So we were able to communicate with them for the first time with clarity. They told us that this last winter was the first winter the family did not have to suffer from freezing temperatures. They said that our visit meant a great deal to them. In fact the wife Elizabeth called her husband and her brother and they dropped everything they were doing  and came to the house straight away.

Marco, who we poured the slab for last year has become the pastor of their church. He and his wife are really excited to minister to the children of rosarito. There is a large population of homosexuals that live in Rosarito and they have been speaking out against it and trying to teach the children the truth. However, the church building has been infested with termites for years and even though they continue to minister there is a fear that the facility will become condemned. They are in need of $800 to $1000 to buy material to repair the roof. Prayerfully we can do something to help.

It was great to see them again. They are all doing well. Marco told me that a beard hair of mine was stuck in the concrete pad and they can see the bright hair in the morning and remember pastor Chris. I laughed and thought that it is kind gross but funny.

After we visited we had some tacos, stopped at a little shop and went to the beach. We had a great time of worship and discussion and an impromptu jam session with Will banging on buckets and garbage cans and me on guitar. We had a bunch of people come over to listen to us. It was really fun!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Day 8


We we able to complete the house a day early. The stucco looks amazing. Even though we finished early we still had time to use the broken concrete from the old slab to make really cool front steps to the house. The rest of the concrete from that slab became the fill for two dry wells that we dug so that the nasty water that runs off of the hill behind their house won't continue to drain through the middle of the property. The property was completely transformed and the family was forever grateful.

There are so many stories that the kids will have to tell you about our time here. The build could not have gone smoother and the kids worked together so well. Every evening after some discussion the kids and leaders would all give each other shoulder massages which helped morale for some and nearly brought others to tears.

Today we are going to go to rosarito and visit our family from last year. We are also going to try and get the shoe sizes for the kids from our home now and shop to find them all some shoes. We will be taking the day much slower and we will be back to camp tonight for carne asada. We have been so blessed and everyone has been so good. I look forward to what the day holds!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Stucco

Started stucco at 9am, here is the 1st coat finished at 1pm!!!

Day 6

Another great day in paradise. We have the house nearly finished. We will be completed soon. I am super proud of our group. They have worked so hard and bonded so well.

The family is really great. They fed us burritos today for lunch and they were awesome. They have a bunch of dogs. In Mexico Dogs roam like cats do in the u.s.. The stucco part of the house will be tough but I think we will be able to fly through it our group is so good at working.

We are looking forward to the possibility of visiting our families from last year. The lord has been blessing us like crazy and I am so thankful that I get to be a part of his plan here with these kids. I truly believe that I am witnessing the Lord prepare some mighty leaders and that is a great blessing to me.

Day 5

Today was great! We got a bunch done. Joel has been doing awesome at leading the building crew. We got the concrete done yesterday and it turned out okay even though we have very primitive tools. Today we built a patio out front of the house, raised the walls and began putting the roof  on.

We have been connecting with people a bunch. The family is so great and thankful. There is a little boy named Oscar that has become a shadow to some of the kids and I. He wants so badly to learn how to do what we are doing and to do it. So we have been teaching him. He is super cute and gives me a big hug in the mornings.

Our team is bonding together nicely and beside the one student who became angry with me so she decided a blast of flatulence near my face was a good response; everyone has been really respectful. ;) The kids are working hard and having fun doing it. I am looking forward to tomorrow. We should be able to begin stucco tomorrow!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Day 4

Wow. We got so much done today!
 
Broke out a bunch of concrete and dug a lot. Cut a large amount of wood, sifted some sand, built a bunch of walls and mixed concrete. Today was great but really tiring. We got to know the family we are building for really well too. They have 15 people living in a 4 bedroom house. We are building them a second house on the property. They are so excited and they help so much. Oscar is a 7 year old boy that really loves to help and he is quite helpful.

I am feeling as though I am more worn out today than I think I have ever been!

Day 3

Today we made it into Mexico without incident! We made great time from Life Pacific to the border. We arrived at our camp and it was all set up for us. We met our cooks Oscar and Alicia and their kids. They are a really sweet family.

It was 105 when we arrived and the camp has little shade. So a couple of us went to get some quick shade things at a Walmart in Tijuana. First we went to the work site and met some of the family that we are building for. They seem really excited to have us come.

I don't know why I don't work harder at learning Spanish -- simple communication takes so much effort. It took me about 5 min to tell a lady that I wanted a broom right now. She thought I meant tomorrow. She and I would come to an understanding about the fact that we are talking about a broom but we were failing on the time it would be needed. Maybe I should work harder at learning the language?

We played some American football with some of the other campers here and with Danny. He is Oscar and Alicia's son. He is nine. He reminded me of my boy Ezra. We had a good time of worship and discussion tonight and after we were done singing a couple of us went over to another fire and met some of the local guys and played guitar and sang and shared some laughs with them. One of them spoke decent English so communication was better.

We ate really good but pretty spicy food tonight. We had a stuffed pepper with meat and cheese it was really good. So sleepy...

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Day 2

Today was really pretty straightforward. We didn't have any mishaps or problems. We went looking for some diagnostic testing for one of the vans because a light came on, but that turned out to be nothing.

Today we made it to life Pacific University. We played some sand volleyball. We ate some of the world's largest pizzas -- I've never seen pizza as big as the pizza that we bought. it was so big that our entire team could only eat one and a half pizzas! (We have 20 people on this trip. that's a big pizza!!)


Tonight we had devotions about our lives being passionate for Jesus and telling other people about him. Tomorrow we enter into Mexico. Pray for us as we begin this next leg of our Jorney. We look forward to seeing what Jesus has for us.


We found out we are going to be building a double wide house. We thought we were going to be building two single wide homes in two different locations. Logistically, the news that we will be building one is good.