Home at last

We all made it back to Spokane safely this evening. Thank you again for your prayers and support during this short-term mission trip. We'll keep you informed of our upcoming report of our trip to the congregation at Chattaroy Community Church. Adios.

We're leaving on a jet plane...

After a relaxing day of frantic souvenir shopping and rain in La Paz, we are almost ready to hit the road for Cabo and the airport. All four tires are still full of air and on the van, the air conditioning is working, and everyone still has their passports. And while we are all sitting down for breakfast, we will leave you with a lesson learned from each of us...

Jerred: You can't always rely on hand motions to get the point across the language barrier.

Tatiana: Even though you may have said only two words to someone, they already love you and it's so easy to love them back.

Katy: Always travel with your best friend. Your back will always be covered, but not necessarily with sunscreen.

Cady: Pee really does help jelly fish stings... 

Vickie: After working 11 days in the hot sun, it will rain on your one day off.

Jaime: You can go two weeks without knowing the date when you are on Mexico time.

Ashley: You can form friendships even though you don't speak the same language.

Doug: The bottom half of a water bottle is not as easily disposed of as the top, and it's much more easily discarded in disarray.

Russ: I never met one Mexican person that wasn't kind, helpful or courteous.

Denise: You canhave a honeymoon in Mexico with 11 other people, and they are gracious when you're always late.

Arlene: One of our team members is trying to learn Spanish. He has taught us what to call our pets in Spanish. El doggie-o and la cata. Don't bother to look for these in your Spanish-English dictionary.

Diana: You can teach the Mexicans funny American phrases like "wiggety-wack" and "see you later, alligator".

Roger: It's really fun to share my friends with my friends.

Please pray for safe travels for the11 of us headed home to Chattaroy and Roger and Diana headed home to Ciudad Constitucion.

See you soon, baboon!

Last Day in Ciudad Constitucion

We started off the morning with 8 team members working at church. We were staining, sanding, tiling, mounting cabinets, hanging doors, and cleaning up our mess all at the same time. It was a great work day at El Amor de Cristo church. The rooms that teams from CCC have been working on for the last 3 annual trips are really starting to take shape. 

We followed that up with a great team dinner cooked by our team chefs... Katy and my beautiful wife made some awesome spaghetti and they prepared everything for the men's dinner in the evening. 

Then we gathered for the men's meeting. We were a little late, but that's the way it works here. We wanted to treat the men to an good ol' American hamburger.. Which we did, BBQ'd right there on the sidewalk at the church. It was an awesome time of fellowship. Then all of the tables were put away, and we circled up the chairs for our evening discussion.

Last year, Doug and I shared our testimonies with the team, so this year we had Russ share his. We also exchanged prayer requests between the men. We are called to uphold our brothers in Christ, so we intend to hold them up in prayer in the areas that they requested.

As always, it was tough to say our good-byes again with the men we have been able to serve with over the past week and a half. We start our journey home tomorrow with a drive to La Paz in the morning. Please pray for our travels.

- Jerred

The roller coaster

Today was one of those days. It was like a roller coaster ride. The day started out going up, obviously. We put on our swimsuits and headed for the pool. We swam and ate with the people till around 4 pm. The team had gotten there at 1 pm. After that was the baptisms. Ashley and I were the only ones. Pastor Chava had us say our testimonies, asked us some questions and we hopped into the now strangely empty compared to 15 minutes before pool.

I never knew you had to plug your nose a special way when you're baptized. After this we swim some more. Next were the other testimonies. This time we talk about our time with the people. Then a video is shown with nature from our part of town.

Remember that roller coster? This is where we start going down, fast. And the sobfest commences. It's time to say goodbye to the people of the church. Everybody was crying. Some of the ladies I didn't even say more than "Hi" to hugged me tight. Plus all of my friends were bawling, well most of them were. It was sooo sad, for everybody. My heart will be ripped in two when we leave them for good. Now I'm tired, it's 11pm where we are, and I want to go to bed. So see you all in about a week. Bye and good night.

- Love, Cady

¡Viva la México!

Remember those long days of summer when your days were so full you literally crashed at the dinner table and then had to be put to bed?  Well, that was my finalé yesterday and I suspect it wasn't just me.  There are only so many days of heat and wee sleeping hours that one body can take.  So here I sit, pad in hand, eight hours late, finishing my blog.

So much has happened since the ba-boom!!!!! Lol

Saturday, Mexico won its first Olympic Gold in fútbol!!!!!  There was so much celebration here!!!  It was very exciting!!  The celebrations and gloating went on thru the night I imagine. We were very happy for them.
The evening ended on a high note as we practiced our songs for worship team the next morning with our Mexican family.  It was a completely enriching experience right down to our souls.
Son-day arose with the promise of yet another "warm" one (104 degrees).  Off we went to church where we worshiped with praisesong and Doug, Jerred and Russ presented the message of church unity. A powerful topic for all church bodies where the evil one seeks to invade and divide.  A worthy thought to ponder.
We were then treated to lunch at our dear friend Martina's house. The boys couldn't get enough of meatloaf and mashed potatoes etc etc.  What a wonderful sister in Christ she is.  She is one, of a very few Mexican friends, we are able to keep in touch with on Facebook.  Invaluable for our sister churches.

Then it was off to the brothel.............. Bahahahaha............but of course.  A very vacant property the church would like to purchase.  Except for the vagrant Jaime and i  have endearingly named "Juando" and the deceased watch dog, the property is FULL of possibilities for those who can visualize Pastor Chava's dream.  The property has 57 rooms (brothel Duh!) where the church would love to care for orphans, homeless teens and their own of course.  It has a large indoor room which would be an awesome sanctuary.  Several aqueducts, out buildings and a field big enough for fútbol, finish this compound out. More thoughts to ponder.

My night finished out with a leisurely stroll thru a local graveyard.  Diana, Jaime and I are happy to report there were no restless souls lurking about.  Just a few families tending to the ornate decor of loved ones lost.  The mariachi music blaring from a truck nearby, set the scene for a very pleasant evening indeed.

- Katy

And boom goes the dynamite...

Note to self... Do NOT, under any circumstance, attempt to ignite a gas oven when it has been on for about 15 minutes...

Because what happens to follow this seemingly innocent act is a fireball the likes of which I have never seen in the kitchen, and hope to never see again. But all is well. Hearts are beating at a normal pace again, the fittings have been replaced, the stove was pushed back to its original location, and all legs present were checked for singed hair. There was none.

Lesson learned.

Breakfast arrived in true Mexican fashion...late, but delicious, and not at all burned.
Our retreat was wonderful. The Chinese food was great. And when you can't communicate with one another, reciting colors is a good fill in.

- Jaime 

What we do...

The internet is slowing down and, quite frankly, so are we...

Buenos noches!