Sunday, June 29, 2008
Arrival Time Update
Arrival Estimate
See you soon!
So-Long Sunday
This morning we gathered by the pool with sleepy eyes for breakfast at 7:00 (items we bought yesterday at Walmart). We had our final worship service and then returned to our rooms to get our bags.
We started loading bags at 8:00 and got on the road at 8:30. We said goodbye to Megan before we left since her family met us there and will be staying on South Padre for a few days. Megan's sister and dad are looking forward to joining us on next year's trip.
On the buses we distributed Affirmation Bags. All through the week everyone has been writing notes to each other and dropping them in bags we all decorated. It was a powerful blessing to read those cards this morning.
On the bus, some are catching up on sleep while others are playing games and talking. We'll stop in Refugio for lunch.
At this time we expect to arrive at the church around 4:30. I'll post a better estimate after lunch.
A Super Saturday
We then spent 3 hours on the beach. A good sized group had an active game of beach soccer while others hit the waves. Our injury of the day came when soccer-star Julia missed the ball and kicked another player - stubbing and bruising her toe.
A few significant storms blew threw and - and I mean that they really blew (not much rain). The wind whipped up the waves so hard for a while that those on the beach got sandblasted and those in the water had spray blowing over them.
After cleaning up from the beach we headed to Padre Island Brewery for dinner and commandeered the top floor. Some got beer - of the root variety. Some made their own concoctions by mixing a variety of ingredients.
Kevin had his brood of munchkins (nine Jr High students he adopted as his kids). Ryan's table changed hats and sunglasses after every time a waiter came by to see if they could confuse the waiter. Sr Highers competed in 9-ball pool.
After dinner we walked across the street to a large beach shop where the last available funds were spent on essential treasures.
We then headed back to the hotel and gathered by the pool for a dessert of ice cream sundaes (Alan and Dave got the ice cream and fixins at the grocery store while we were in the beach shop). We then worshipped and headed back to the rooms at 11:00 for free time and, eventually, bed.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Back In America
We're now in Texas. We left the hotel at 8:00 and got through the long border crossing line fairly quickly. We were able to arrive at our bus meeting spot (McAllen Walmart) by 9:30.
Since the buses hadn't arrived yet, we did our pre-Padre shopping then. After making a few calls we found that the buses had arrived at the airport at 7:30.
The buses finally arrived at 10:30 and we were able to get on the road by 10:45.
We're now heading to Port Isabel where we'll get lunch before crossing the bridge to South Padre Island.
More later.
Friday, June 27, 2008
A Friday Finish
We finished our work today and said goodbye.
Our day started and continued as any other work day. Each home site finished their roof by nailing down tar paper and roll shingles. They finished their painting and added their gables, doors and window trim. The church site finished painting the exterior walls, completed the sheetrock replacement in the Sunday School room and constructed the wall extensions in the pastor’s home.
After everyone finished their work, we gathered at the church and walked site-to-site so everyone could see all of the houses and so the two pastors (Pastor Saul of El Mesias and our Pastor Lonnie) could pray for the families and bless their new homes. Each site gave their family a cross (we had picked up in Progresso) to hang in their house that all of the work-site members had signed.
After a day of work we returned to the hotel and many cooled off in the pool for a little bit before getting cleaned up for our worship service at the colonia iglesia (church). The neighborhood kids and church families were waiting for us when we arrived at the church. They served us a barbeque chicken dinner before we shared in a bilingual worship service.
After worship we said our goodbyes. There were a few tears as new-found friends realized that they might never see each other again.
We returned to the hotel and distributed cards from the Friendship Club. The students were happy to receive a money gift in their card - especially those who had spent all of their money at Progresso and/or Sorianas.
Tomorrow we get up at our regular time with breakfast at 6:30 so we can share devotions and start loading our bags onto the buses around 7:30. Assuming it will take a couple of hours to get across the border, we need to be on the road by 8:00 in order to meet our charter buses in
Pictures from Mexico
A Tremendous Thursday
Back to work.
Yesterday we returned to our regular schedule starting with breakfast at 6:30 and a day filled with work, play and worship. Everyone was a bit relaxed from the day before and it wasn’t until we reached the colonia iglesia (church) before we were fully ready to dive into the work at hand.
The work-sites building houses worked on painting their walls and building trusses. Truss building in one of the most difficult and frustrating parts of building these houses that takes a crew of four and a special jig. Kudos to Allen W who single-handedly built most of the trusses for his work-site - without a jig.
After building 9 trusses, the teams installed them on top of the walls. Most teams were then able to nail plywood sheets on top of the trusses so that all they need today is to add the tar paper and shingles. Other tasks for today include installation of the gables, finishing the painting, mounting the door and completing the trim.
The work-site at the church divided between a paint crew who continued painting the exterior and a construction crew who removed the forms from the concrete pillars poured on Tuesday, replaced some sheetrock and built wall extensions inside the pastor’s house. We were excited to see that the name of the church had been added on Wednesday to the front of the church we had painted on Tuesday.
Two of our members received gifts from friends they have made. Dana received a wooden animal from a little girl she befriended at VBS. Doyle received a glass from the woman whose home she is building. These gifts were very touching in that they obviously came from the hearts of the givers who have obviously been touched by God’s love being shared through our service.
After returning to the hotel, another energetic water polo game was held. A little later, a group headed over to Sorianas to fill some critical sugar needs that had popped up. After dinner groups met as usual to plan today’s construction and VBS and to prepare sandwiches for today’s lunch.
Worship was another outstanding experience, with music led by
Siblings also played a part in our only injury of the day. Not to be outdone by her sister’s black thumb,
Today we wrap up our jobs at the work-sites and “turn over the keys” to the houses to the families. We plan to take pictures with the families in front of their new homes as we present them with a cross to hang in their homes with signatures of the work crew.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
A Wonderful Wednesday
Wednesday is our fun day and yesterday certainly was that.
Everyone enjoyed sleeping in as we had breakfast at 8:00 instead of 6:30. We were on the bus by 9:00 and on the streets of Progresso trying to help their economy with our purchases by 10:00. After finding the best treasures the city has to offer, we joined back together at the park for a delicious sandwich lunch.
After lunch, most of us went to La Fogata Restaurant and shared four goat heads. Some of the Senior Highers are veterans at this delicacy and dove into the brains, tongue and eyeballs. Many rookies dove in with them and found it delicious. Taylor S even made friends with one of the goat heads. Many others enjoyed the show but had no desire to join the feast.
After the goat head feast we went down the street to “Belly-to-Belly” and tested our sporting skills by riding the mechanical bull. There were many rides – some rode as many as 5 times. The only injuries of the day were bruised egos from being thrown by the bull in a shorter time than someone else.
After the bull riding we headed back to the hotel and had a great game of water polo with a 3-foot ball. It turned into a water rugby game at times as we had pile-on scrums when teams tried to push the ball into the goal. There is still some disagreement over which team was victorious.
Our evening was a standard evening with dinner (BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes and corn), meetings, worship and small group affirmations. A family that has taken a month of vacation to spend here with World Servants helped lead our worship service.
Today we’re back on our work-sites. The house-building crews will be painting walls and constructing roof trusses. The church-site crew will go to a home where the husband had been building a roof on his house and died before being able to finish it. We’ll remove the since-damaged roof and build a new one. Everyone is looking forward to diving back in to working.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A Terrific Tuesday
We had a busy and fun day yesterday (Tuesday). So busy that I didn't have time until this morning to write this update.
First, where I left off on Monday's update. We had a great chicken fajita dinner then our normal series of meetings as I described on Sunday night's report. We then had another fantastic worship experience and then spent some time writing cards for some of the members of our work-site crews telling them how much they mean to us.
Tuesday morning started with breakfast at 6:30 then devotions as usual. After arriving at the colonia church we split up into our teams and headed to our work-sites. During the day, the four house teams got all four walls built and almost all of them standing up. Two sites also painted two walls each because their tight quarters won't enable them to get behind the walls to paint them later.
The guys on the team at the church finished building the other two concrete pillars that will later support a second floor for the church. The gals on the church team changed the color of the church from dirty red to seafoam green. The rough surface of these concrete walls made it tough to get a good painting without having to go back with lots of touch-ups.
The only "injury" we had on Tuesday was when Kevin hit a nail and a tiny flake from the nail flew up and landed on his lip. It was hot so he made a little dance. He's now know as "Hot Lips" on his team.
The other typical daily events were also part of Tuesday – VBS (we had around 70 kids), fun in the pool, etc. We didn't have any meetings since today is our off-day as we go to shop in Progresso.
Since we had a little extra time yesterday afternoon, we took a walk down to Soriana, the "Super-Target" kind of store down the block. Many loaded up on Joyas – the Mexican soda made out of real sugar. Others found other helpful forms of sugar and other snacks.
Later last night we had another great worship experience and shared Holy Communion in our work-groups.
Monday, June 23, 2008
A Great Monday
What a great day!
It started early with a number of the adults gathering for coffee at 5:30. We all got up and met in the restaurant for a good breakfast of cereal (with boxed milk), scrambled eggs with ham, fruit, tang and, of course, tortillas and refried beans.
After breakfast we spent some time going over today's devotions with our roommates. Then we headed out to the buses and rode to the colonia church. Once at the church, we all walked from work-site to work-site to see where everyone would be working - leaving teams at their worksites as the rest went to the next site.
The four house sites started working right away to build the foundation for the house and to set it on cinder blocks. The most work was then in digging out below the cinder blocks to get everything level and square. Most sites were still working on this when we broke for lunch at noon. After lunch, things went much quicker so that every site got the foundations leveled, nailed down the plywood floor and even started building one of the walls (really part of tomorrow’s tasks).
Meanwhile, a fourth of each site went to the church in the morning to conduct a
Our fifth work team had a number of projects at the church – mainly related to building four concrete pillars that will be used to hold up a new second floor over the existing courtyard. We built rebar cages, constructed wooden frames for the concrete pillars. We seemed to spend a lot of time waiting on materials to arrive. We’ve been told that all of the materials we will need tomorrow will be there tonight.
Things got ready to mix and pour the concrete just as we reached the 2:30 time when we were to return to the hotel. Since the two frames we built for two pillars will be needed for the two other pillars tomorrow, we decided to stay longer and complete the pillars. The Junior High members of our team were sent back to the hotel while the Senior High members stayed and finished the job around 4:00. We then went back to the hotel and joined the Junior Highers in the pool for some good fun.
We had one injury – a hammered thumb. It swole up pretty good so we sent the injured member back to the hotel with an adult to get it on ice. It’s feeling much better now and there’s a real pretty black thumbnail for a souvenir. Ask Callie to show it to you when we get back.
It’s time to break for dinner. We’ll give more updates later.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Sunday Evening
Heading Into Mexico
Sunday Lunch Stop Update
We're On The Road!
Although the buses were 45 minutes late, our bus loading team got everything loaded quickly so we could keep on time.
Thanks to all family and friends who came this morning to send us off. Thanks for joining our prayer circle. And thanks to you for keeping us in your prayers this week.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Don't Forget to Check gdlcmmt.blogspot.com This Week
Key Sites of Mexico Mission Trip
Church:
<http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.06259,-98.256454&spn=0.001169,0.001631&t=h&z=19>
Where we built last year, next to the "pond":
<http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.064498,-98.249761&spn=0.001169,0.001631&t=h&z=19>
Hotel:
<http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.082433,-98.300675&spn=0.001168,0.001631&t=h&z=19>
Border crossing (Mexican side):
<http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.043125,-98.209126&spn=0.004675,0.006523&t=h&z=17>
Be at the Church by 6:30 Sunday Morning
We'll see you tomorrow morning by 6:30. Parents, plan to stick around to join in a group prayer and to see your students off.
Parents - If you have not completed and turned in a letter that we can give your child during the week, please give one to me tomorrow morning. We would hate for your child to not get one when everyone else does.
Hasta manana.
Kurt
Monday, June 9, 2008
Mexico Mission Trip - Last Minute Instructions
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Welcome to the Mexico Mission Trip Info Center
This web-site will be used during our June 22-29 Mission Trip to keep you informed about how God is working through our team. Times of our expected return on Sunday, June 29 will be posted that day as we head home.
Please continue to pray for our team and for the people that God will reach through our ministry.
In Christ,
Kurt Rosenhagen
kurt@biblestoriesforadults.com