What a week! - Part 1

OMGoodness!  I can't believe that it is already Sunday evening.  Then again, so much has happened this pat week that I can't believe it's only Sunday evening. Have you ever had a week like that?  I feel as if I have been running from one thing to the next all week long.  No time to rest or catch up in between.  Well, I did rest on Monday evening...

Let's see, where to start?  I believe I left off early Thursday morning, waking up at some unreasonably early hour so that I could be at church by 6:00 a.m. in order to drive down to Mexico...

So I arrived at the church just a couple of minutes after 6 a.m.  As was the case in 8 out of the last 10 trips I was the first one there.  But I wasn't alone for very long.  People started trickling in and we soon had all the vehicles loaded with luggage and people and after a last bathroom break and a prayer we piled in the vehicles and began our journey.

My friend Adonna had invited her friend Kirk and he had volunteered to drive.  So Diane had assigned both me and Stephen Kaspick to ride with Adonna and Kirk.  Stephen and Adonna had both been on mission trips to Mexico before but Kirk was a newbie.  Diane had let Adonna and me know that she wanted us to get Stephen talking, he's normally a very quiet man.  I actually was rather interested in getting him to talk because although I believe he had been on at least 3 previous Mexico trips with me I didn't believe I knew him at all.

You know that 12 hours of conversations on the road trip down are not going to be recorded here.  Let's just agree to say that they were all interesting.  Some of them were spiritual, we discussed baptism and the different beliefs some denominations have about whether or not you should be baptized.  Some of them were secular, we discussed our hobbies and how we got interested in them.  We played games, we napped and we laughed.  We stopped for lunch and gas and various other things (it was a 12 hour trip).  We finally arrived at the dorms, unloaded the truck and headed out for dinner.

We stopped for ice cream on the way back to the dorms.  I had of cone of mango and chamoya flavored ice cream.  I'm not sure what chamoya is other than interesting tasting.

Once back at the dorms we had our orientation meeting and then we were free for the balance of the evening.  I tossed and turned on my bunk for an hour before taking a sleeping aid.  Big mistake, I was groggy the first half of Friday.

Friday morning followed the usual pattern, up at 6:30, devotions from 7 to 7:30, breakfast 7:30 till 8, then everyone heads to the meeting room fore worship and a message by Eddie.  Friday Eddie taught on Mark 10:17 - 45.  Starting with the rich young man and going throught the request of  James and John.  The one thing he said that really stuck in my mind is, "The cross means you have no future plans."  In those days, once anyone was sentenced to crucifixion they could not avoid it.  There was no future for them.  Once it was decided Jesus was to be crucified there was no other road for Him.  Now we can debate who made the decision but the bottom line is that once He was handed over to be crucified there was no other outcome possible.  Once you and I determine to take up our crosses and follow Him there is only one path open to us, His path.  Our wants, our wills, our desires are no longer our future.  Our future is determined by God's will for us.  Okay, we can quibble over little details, like occasional bits of rebelliousness and sin, but the bottom line is that when we hand our lives over to Him, they are no longer our lives.  They are His to do with as He pleases.  There's more I'm still digesting.  As usual, Eddie's message was very thought provoking.

After Eddie's message we were broken into our teams.  I was on team 5 with Marty and Jordan Flores, their frend Teresa and her son as well as Jim House, Julie Steele, Serena, Ron Kelly and some other folks whose names escape me right now.  We were building for Jesus and Graciela and their 6 children aged 3, 5, 7, 9, 12 and 15.  Their plot was way out above Rosarita Beach so it took us almost an hour to drive there.  We were only building them a 12x12 house because on 12/7 they were going to have a second 12x12 built and it would be attached to the first one for a two room structure.  Jesus owns a taco stand, Graciela helps him in it.

We quickly got to work.  Jesus took great pride in helping us as we built his home.  This was a good thing as I was unable to be the usual "powerhouse" I normally am (Marty's description, not mine).  I did mark 2x4s for cutting and figured out a way to hammer but didn't saw at all.  I was painting till I dropped the roller in the dirt and weeds so I was shooed off to play with the kids.

Actually I started by taking pictures of Jim and Julie playing jump rope with the kids.

Then Jim and I played frisbee with them for a while.  The kids had a blast, I was exhausted chasing the frisbee all over the mountainside.  Pretty soon it was lunchtime.  We had spicy foil wrapped chicken, rice, beans and an awesome chili verde sauce.  The lady who prepared it told us it was oil, tomatillos, avocado, onion, garlic, salt and chilies.  Yum!  I had seconds of that poured over my rice.  We also had a beverage made from canteloupe, my favorite!

After lunch we finished the house pretty quickly.  Jesus and  most of his kids went up on the roof to nail down the roofing paper.

While I was preparing the nail for the door latch inside Ron Kelly thought I was trying to remove the nail.  He came along and pulled it out for me.  That did give us a few laughs.  We also had some challenges hanging the door but soon it was time to mount the doorknob and hang the plaque.

Jesus thanked us profusely for blessing his family with a new home.   

We stopped on the hilltop near the beach to take pictures on the way back to the dorm.

Then we went back to the dorms to reload the trucks.  We then headed out to the world's best showers, tacos and ice cream.  I never was so happy to see my bunk in all my trips down there.  I slept like a log for 4 hours...