Mexico So Far

Hola once again!

Saturday , for me personally, was a wonderful day..God really blessed us , for as we arrived at the worksite, there was fog and cloud cover and a nice breeze to keep us cool. We prayed that the cloud cover would last for the day, and God answered that prayer and we were comfortable the whole day.

We started four new houses, three in the same area as before, and one a bit farther away.. The one that was farther away, is for a woman and her daughter, who has Lukemia, and they've been living in a van.. actually, we didn't know about this particular lady until we were halfway down to mexico, and Pedro recieved a phone call about her, seeing if we could do something for her. It turns out we're building her a house.. It's wonderful.. We met her on saturday morning, , and her daughter, and for many of us, it was unbelievable to see a little girl with Lukemia, who had so much joy in her heart.

Anyways.. We started our four houses, and we got four or five walls (one inside) out up by the end of it all.. It was a productive day. Tayne, Dara and I spent alot of the day with a group of girls who live in the community, and we had a real bonding sort of day with them. It's difficult to imagine, I guess, bonding with someone you can't really communicate with, but for us it was easy. We started out with all of us painting, which was a blast, because the little girls got right into it. then we ran around with them for awhile, playing soccer (football) until our ball found it's way under the tires of a truck, and then popped. :(
Then we started, somehow, on the subject of boys.. it turns out that some of the little girls think that the boys on our team are "Guappo" which, when spelled correctly, means "Good Looking"so we talked about boys in broken spanish for a good couple of hours, the girls tried to hook us up with each other, and all in all it was quite alot of fun. at one point, the girls started chanting the name of one of our boys, and he looked up from his work, and blew them a kiss, which in turn, made them all scream and jump and try to hide behind us.. It was quite the day.
At one point during the day, we were making the frame for the porch we were building, and all the little girls took turns driving the nails into the wood. I took alot of pictures of them doing it, and it was fabulous, we can say that our porch was built by that group of little girls..

Then, a young boy with a horse came down the road, and we somehow managed to all get rides on the horse, Tayne and Dara, and then Me with a little three year old girl. It was a fun day overall..

Sunday Came, and we got up for breakfast around eight thirty (We really got to sleep in) and all got dressed up and ready for church.. Here, it's practically unheard of for a man to show up at church in shorts, so Pedro came out of his room in a long pair of pants, and we all Applauded him, and laughed, it was good fun. All the girls wore skirts and shirts with sleeves, and we headed out to Church.. It was by far the most amazing church I have ever been to. We all sat in one area, along with some other non-mexican people, and we were surrounded by translators. The music.. was AMAZING! So upbeat, so loud, so joyful! They had a full band, and a full choir, complete with ladies who danced around with tamborines and streamers. It was the most wonderful, happy worship session I have ever been a part of. They even sang a song we knew, although it was in Spanish.. It was "We want to see Jesus lifted High".. Oh we had so much fun!For the message, the wife of the pastor spoke about how we are were set free from Slavery, just as Abe Lincon set free the slaves in his day, Jesus set free the slaves across the world yesterday, today and tomorrow. But she spoke also about how some slave owners kept the slaves ignorant to the law, and kept them as slaves, just as some of us are still slaves. But we have the power, through Jesus Christ to be set free, if only we would take it..
Wow, it was a wondeful Service. Afterwards, we talked with our interpreter, who was a wonderful woman, and who was very interested in what we were doing for the people of Tijuana..After Church, we all headed across the street to Carls Jr, a hamburger resturaunt, and it was a good time for all, as we sat together and discussed the upcoming carnival for the afternoon, and the service in the morning.

After a huge lunch (they make GIGANTIC burgers in Mexico!) we headed back to the College and many of us slept for a couple of hours, before waking up and heading out to our carnival, in a place called Olympia, where the youth group held thier carnival when they came here two years ago..
It started out slow, then Pastor Hosea asked us young people to walk about the neighborhood, advertising for the carnival.. Of course, none of us speak Spanish, so it was very difficult, but we managed to get a group of kids following us from a distance, until we showed them a soccer ball, and they came running to play with us.. It was a ton of fun. We had a live band, and hundreds of balloons, face paint, hot dogs, sodas, and little bags full of goodies for the kids. It was very well recieved, and when Dr. Hosea spoke to the crowd, one woman came forward and gave her life to Christ! It was an amazing experience, and we all just loved it to bits! I'm sure we'll all have tons of pictures to show you when we get home.On the way home from the carnival, we stopped and ordered nine gigantic pizzas, which were amazing, and only cost about 10$ each. and that was it for sunday!

We woke up Monday morning and all we could hear was the steady dripping of rain.. So we wander around for about fourty minutes, while Pedro and everyone decides what to do, and they thought it would be a good idea to pack up all the clothes we had gathered for the childrens home, and bring it out to them. So we did, and saw a little bit of the home, and then headed back to the bible college, to find that the rain had stopped, and so we went out to work! It was a beautiful day for building, with just the right amount of clouds to keep us covered from the brutal sun, and just the right breeze to keep us cool. We got a whole lot of work done too!

After our day at the worksite, we all came home and had some dinner, just in time for Sergio to come and talk to us and share his testimony.. It was fabulous! He brought Oscar (who is so incredibly hot) with him and Martin, and it was a great night. Oscar plays guitar, and so after Sergio's testimony he borrowed my dad's guitar and played for us for a long time. It was heavenly.. ohhhh man was it even heavenly.. It was a really fun night, I enjoyed myself.. Im gonna miss this place when I leave! :(

Tuesday was just another day at the jobsite. We got a ton of stuff done, but also were distracted by Sophia, Selene, Shima, Lucy, Anna, and Maria.. Those beautiful little girls! Ahhh
So yeah.. tuesday was just average..

As I predicted, yesterday was a very difficult day, as we had to say goodbye to all the kids on the worksite. two nites ago, after I wrote the update, I made some cards for the little girls, and figured out how, In Spanish, to tell them how much I love them and will miss them and how we have to go back home, and won't see them again. So we gave the cards to the younger girls, who were sort of confused, and were more interested in the pretty flowers and hearts we drew on the paper than the words. We figured that was fair enough, they're young, these things don't phase them. But as soon as I gave Selene her card, (she's 12) she stood there reading it and crying, and then for the rest of the day, didn't let go of us, and cried on and off. It was really hard to deal with.
What made it alot harder was the fact that Sophia, one of the girls, was scheduled to leave that day to go to the states to live with her grandparents, and so Selene had to say goodbye to her as well. So it was a really sad day for her, and us as well.We finished our houses, and we even built a ramp for ours, because the lady who's moving in has a grandson who is in a wheelchair.. It was so nice. I can't wait to get home and post my pictures on here for you all to see! After we dedicated the three houses, we all hopped in our vehicle of choice, and went to the next site, where Noel and his team were building. It just so happened that Sergio offered me and Dara and Tayne a ride in the back of his pick-up truck, which was SOOOOO FUN! And what made it even more fun was the fact that On the way, Sergio stopped the Truck and a whole load of young, cute mexican boys hopped on the back with us.. Ohhhh man.. Oscar, and Martin.. mmm it was great..

So we dedicated all the houses, then, on the way home, stopped in at the City of Angels childrens home, where Brynn is going to be spending the next three weeks. It was amazing, to go in there, and all of a sudden have a dozen children all around you, willing to hug you, willing to be friends with you, even though you've just met them. I think Brynn will do so well there, it's going to be wonderful for her, but difficult at the same time, to be there all alone!

Yesterday was Jon's birthday, he turned fifteen, so we had a Mexican Fiesta! Complete with a mexican meal, cooked by Lupe's family, and a pinyata (I dont know how to spell that, oops!) and just some great fun! The pinyata thing was shaped like Piglet, and I refused to watch it get killed. IT was so cute! awww poor piglet.. but anyways it was a ton of fun, and today, we're headed out to the worksite from last year, so it should be fun. Im sure I'll write again soon

Im headed home tomorrow!

Much Love and kisses
Shle
xoxo

"I've got sunshine
On a cloudy day
When It's cold outside
I've got the month of may
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (Guy, ahhah)"