This week...

Sunday:
Church was nice. A pastor from Canada gave the sermon.
After church, Erin and I joined the Pachecos and many others to watch the US play Mexico in soccer. Elizabeth bet me dinner that Mexico would win. I took her bet. I wanted her to win so we could make her and Gustavo dinner, but I honestly thought she had no chance.
Our whole starting team didn't make the trip. I still thought we would win. But they beat us. They beat us good. 5-0. In football, that is like losing 92-0. There was joy in Mexico. We didn't share that joy. It was fun to be a part of that. They really do like that Erin and I like to watch and play soccer. They like that we root for our team. They REALLY like it when we root for our team and when their team beats our team. Elizabeth said that we can make anything for her, except spaghetti.
Monday:
I was coerced (Erin wants me to say joyfully offered my services to other children of the Lord) into helping to go to the US to pick up some medical equipment for the clinic. On our way up to California, we went through the border. Brendan has something called a Sentri Pass. It is awesome. Instead of an hour at the border, it only took him 8 minutes. You can buy this pass and it saves you time as long as you don't even dare to bring anyone or anything across the border. (one person lost the pass because they brought one avocado) As a result, I jumped out of the van and walked through the pedestrian line. They randomly stopped me and searched my person. I was thoroughly searched. No cavity checks, but let's just say that guy owes me dinner.
We proceeded to Oceanside and back twice, collecting beds and counters and bookshelves. I missed football practice, so I decided to go on Tuesday.
Tuesday:
Erin had clinic in the morning. 9am-1pm. After that, she made a house call with Sarah and her friend Allan to help a guy with an infection. And went out to lunch.
I went to football practice. When I got there, the coach, Tony, suggested we head to Tijuana to play football with his flag football team. I agreed.
Since there was only seven players there that night, we loaded Tony's car and mine, and headed to Tijuana. We stuffed Julio (the gentle giant) into my front seat.
We practiced football under the semi-lit field and did some drills. The guys on Tony's team helped out lineman and our quarterback and then we played some flag football. Our quarterback, Oliver, is starting to get better. It will be exciting to see him develop.
We played until 10pm and then headed back to Rosarito. I asked the guys if they wanted some tacos and they showed me a great place. It was fun to buy them all some food and a bottle of coke or sprite. They seemed grateful. I know I was.
I didn't get home until 11:15pm. Erin was a little worried, but not too much. I was praying that she wouldn't be, since I had no way to communicate to her.
Wednesday:
Today, I got a haircut. Gabriel and I went to get our hairs cut. Since Gabriel bought mine last time, I decided to repay the favor. 90 pesos bought us both a nice new dew. (about 7 bucks)
Then Erin and I went to the daycare center for children's church. Since many of their kids were at a camp in Rosarito, there were only 7 kids. There was also a group there that was going to run the service. So we decided to head back home.
At about 3:15pm, Erin and I had our first Spanish lesson. We asked Sofy if she would spend some time each day speaking Spanish with us. So she joined us for 45 minutes and we conversed about stuff, as she corrected our Spanish. We are excited to be able to expedite our learning process.
Thursday:
Tomorrow we are going to the US for a wedding. My friend, Nick Shupper, is getting married in Malibu. His family allowed me to live in their backhouse during seminary for $100 a month. I am looking forward to catching up with them during this exciting time for them.
Suggested reading:
By the way, I am reading Irresistible Revolution. It is very inspiring.

Jacumé

This past Sunday I (Erin) went to Jacumé, a small town on the outskirts of Tecate. I went with Sarah Mayer, the physician assistant who treats patients in La Mision through Siloe Clinic, a no-cost medical clinic: ( http://www.siloeclinic.org/ ). I volunteer at the clinic Tuesdays and Thursdays. We also went with her friend and colleague Allan Bedashi, who is a physician assistant and interested in missionary medicine. We left early Sunday morning and drove to the Tecate border and met up with a group of six students who have formed a non-profit organization called Students without Borders ( http://www.studentswithoutborders.us/ )

Bobby was our contact and the leader of the group. He created the non-profit and is a student at Cal State Fullerton. I think from the group, Bobby was the only one really interested in practicing medicine in the future, which made it interesting as none of the other students had any medical experience. However, two of the students helped translate and everyone else had been taught to take vitals or asked questions about medications in order do their job.

Picture from convenience store at the Tecate Border

Once we had met, Bobby led us about 30 minutes outside of Tecate and turned onto a dirt road. Even though in La Mision we have dirt roads, we are close to the highway, but in contrast, when we turned onto this dirt road in Jacumé there was no sign of life in any direction. This town was very small and very remote. As we drove into the center of town there were many abandoned buildings and farms along the way. Everything was very spread out, in contrast to the close proximity of houses in La Mision. Jacume is also Ejido land, meaning it is owned communally and has been owned by generations of the people who now live on it. Their land can’t be sold but only handed down to family. We followed the road for quite a while until we came upon a few houses and what looked like a school.

We pulled up next to a small building that was the community center for the town. The clinic is only open once a month, so for the rest of the time the community uses it to hold parties or meetings. Students without Borders used one room as a storage room for medicine and supplies. The other room was where patients were seen by doctors. And the main common room served as the waiting room as well as triage station where students took vitals on the patients.

View of town from Community Center

Jacumé is out in the desert, so as I got out of the car to unload the medical supplies we had brought, I realized it was at least 100 degrees, hot…and I felt really glad I had bought a second bottle of water when we stopped at the convenience store at the Tecate border crossing. Out in this remote part of the desert, during the summer, the town only gets water two hours in the morning and two hours at night. Before Students without Borders started bringing doctors every month, the government would send someone to see patients every three months, and only allowed 5 patients to be seen, so medical care was definitely a need for this town of about 500 people.
We started seeing patients around noon and didn’t stop until 3pm. During that three hours of clinic I did urinalysis on several patients, an ear irrigation (lots of wax build up came out!), and just helped where help was needed. Sarah and Allan took the time to explain or show me some of the more interesting cases they had. And Sarah had brought her 4 month old daughter Noemi along so I also got to hold her some of the time while Sarah saw patients. We were busy the entire time, so even though it was hot, the time passed quickly, there was always something to do. And I think we ended up seeing around 30-40 patients in those 3 hours. We packed up a little after 3, took a picture of the group in front of the building and drove home. The students were driving back to the US and we were headed back to La Mision. I was grateful I was able to help out at this clinic and get to experience a new part of Mexico.

Picture of us infront of the community building with Students without Borders (Erin in green, Sarah holding Noemi, and Allan to her right)

Prayer Requests July 20-26

This week please pray for:

-Wisdom regarding details, leaders, regularity of youth group

-Initial phase of writing a grant to raise money for potential internet café

-Strength for Chad as he is recovering from being sick

Siloe Clinic: Sarah Mayer's colleague, Allan Bedashi, also a physician assistant, will be seeing patients with Sarah this week, please pray that God would bless their work and their patients. For more information about Siloe Clinic visit: http://www.siloeclinic.org/

This past Sunday, July 19 Erin, Allan and Sarah, went to Jacumé, a small town, 15 minutes outside of Tecate to provide medical care with the non-profit group:
Students Without Borders (http://www.studentswithoutborders.us/ ), who also brought a group of about 6 students to volunteer their services for the day. It was a great experience, even though it was over 100 degrees, we were able to provide care to over 30 people. I will write a little more about this experience later.

Allan and Sarah seeing patients at the clinic in Jacumé, Sunday July 19.

Attack!

Yesterday, I was helping my friend, Brendan, put up some plaques and credentials on the wall of the clinic. We needed a drill bit for the concrete, so I went over to the drill bit station here at the church for my drill.

There are two guard dogs here at the church. They stay hooked on their chains most of the time. Brava (which means fierce) is a little Doberman, is a young dog. She likes to bark at random times in the day, and most of the night. She will bark if there is a horse in the area (which is often) and whenever another dog is barking (which is almost always). I am pretty sure she gets quiet when questionable people come around. Ironic.

The other dog, Mogley, is a big Rottweiler. He weighs close to a hundred pounds, maybe more, and is old. His teeth don't work so good, and when he barks, it is more of a howl. He has been a good guard dog.

When I went in to get the concrete bit, I stopped and pet Brava. I don't do this very often, but I like to when I am able to wash my hands soon after. I even taught her how to sit. Even though she just sits and then rolls onto her back.

This particular petting, made Mogley extra jealous. He hasn't been pet in a while. So I proceded on, and Mogley, seeing that I was out of chain range, took a full head of steam and plowed right through the chain's power (which broke) and launched at my legs.

I hate to admit it, but I screamed a little; the kind of scream that would have been louder if I hadn't lost my breath.

Luckily, Mogley didn't kill me. I was too close to react and so Mogley only ended up taking out one of my legs and then going to get Brava. I stepped on the chain and he came back and calmed down quickly. I managed to fake the confidence to pretend like Mogley was a good boy and that he just wanted to be pet, not to eat me. It worked.

I managed to tie him up again after giving him a lot of badly needed attention. It took me another five minutes to regain my optimum heart rate.

As I went down to go to take pictures of the dogs (just now), I found out that Mogley bit another guy today. I saw his pants completely ripped and he was limping. I guess his teeth do work. Yikes!!!!!

First Youth Group

Last night was success. We didn't know what to expect. We had attempted to get the word out, but you still never know. It ended up that they started showing up to the church at a little after 6:30pm.

At first, all the kids were quiet and reserved. I have seen this before. Everyone comes into a new situation with reservations. Questions are floating around in their heads. "Is this going to be lame?" "Will I be bored?" "Are they going to embarrass me?" Except this time, they were thinking it in Spanish. I usually would go up to those kids and talk to them and get to know their names. But I didn't feel that comfortable this time. Instead, I did my best to interact, throwing the football and playing soccer. But there still was a communication barrier as well as all the other stuff going on.

So we started playing the first game. Tying balloons onto people's legs. This got some of them into it. Still, some people were on the sidelines.

So we attempted another game. The chair game. A game that I have never seen fail. We get people in a circle and make people find other chairs. It was then that we saw the walls come tumbling down. All of a sudden, everyone had smiles on their faces. Laughing. Getting along. Getting excited.

We finished with another game and played four songs in Spanish. Then I said a few words about how Jesus stands at the door and knocks....waiting to be invited into our lives. Elio translated for me. Then we prayed and let them go.

Afterwards, our leaders were pumped up. We were so excited that all of our concerns and fears were over, and that the first one was a success.

It is fun to be a part of what God is doing here. This took a lot of time, a lot of prayer, and a lot of nervous sweating. But we are now a step closer to where we want to be.

A fast horse, and a youth group...

I used to take youth group kids to Hansen's Ranch in Shakopee, Minnesota. Kids would get placed on horses that were about the size of themselves. I would request Lightning. Lightning was a big, fast, brown horse. And when I say fast, I mean more than twice as fast as any other horse. At Hansen's, they would let us run a couple of times. That was my favorite part. I learned something with Lightning. Its more fun to pass everyone. In order to do that, I had to hold back Lightning until every horse had gotten going. I would wait until the front horses were around the bend. This was no easy task. Lightning wanted to run. And he knew where the running places were. He was "chomping at the bit." This expression was quite literally true. I had to face Lightning away from where we were going to run, and he would hop, and snort, and try to take off. I would hold him off.
But it was so worth it. Once I let Lightning go, we would fly by the other horses. The kids would look in amazement as I cruised by them....all of them....with plenty of run to spare. He was that fast. The danger came because Lightning had no brakes and we would then take a ride through the trees, but that isn't my point.
My point in this is that Erin and I have waited a long time to get this youth group going. We wanted to get going right away, but we held back. This is why.
Many people from the US come down here to change the world and inflict a better life on those they come in contact with. They come with great intentions, but they create a mess. A mess that other people have to clean up. I was just talking to the parent of 30 or more kids in my youth group (DJ runs the orphanage and they have a lot of teens). He told me about the people who had come down to run youth group and made some messes. He was grateful that we had waited this long and had actually just heard a bunch of people asking about youth group, as he wondered if it was a God thing.
As we waited, we were able to develop some pre-momentum.
We recruited our team of leaders. Laura, Angelica, Edgar, Sofy, Jarilyn, and Lauren, might not have joined us if we had started without them. We had a leaders meeting the other night and were able to share about how God had been working in our lives. It was such a special time. I get amazed at how good we (humans) are at covering up our pain and vulnerabilities, when God is at work with our souls. We also developed some trust in the community before we got started. We have been driving around here and there, going to Quincinieras and birthdays and events at the orphanage. Trust takes time. I think it will help that we have been around a while before we start this new thing.
One thing that we haven't learned, is why youth group has not been running without us. I have a big concern about that. I believe that we will run into it soon enough. Even though we have been invited to run the youth group by the Pastor, we don't want this to happen only because we are here. Instead, we want to be a part of what the church is doing for the community with teenagers in mind.
Erin and I are committed to empowering the leaders to do the work with the youth and give them the tools to be the leaders that God has created them to be. We want the youth group to run with or without us.
For that we are excited. We are chomping at the bit. We have been waiting and waiting until the time is right where we get to develop a youth ministry where kids can come and encounter Christ and see the love of God flowing through the leaders who are there to show them.

Prayer Requests for Week of July 6-12

Hey supporters of La Mision Ministries!
This week please pray for:
-Youth Group: we are having our first actual youth group this Friday July 10th at 6:30pm. Please pray that God has control of it and works in the hearts of the kids that show up.
-Financially: We have established contact for a possible grant through Youthworks. Pray that God would have his hand in this and bless us, and that Youthworks would be interested in supporting our idea for the internet café at the church.
-Healing: Chad has been sick with a cough for a couple weeks now and we just ask for some physical healing for him, that he would have lots of energy and that the Lord would rid his body of this sickness.
Also please pray for our leaders (left from right) Laura, Lauren, Edgar, Angelica, Erin, Sofy and Chad.

Some more ramblings...

Well, today is the first of July. Erin and I were able to go to Seattle in May and to Minnesota in June. We learned some things.
One, travelling is difficult. Getting to the airport is costly and time-consuming.
Two, we love our families.
Three, we missed being here, in Mexico.
Mexico has really become our home more and more. We truly missed our friends here and through our trips, we appreciate the relationships that are developing here.
Also, I (Chad) have returned with a new fire for working in the community. I view the first 5 months that we were here as the learning months. Now I am moving onto the doing months. Even if we don't know what we are doing, we are going to do it.
And I am excited about it.
I just finished reading the Bible. It took me one year and a half and a day, but I made it through. My Spanish is getting better. And I have this sense that things are happening here for Jesus.
Yesterday, we went to the US to grocery shop and to pick up our friends, Daniel and Heidi, from the airport. We also picked up 30 gallons of milk for the orphanage. When we got to the orphanage, a few people said hello to us and a couple of boys helped us carry in the milk (without being asked). Then we were asked by our friend, Josue, if we would take his wife to her house, and so we did, of course. And when we got back to church, we were able to give some groceries to Gonzalo and his family that we had bought in the US. This, to me, is living.
Later on that night, we had dinner with the other missionaries in the community, and when we returned, we were greeted by a group of kids who were so excited to see us that they mobbed our car.