Off to Vicente Guerrero

No more resting.

By resting, it meant working. We had Pastor’s birthday party on Monday night, we’ve been working on getting our newsletter ready to go to the printer (by the way, thanks to Brett Hallonquist at www.atomicdl.com for donating his amazing talents to us), church on Thursday night, and then youth group last night.

Youth group turned out to be really fun. We had a bunch of kids show up and we played musical chairs (who knew how fun that could be?) and then had white elephant gifts for everykid who showed up. Then we had three good gifts (candy with 20 pesos), mixed in with the random gifts.

After we had them open them up, we asked the three kids if they wanted to trade their gift for something else. Luckily only one wanted to exchange. Alejandro gave up his candy and 20 pesos and we had him open up another gift. It was a big bag of cookies and 100 pesos.

I told the parable that Jesus taught us, about the worker who finds a treasure in the field, buries it, and then sells EVERYTHING he has and buys the field, and therefore buys the treasure.

Why? Because he knew how great the treasure is.

It’s really an easy decision if you understand how great the treasure is that is offered to us.

That is the greatest gift of the season. And it’s not just for when we die. The Kingdom of Heaven is here.

As we prepare to go and serve the people of Vicente Guerrero, we go with the knowledge of this gift. We are excited to learn about how the operation of Foundation For His Ministry is helping to serve the people. (check them out at www.ffhm.org) We will be working along side a group from Seattle’s Bethany Community Church (our home church) and doing whatever it is that we can do to humbly serve and learn more about the Kingdom of Heaven and how it is alive and at work.

Pray for us in these ways:

• That we would get to know our group from the US
• That we would learn about the ministry
• That we would eat well (we hear the food ain’t so great)
• That we would encounter God in a new way, in this new context.

Blessings to you this Holiday Season!

Mission Trip to Constitucion!

6am Thanksgiving Morning:

Gathered at the church for our Mission Trip to Ciudad Constitucion. We loaded up into a van full of people…but there wasn’t enough room for everyone. So we offered to drive.

11:30pm Same night.

Stopped at a gas station closed to Rosalia. Slept in our car.

5:30am Next morning

Woke up to the sun rising over the Gulf of California. Continued driving.

8am Scouted our camping spot for the way home.

12noon. Friday.

Arrived in Constitution

Ate lunch that was waiting for us.

Looked at the church.

Tried to find a camping spot.

Didn’t like it.

Went back to the home of Pastor Antonio and his wife Christine.

Set up camp.

6am Saturday

Woke up and went to the outhouse.

Started working on the church.

6pm Saturday

Church service. Chad played guitar. Served hot dogs after.

9am Sunday

Back to work for the next few days…

 

Lunch was bought for the next day.

This is Pastor Antonio.

Progress. We ended up building the wall up this high all around the circumference. And cemented it in.

Thursday Morning. We said goodbye.

This was the sunrise and the tarp where Erin and Chad slept.

 

This was the beach where we slept along the way.

We were greeted with a warm welcome back at the church and a breakfast of fried chicken.

Mission Ciudad de Constitucion

Only two days left until our mission trip to Southern Baja. This Thursday (Thanksgiving morning), 20 of us will pile into 3 vehicles and drive 20+ hours to the south of the Baja peninsula.

This is actually the first trip that this church has taken to Constitucion, although they did go on a pre-trip last year to see the site.

The 20 people consist of Pastor, and his wife, five Americans, 3 kids from Door of Faith Orphanage, a few guys from the rehab center, and the rest are people from the church. They are a great group of people. 10 of the people speak English pretty well, and Erin and I are the only ones who struggle with Spanish. Although we are very excited that we will be able to communicate better than we did on our last trip.

We are not sure of the work we are doing, but we know that it will be helping in the construction of a church and we will be very busy. We are going to help support the work of two missionaries and their children that we know.

Prayer requests:

• Health (Erin and I are feeling a little sick and don’t want to be sick for the trip)
• Cohesiveness with the group.
• That vehicles would work.
• Protection from the donkey meat.
• That God would be glorified in this trip.

Please let us know if you are willing to support us through prayer! This is a very important part of the trip!

2 Missions to Baja

We are excited to finally decide to officially attend two mission trips in the next month. The first will be led by our Pastor Gustavo to Ciudad de Constitucion. We will drive down for 20 hours or more and help a poor area with construction, kid programs and nightly services.

Then, on December 11th, we will be joining a group from Bethany Community Church in Seattle as they travel to an orphanage located a few hours south of Ensenada. We will help in whatever way we can with Spanish and music and build relationships from our church as we serve the children together.

We really need financial support to make this happen. If you would like to help us to raise money for these trips or even to help support someone from our church to go, please contact us or donate via Paypal on our website, or blog.

Helio to the Rescue

Chad hired Helio to do a patch job on an exposed wall we had on our house. Helio works in construction around town and like all other people is having difficulty getting regular work. As you may (or may not) recall, last winter as result of said leaky wall we had mushrooms growing up out of the carpet. So, we are very glad to help out a friend with work and to protect ourselves from leaky rainy walls. Which was finished just in time as we had 90 degree weather last week and today had rain. Just a small note of life from our side of the border.

Also, as a post note: Helio is now married. We were honored to attend his wedding October 17, 2010 to Monica.  It was a very beautiful intimate wedding up at DJ and Lynette’s house (American administrators of Door of Faith Orphanage). 

Congratulations to Helio and Moni!

 

October 31st

Normally, I like to have pictures with our posts, but I wanted to share the special time that we had this past week.
Our day started out normal. Church, lunch, check football scores.
Then we went up to the Open Arms Daycare. They were having a 'harvest' party since it was October 31st. They had kids and families come and make bags for candy, and then Erin and I played worship and we heard a sermon on the evils of Halloween.
Here in Mexico, this time of the year is rich with death. November 1st is Day of the Dead and people take meals and flowers to cemeteries and spend the night. One friend told me that they used to bring tequila to the grave of his father for that night, (because the father liked tequila) and then drink it the next day.
After the sermon, the kids were treated to carnival games and were given tons of candy and food. It was fun.
Erin helped make a cake and a pie for the cake walk!
She also made a cake for our friend Griselda. It was her birthday. We decided to surprise her and bring a cake.
We got to her house and knocked on the door. No one home. As we started to turn to leave, we heard a women's voice yelling at us to come! We only realized it was her once we saw her and her three children running down the steep dirt hill to come and get us.
We gave her the cake and she invited us up to the house of her mother. They were having a party. Her mother was a wrinkly Catholic woman with a scarf on her head. She instantly introduced us to her son (Griselda's brother) and then offered us a tortilla until the tamales were ready. We weren't intending to eat there, but there was no way we were going to leave without it. Kids were everywhere. Griselda's brother had 5 and they were trying to find costumes to go trick or treating.
It was a tense moment, as I look back. They weren't sure if we were going to be offended by the costumes. They made sure that we were not.
Soon, we shared the room with a scary bride, a duck, a pumpkin, and a couple of princesses.
No one spoke English, and Erin and I sat around the table and had a great talk with the adults as the high energy of the kids were around us.
Erin was smart enough to bring a gift and Griselda opened it up before we left. It was the only gift she got.
It's moments like these that make me so grateful to live where we do.

A little of this, a little of that.

Busy times.

But good times.

Chad preaching at church on Sunday.

This group is now commissioned to be the youth leaders.

Played some worship for the building dedication at the DayCare.

Lost the first football game, 28-0. But we looked good.

It was 103 degrees.

Miriam, Erin, Sarah, and Lauren outside of the clinic door.

Erin and I were invited to Shayla’s first birthday party.

Steve Maas

My friend Steve Maas visited us here in La Mision from South Florida. Unfortunately, Kim, his awesome wife, had to stay back with their two kids. Steve and I grew up together going to the same church and were in the same small group all through high school. It was nice to get to show him what we do and then get to watch the Vikings play football together. We don't get chances to hang out with other Minnesota sports fans where we live.

Check out what Steve wrote about his trip:

Greater Things
I have been following Chad and Erin through their newsletters and blog entries. Kim and I have supported them through prayer and whatever little bit we could give over their time in La Mision. Kim and I decided it would be a good idea for me to see the wonderful things that they are doing firsthand. Chad and Erin have found many creative ways to get involved in the community. Chad is busy in the church downstairs playing in the band and welcoming members of the church. He works very hard to communicate primarily in Spanish and seems to be coming along well. They are both trying hard to get to know and care for many members of the community, building relationships and helping out. Chad is doing an excellent job as an assistant coach for a football team in Rosarito. By football, I mean American football, the kind with a quarterback and tackling. He is very committed to teaching the foreign concepts of the game, being upbeat through long practices and creating a positive environment for the kids despite no financial compensation and wretched practice facilities and equipment. Erin is lending her time to the free health clinic at the church. She does whatever she can to help out so people in the community with little means can have a place to go when they are sick. In addition, they help lead children’s church every week at a free day care center, Chad on the guitar and vocals, and Erin on the keys, and maybe a guest padding the drums a bit. They also commit time to the large orphanage down the road. I really enjoyed watching them love so many different people in the community, from the greatest to the least. I admire the way they have made themselves readily available to be the hands and feet for the people of this region without expecting anything in return. It truly is a breath of fresh air and provokes me to think bigger about how I am reaching out to the community around me. I was sad to leave such an inspiring place where I was able to witness Chad and Erin(and their church family) responding to the Holy Spirit. I hope to visit again soon with my whole family in tow. You guys are doing some incredible things and I am so glad I was able to spend some time along for the ride. Kim and I will continue to pray for you both and the people of the La Mision community.

Football is back

After returning from our trip to Ohio and Washington, suddenly football is in full swing!
Steve Maas, a friend that I grew up with in Minnesota, came with me to football practice last night and there were 30 kids there. We ran some drills and threw some patterns and then ran our offense.
My God child, Luis, who just started high school at the school where I coach, has decided to play football. Here is the problem. He needs to buy his own football pants and other small equipment. Then hopefully the school will provide the helmet and shoulder pads.
But there are 10 or 15 kids sitting on the sidelines while we practice because we don't have enough pads.
If you have a desire to sponsor Luis, we are going to go to the states this Friday and hopefully purchase some of the pads so that he can begin playing more during practice.
Our first game is in two weeks! (and we are a long way from ready, but way better than last year)

Three things:

1. Check out updates at Siloe Community Clinic

www.siloeclinic.org

I’ve been adding new pictures of our work and wrote a couple blog posts.

 

 

2. Last week I made pizza with the two classes I teach summer cooking classes to at Open Arms Childcare. It was delicious and the kids had a blast. Toppings? Cheese, pineapple, pepperoni and red bell peppers!

This week we are making chocolate chip cookies.

3. Youth Group:  Our service project was awesome to be a part of. As quoted from leader Lauren Bell,  “This past Saturday (August 8th) the youth group gathered at church and went out into the community of La Mision to help clean up. They collected 32 bags of trash!  Please continue to keep us in your prayers. God is doing big things here.”   

Another Friday night

Last night we had another youth group.

Our plan:

• Go play soccer to attract other kids from town
• Invite them to youth group
• Play X-treme Volleyball
• Four songs
• A talk to inspire the kids for a service day (today at 3pm)
• Pizza…mmmm…..

As I prepared for it, I realized that doing youth group here is a scary thing for me. I have been doing youth ministry stuff for a long time, and I have grown very comfortable. But here is a different story. Language is a huge barrier for me. I feel like an outsider and I have to work so hard to accomplish what I think needs to happen.

But then it hit me. I don’t feel comfortable. All of a sudden, the phrase, “out of my comfort zone,” came to mind. And that is exactly where I need to be. I don’t want to be there. I don’t choose to be there. But to follow Jesus, it is exactly where I need to be.

As a result, my attitude changed. I was really into the night last night. I was present. I was attempting to have conversations that I found myself shying away from before. And as I faced my fears, there was a sense of peace in me that I hadn’t felt before at youth group.

Our plan seemed to work. We were able to get some guys from the community that don’t normally come. And everybody had a good time.

We will see how many kids show up to the service project today. (and we will see what we do, because we are just  going to show up, pray and go)