t-3 hours until icecream

Church, church, and more church...I feel like I've been living at church since I got back from Mexico. This morning was our Easter run through. All the songs, dancing, dramas, and leading got walked through to be sure everything is set for tomorrow. There are so many people working hard to participate and make Easter something extraordinary. It's awesome. The dance has really come together and we're all eager to use it as a means of praise tomorrow! The Ambient Art team showed up bright and early this morning and began setting up the new display in the corner of the sanctuary. It's going to be beautiful. It started off looking like a flower garden gone wild and turned into a lovely piece of art. The scaffolding and ladders came out as the crown of glory needed to be put up by the crown of thorns. What a job!

After four hours of run through, I had to dash up to the botanical gardens to take pictures of the Maria Evans Ministry ladies! What a blast! All four women had such wonderful personalities and made the shoot very enjoyable. I really miss taking pictures like this. When I was finished with the four of them, I got to take pictures of Rachel. She is hands down one of the most photogenic kids I know! Before I left for Mexico, she came with her dad to see us off and we took a picture together so she could make it onto my blog. She watches America's Next Top Model as much as I do. She watches for the modeling, I watch for the photography ideas. We worked well together! There was a wedding going on at the gardens as well, and what a perfect time of year as everything is colorful, blooming, and green! We watched the bride walk toward her groom. Beautiful!

I made a last minute run to the grocery store and bought two half gallons of chocolate moose tracks for tomorrow. Two for $5. It's never been that cheap. After 40 days, it's time!

My wake up call tomorrow is set for 3:45 a.m. I'm heading to bed at 9:00 and am ready for Jesus to rise so I can eat ice cream!

remembrance

My fingernails are officially black again for this Good Friday. Bob and Greg put me on the welcome and theme intro and said, "No happy hamster dance." At the 12 o'clock service, it went well. I can be serious and somber, but would much rather be energized and happy. It was a moving service as we read through and visually watched the Biblical stations of the cross and touched the crown of thorns.

Today was just down in general. I went along with Bob to a memorial service on the beach for a 16 year old boy who died last year when he got hit while crossing the street. Family and friends gathered at Hermosa Beach to sing songs, say a few words, Bob spoke, to pray, release balloons with notes tied to them, and then "paddle out." It's an old Hawaiian tradition where surfers paddle out on their boards beyond the breaking point. They carry flowers with them and gather in a circle. Each person says something about the person who died and then throws their flower into the center of the circle. It was incredibly moving to see these young people say such meaningful things about his life and what it means to them now. Once we were done, we all tried riding a wave in, though they were small and breaking on the shore. No pressure when fifty people are standing on the shore watching you. Oh well, it didn't matter. It was meaningful and I felt blessed to be a part of it.

While we were in the water, Bob looked at his watch and said to me, "It's 6:06!" We had worship at 7. So, we paddled in for our wave and got out as fast as we could. My hair was wet, I was in a wetsuit, and we had a 2 block walk back to the van. We took off our suits as fast as we could and pulled out cosmetic bags to quickly get ready. This was a high lite moment of internship. My supervisor and I getting ready for worship in the van! I had to laugh. Bob drove, so I stuck my head out the window to try and dry my hair as much as possible. We arrived at church at 6:35 and it was go time. One lady saw me running toward the office in my swimsuit and beach towel. BUSTED! 15 minutes to get dressed, dry my hair, find my mic pack and be in the prayer chapel. I did it and beat Bob! The 7:00 service was incredibly meaningful as well, but I'm ready for Easter! Bring on the Resurrection!

picturing failure

It's a good thing the Holy Spirit is present during worship. Especially when I'm preaching. After worship tonight I felt like crying. My sermons have gotten better and better as internship continues, but tonight I feel like it hit rock bottom. I'm not sure if the short preparation time caught up with me, or if I just sucked it up. Standing behind the pulpit, I was agitated. Not sure if this happens to you ever, but little things were getting to me. First, the air conditioning was on, so it was blowing freezing cold air directly at me. The wind was blowing my hair all over and my papers were shuffling in the wind. I was getting frustrated. Then, I bobbled a few lines. More frustrated. I wore a big gaudy ring and kept consciously fidgeting with it. More frustrated. By the time I sat down I could only thank God it was over. The best part: opening the sermon by taking pictures of the congregation as a snapshot to remember them by. I went on to tie that into Jesus creating a snapshot for us in the Lord's Supper that we are to remember him by. We went on to celebrate Holy Communion by eating bread from within a trough cross and dipping it into chalices at the points on the cross where Jesus' wounds were. It was very meaningful.When worship was over, Bob directed me to the 'preacher door' where I had to stand and greet people. For once, I didn't want to do it. Amazingly, people walked through and raved about the sermon. What in the sam?? Seriously? It didn't make any sense. I guess the Holy Spirit worked something tonight, and this is proof. Because without her, I probably would've gotten pummeled.

adios Mexico!

This week has flown by. It's hard to believe we've gone from an empty lot to a full fledged home in less than 4 days. Today was the day for a final coating of stucco, and a few last minute touches. By lunch time we were handing the keys over to the owners and blessing their homes. It was incredibly touching to pray with the families, and hear their response to the building. The woman in our home said God richly blesses her each day and we've been an additional blessing to her. It amazes me the way people who have so very little are often those who are thankful for the most. Trips like this need to be taken by every spoiled American (myself included) who think life sucks at times. It has been a true reality check/gratitude increaser to spend spring break in Mexico.

I'm no where near fluent in Spanish, but I always enjoy trying to communicate with Spanish speaking people. The neighbor to the house we were building was always outside helping and watching. I finally got the courage to go and talk to him after 2 days. We had a great talk. He told me about his family, how he used to work construction, and about the beaches nearby. When we were getting ready to leave today he approached me with a picture and said he wanted me to have it. It was a photo of him and his son standing next to a very large tree. It wasn't a polaroid but a one of a kind photo. He kept saying, "you have it," but I didn't want to take the only picture he may have had of the two of them. So, I kindly said no and told him he should keep it. We took a picture together so I could remember him that way. Yet another example of his incredible gratitude and generosity even of something that was probably very dear to him.

Members of Good Shepherd had been donating school supplies and backpacks all last week, so it was awesome to hand them out to the children of the neighborhood. They lined up by age and waited to receive their treats. Quilts, books, and Spanish Bibles were also given to our families. Perhaps the greatest gift (even over the house we built) was the gift of a water filtration system that would provide the family with purified drinking water for a lifetime. Some of these families have to choose whether they want to send their children to school or whether they want to buy drinking water. Now they can choose education. We were back at camp loading up the final things by lunch time, and were on the road shortly after. It took us an hour and forty minutes to get across the border. The line outside of Tijuana is always super long. Back home now at 6:30 and it's time to get moving on this Maundy Thursday sermon. It could be a long night. Adios.

where or where can my dovely be?

Is Kevin cute or what? If only he could come with to help build houses. That'd be awesome. Because we kicked some major booty yesterday on our house, we were way ahead of the others when we arrived at the site. All we needed to do was apply a few finishing touches on the chicken wire and get the door and windows in and we'd be set. After lunch, we were mixing stucco and applying it to the house. It took 45 minutes. So we all pitched in and helped on the other houses. By 2:30 we were finished and heading back to camp. An afternoon to relax.

Showers, sermon prep/nap, wood carvings with Bob (he made swords, I made a sweet knife), and a photo shoot to end all photo shoots. What a great afternoon for getting to know eachother and a great way to spend a few hours. Lynne and her kitchen crew made an amazing Mexican meal for supper. Complete with fresh strawberry pie for dessert. OH BABY! Because we had so many extra strawberries to eat, we dished them up separately and ate them with whipped cream! I have to say that all the hype about how nasty awful it is to camp in Mexico, it really hasn't been that bad. The bathrooms aren't horrible, the food is amazing, and even though I wake up each morning to a pancake of an air mattress, it has been wonderful. Highly recommended to even the faintest of campers! Here are a few shots from day #3!

i miss you, dove!

I had Kevin reserve blog post dates for me while I was gone, so I'm keeping his titles because they're so cute.

Day two: no wind. Thank you, God! Hello sun! It was hot hot hot! More sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, and time to get to work. It took a long time to get level ground and concrete down yesterday, so we were a little behind on our wall building. All the wood is cut by hand. No electric saws whatsoever! Cutting 2.25 inch pieces was a nightmare, but someone had to do it! One thing I've noticed so far on this trip is that the tedious work gets left to the women. Men have no patience to see a job all the way to completion. Especially the high school boys. If something newer or more fun came along, they'd stop what they're doing and start the more exciting project. So, all the shoveling, cleaning, and finish work got left to us women.

I was getting a little frustrated with all the sexist talk going on, so I decided to hop on the roof and show them how capable women are of doing this kind of work. Hammering plywood to the roof, inserting planks, leveling, and climbing. Someone finally said, "You've obviously swung a hammer before." I spent the rest of the day up there securing the plywood, putting tar on the roofing materials, measuring finishing work, hammering shingling, and problem solving. This is my kind of a mission trip. Getting dirty, working hard, and helping others. By the end of the day today, our house was completely roofed, and covered in chicken wire in preparation for stucco tomorrow.

Back at camp we enjoyed a night of singing, Bible study, yummy food, and the high schoolers taught me how to play a game called 'signs.' 26 years of my life wasted not knowing how to play this game. Super fun...easy and portable! They're a great group of young people to be here on this trip. A group of us young adults were asked to lead the high schoolers in our small group discussion time, and it was cool to hear strangers open up and share their lives and experiences with each other--even outside their immediate group of friends!

Bienvenidos!

After surviving the evening winds, they continued well into the morning. Our poor cook crew handed us wonderful bowls of fruit only to have them destroyed by the dust and dirt blowing in the air. I ate as much as I could before throwing it away. Granular food...not so great. The tents looked like they were about to die on our way out of the camp site. I hope they can hold on until we get back! All of our work gear on, and the trucks loaded up, we headed out to see our sites.

The families we were sent to help had just moved into new houses a month ago after their old houses flooded. When I say 'new' houses I mean four walls made of old double garage doors, and a hole cut for the door. Amor Ministries works with the churches in the area and builds homes for people who need them (which is pretty much everyone). There is a waiting list for homes of up to a year and a half. We were going to attempt to build three of them.

The goal for day one is to mix cement and get the cement block set for overnight drying, and build as many walls as possible. Mixing, shoveling, hoeing, and pouring concrete by hand is quite the job. Without a skid loader, leveling the ground is a difficult job. Shoveling, raking, picking the dirt to get it as level as we possibly could. I've always wanted to learn how to finish concrete, so my team let me work my magic on our block. I showed Greg Barker (a professional concrete man) a thing or two about how to finish concrete. By the end of the day, he was taking tips from me on how to do it! :)

The homeowners were walking around watching us work today. They were never seen without a smile on their faces. Gratitude spilled out their eyes, mouths, and hands. One man even grabbed a shovel and pitched in to help us move rocks and dirt. Mothers with little babies walked by on the street, children with broken, dirty bikes and toys, and vendors selling bracelets, ponchos, blankets, and all kinds of native goods. Sleeping in a tent for 3 nights is nothing compared to living this way. I'm so glad we came to help these families.

Back at camp the poor cook crew continued to battle the wind. We decided to take down the Taj Majal this morning for its own safety, so we had to try and fix it once we got back to camp. The wind was down a little, but still shooting across the open land. We still managed to take a solar shower in the wind. It was by no means pleasant, but at least it got the first level of dirt off our faces and out of our ears. I piled on about 5 layers of sunscreen today. It'll be months before I get it all off! Another sandy supper, no worship tunes due to the weather, and we were back in our half inflated mattress. Let's pray the tents stay put tonight.

load 'em up, move 'em out

I never sleep well the night before leaving for a mission trip. Did I pack the right stuff? Don't forget this or that. Did I set my alarm? All the questions in the world kept spinning in my head before I finally fell asleep. Of course, my alarm never got to ring. I beat it up.

Bill and I drove to church together. We pulled in the lot at 7:28 (supposed to leave at 7:30) and only 5 people were there. This is how Californians roll. Packing, pictures, and prayer, and we were ready. We didn't get on the road until 8:30. Thanks to my weak stomach, I now get to ride in the front seat, and got put in the large van with a group of wild kids! What fun! All the way down the coast we drove. Occasionally we'd get close enough to the ocean and could see the surfers and waves down near San Diego. Sounds like a trip needs to be made there this summer for the great beginner sized waves.

We stopped for lunch to allow the RV time to catch up, we walked down to the post office to mail the Easter cards I forgot to drop off at church, and then went to the Amor Ministries office to get all the information we'd need for the trip. Finally after all the paperwork, parking permits, and escorts were arranged, we were ready to head for the border. It's cool to be able to see a large city in the distance with the largest Mexican flag I've ever seen waving in the center of town. We crossed the border with no trouble (apparently they don't care what we bring into their country), and we escorted by the Mexican Police through the city of Tijuana. It didn't look too scary during the day, but it was reassuring to have the police helping us through. When we arrived at camp it was time to start setting up the food tents, fire pit, and our tents. The only problem: we were dealing with 30-40 mph straight line winds and we were out in the middle of no where. It took all of us to hold down the poles, ties, and tarps as we tried assembling camp. I enjoyed turning the tent poles into a jungle gym and holding it down with my body weight. Amy liked trying to tickle me. :)

Amy borrowed a tent for her, Heather, and I. When she pulled it out of the bag, all the other campers let out a groan. It was a 6-8 person tent for the three of us. Complete with a screened in porch. No other tents even came close. We decided to name it the Taj Mahal. The cooking crew started preparing supper as we all got settled but the wind wouldn't let up. We all ate sandy chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, and desserts. Fortunately, we were so hungry, nobody cared. By dusk the temperature had really dropped so we all suited up in our warm clothes (courtesy of Jane) and warmed up by the fire. The only hat I could find in the house was this black tie hat with a giant ball on the top. We all decided it could double as a loofah, so it became the laughing stock of the night. Worship songs, devotions, then time for bed.

Amy and I shared a queen sized air mattress. By midnight it was deflating. At 2:30 a.m. people were rustling around outside the tent so we went to see what was going on. The wind had gotten so nasty strong, our food tent completely tipped over. Stuff was flying everywhere. So, everyone threw on their shoes and helped out. It was great to see so many people pitching in to help with the clean up. This wake up gave Amy and I a chance to refill our air mattress and go back to bed once we were done. We thought for sure the wind would let up in the night. It didn't. Our tent poles started bending, a few metal pieces snapped, and our rain tarp got ripped. All on night one. I woke up again at 6:00 a.m. and filled our air mattress for the third time. I knew there was a reason why I prefer hotel rooms at night.