At the border

We are now sitting at the border, waiting to cross.

Adam Van Dop

Back in Seattle!!

Just a heads up to everyone, WE ARE BACK IN SEATTLE!!!

Please pray that this final leg of the journey will be fast!! And that the border crossing will be epically smooth!!

Adam Van Dop

Day 8 :: packed up

Good morning!!

We're all packed up and ready to go! We just have to load the van, and make way for the train station.

As a reminder, you can follow our progress on the train through Amtrak.com (more instructions in one of the first blog posts)

Day 7 :: beach day!

This morning we woke up at the church in Chula Vista, had breakfast and attended the service - where they were celebrating 5 baptisms of new believers!! Pastor Randy then spoke on how Jesus said "blessed are the poor" - he talked about how we are all poor, not just in the sense of our bank accounts or lack thereof - but of being poor in spirit. He said that the blessing flows when we fully realize just how poor we are - how empty we are. It is in that state of mind that we realize out need for God and following his Son!

I learnt that lesson today again - that when we come to the point of admitting our brokenness, blessings follow. I thank The Lord for teaching that to me today.

Following the service, we got lunch, and found our way to Mission Beach. Everyone laughed at us Canadians for wanting to soak up some sun rays - but it appeared that half of California wanted to do the same. The parking lot was jam packed (ask Rudy about his parking adventure), as was the beach. However we still enjoyed an afternoon in the sun.

We stopped for some groceries for the train ride home, cleaned up, and had our final high-low sharing time.

Highs were mainly the relaxing time at the beach after such a long week of none stop service and activity.

Lows were primarily in the idea that my alarm is set for 3.00am and we have two very long days ahead of us.

So that's it - our trip is near over. We've had an amazing time, The Lord has blessed is so richly, The Lord has challenges us all in so many different ways. I really cannot wait for you all to start hearing the stories.

A few prayer requests:
- at this point, 26 people have been living together for 9 days - pray that our final two days moving into even closer quarters will be pleasant and used for times of reminiscing and remembering the good we got to be a part of.
- pray for our trip home, for safety on the train, for our drivers, for the connection in LA and for our bus driver (Bob) who will meet us in Seattle.

Adam Van Dop

Day 6 :: School service projects and leaving

Today was a hard day to wake up to, we all knew it was the last. 

We has an opportunity to go support a local school whose students were made up of orphan girls.  We again pulled weeds, and planted shrubs, build a fence, and pulled more weeds.  We were able to help make their school more pleasant - work that would have taken the caretakers weeks to complete.  One of the amazing things, was that we got to spend time with a missionary that we worked with in San Diego in 2011!!! Neither of us had any idea that our meeting there at the school would take place.

Our day there came to an end, we got more taco's, and churros, and returned to the base camp to pack up and clean up.

That was sad - it always is

We got our final team photo, shook hands, gave hugs with our staff - and loaded the vans, and pointed north - heading for the busiest border crossing in the world.  After a series of interesting maneuvers and a bump here and there - we got into the line up at 4.45pm.  Where we were met with a barrage of people selling their wares and beggars looking for some spare change.

Around one corner, and around another, over a bridge, and around another corner - 3.5 hours later, we sat at the crossing.  All passed through without issue, while out luggage van got sent for inspection.

We got back to the church here in Chula Vista, went for dinner, and returned to our luggage - set up our rooms, and shut the lights off.

This truly has been an impacting trip.  The Lord has tugged hard on so many hearts, and has begun new work in them.  I have had conversation after conversation about understanding the voice of God and about reconciling past hurt. 

Can you all continue to pray that we will all be able to fully digest what all has happened here, and come to a firm understanding of just how exactly the Lord has been at work.

Tomorrow, we worship here at the church, and will head to the beach to enjoy some freedom before getting on the train on Monday morning.

Thanks all for your continued support and prayer! - none of this would be possible without any of that!!!

-Adam.

Day 5 :: Orphanage

Today we got the privilege to be the guests at a local orphanage - to do a variety of things.  We started the day working on their property, and weeding gardens and pathways while the children were still in their school sessions.

Once the sessions were done, some of our group prepared the hot dog lunch for the children and ourselves.  We served them - and they were amazed at the sight of their lunch.  We were told that these children only get to eat meat once a week - if they are lucky.  The children were eating 3 - 4 - even 5 hot dogs each. 

Following lunch, a few cleaned up, giving the few kids who were scheduled to clean a day off - to go play.  And play they did - there were frisbees, jump-rope, basketball, soccer, crafts, coloring ... a little bit of everything - while a few of us kept on attacking those pesky weeds.

We said our good-byes, some of which were hard - because these kids get so little attention, and so few visitors - these visits are really bright days for them.

You might be wondering - "what good comes of the team spending a day at the orphanage?" - Our being there as a team - gives YWAM a reason to be there, and allows them to build a relationship with this orphanage, and allows the YWAM staff to connect with the leadership ans support them and their needs as they seek to raise children in a christian 'home.' 


We returned to the base, had a chance to breath and relax before dinner - had dinner, and then joined together for our night session.  In this session, our speaker shared about our need to be listening to God's voice, and to be seeking understanding from him for our lives.  We were encouraged to sit in silence and ask the Lord to speak to us, and to pray for each others needs when we felt lead to do so.  Students prayed for students, and leaders for students.  It was an amazing night of many feeling the Lord speak to them in different ways.

We concluded the night with forgoing our usual high-low routine, allowing for some very needed free time, while us leaders met and prayed for our day tomorrow.

It was a great day today, however it being our last full day here in Mexico.  This time has gone by quickly, perhaps all to quickly.  Many youth feel as through they want to stay longer, come back again, or just plain never leave (and others wishing they could take some of the kids home with them...). 

I can't wait for you all to actually hear of individual stories and reflections.

Adam.

ps.  I'm going to leave you with this view of the sunset tonight, a view from the front steps of the main building at the base.  We're truly blessed to have called this home for the past 5 days.

Prayer Requests:
- Tomorrow, we start our journey home, first by making our way off the base, and across the border back into the US.  Where we'll stay at a church for the night, worship with them on Sunday, and follow that with a relaxing day before getting on the train on Monday morning.  Pray for a speedy border line, and a friendly/understanding/sympathetic border guard.
- Tomorrow, we have our final tasks here.  We are going a local school to complete a series of work projects, before packing up.  Pray that our work will be meaningful to the existing relationship between this school and YWAM.

Day 4 :: Children's Ministry

Dining/meeting hall

Beep beep beep, 7 o'clock came around too early this morning, but somehow getting out of bed isn't that hard when you know that today, you have a mission.

At 7:30 am we marched on over to the dining hall, ate some delicious (and some not so nutritious cereal) followed by morning devotions, led by Pepe, a YWAM staff member. He shared with us what God had placed on his heart about certain team members; Josh, Moira, Wes, and Kenko all received what they said felt like the Holy Spirit was talking to them through Pepe.

We then broke off into our smaller encouragement groups. We talked about our trip so far, our highs and lows, we prayed about each others concerns and what we feel God placing on our hearts.

Wes sharing about trusting in the Lord

Our Mission for today was to go to a village and take part in helping run their thursday afternoon children's ministry. We opened that up by singing, starting in English and trying a verse or two in Spanish...we weren't very good but definitely earned an A in effort. We then played duck duck goose with the younger kids and charades with the older ones.

We then went to the local street market where some of us bartered, and others willingly accepted the prices... then we headed for the classic, tacos-round two. Wes' high from today came from the taco shop, where Moira discretely slipped away to buy tacos for a beggar, who had been watching us eat. 

Beef tacos

We arrived back at the base, just in time for our worship time. We spent a good chunk of time  singing, then our host, Mark led a speech on sin, not just any regular speech, but a moment that we will never forget. We wrote down our sins on a piece of paper, put them in a plastic bag and then "finished" off in prayer. During the prayer, we heard loud shouts and banging coming from the other room. Most of us confused, and thinking to ourselves how rude and disruptive some people were being being, and then we were in shock when the doors flew open and a bunch of men ran into our session. A man dressed in white (who represented Jesus), was dragged to the front, whipped, humiliated and was holding the bag with our sins in it. He was dragged back outside, we were left unsure what we were to do until we were yelled at to "GET UP"!! We lined up single file and marched our ways out the door. The man in white was lying on the ground, just in a cloth with his back covered in red. He began to carry a cross, with the forced help of Rich. We marched up the hill and witnessed the man in white being raised on a cross, most of us, having tears streaming down our faces. We closed that of in group prayers and some us rededicating our lives to serving God.

-Hailey McGrail and Brittany Beukens

Prayer Requests
- That the work that the Lord is doing in the lives of these youth would continue.
- That although we are getting more and more tired by the day, that our ministry to the Mexican people would be effective!
- That those who are tired, would find rest.
- That our final full day will be an amazing day!

-Adam
ps - thanks Hailey and Brittany!
pss - sorry about the lack of pictures tonight - it's getting too late.