The last eleven days were absolutely wonderful and exceeded my expectations on most fronts. I have a lot more pictures than I will post here, but hopefully this will give you an idea of my time in Mexico!
We drove down and left Sunday morning (4th of July). Drove through the night and made minimal stops along the way. The scenery was absolutely stunning! Especially Mt. Shasta and driving through that region. The van I was in was great. Had some good conversations, played some fun games and slept intermittently as well.
In-N-Out Burger is always a favorite stop along the way. They have fresh burgers and fresh fries that they make and cut right there! So tasty! I hadn't driven down to California in a long time, so it was fun. And it was great to get to know people on the trip while driving down.
Monday morning we arrived in San Diego where we spent the day. We went to Mission Beach which has a boardwalk and an amusement park right on the beach-so fun! It was great just walking around because the atmosphere was amazing. And we went wave jumping as well because the waves at this beach were awesome. My favorite is when you'd run out to the water and suddenly fall because there was a large hole in the sand from the waves. :)
The advantage to having a waterproof camera is days like this when you're in the water! So fun!
Later than night we went to Old Town San Diego which is where the original settlement was I think. Lots of cool shops and restaurants and interesting people to talk to along the way. Then swimming in the hotel pool and sleep before our trek into Mexico in the morning!
We arrived in Mexico and went grocery shopping for the week at Costco and the grocery store. Then we split into our work crews and went to our three different sites in La Gloria.
The foundations were all laid at each site and this is what we started with. I'm still amazed at what we put together in just a few short days! The family we were building for had had their house burn down so they were living in a tent while we were building them a new house. It was wonderful to get to know them as well while we were down there! Also a good chance to put my Spanish to good use!
The first day we framed, painted plywood for the outside and trim and then by the end of the day we had our four walls up!
The next day we framed the individual rooms in the house and also started working on the loft and the roof. I wired the electrical too which was pretty fun.
Then came drywalling and mudding the inside, and roofing and double painting the outside!
And this is the final product and a photo of my work crew with the family! I loved the people I was working with and it was fun to work alongside them and to get to know them a bit better through building a house together. Perhaps next week or sometime I will post more photos of the actual process, but that was the gist of it.
A few pics around our site of the people working on it.
The family had their first grandson and he was adorable!
I love ladder/feet pictures. Okay I never have in the past. But i really like this one. :)
On the last day, the family made us lunch. Bbq'd chicken, fresh salsa, rice, tortillas. Soooo good!! I knew some of the stuff had been made using their water but I trusted and ate it anyway and still didn't get sick! woooh!
We stayed at a bible school right in Tijuana and would walk downtown most nights. The walk was great and it was fun to see all the different people and shops, etc.
Sarah, Shirley and I were braid buddies. haha. Except I hate the way my braids look. :)
Erin and Brynje fell off the side of the wall.
There was an amazing taco stand a nice walk from the school and we went there a few times! Fresh tacos-soooo tasty!! I miss them! haha
Craig was perhaps the biggest advocate for the tacos. :) And rightly so.
And you eat them with limes and radishes! Tasty! normally I don't like radishes, but fresh with lime squeezed on them, they are really good!
The pork was a bit spicy but it was cool how they cut it right off the roast!
In the evenings, we would sometimes go visit our buddy TJ who had a donut shop. Best donuts ever! Perhaps even better than Krispy Kreme. Go TJ! :)
On the walks back to the school, we'd often have fun photo shoots.
We found a great park and playground along the way
There's a monstrous flag of Tijuana right by the school, which is pretty cool.
Sunrise over Tijuana.
On the drive home, we had the tamer van which was nice. Brynje and Erin had fun making forts in the back. And we had some great laughs. Especially when we missed the caravan continuing on the I-5 and accidentally took a wrong turn into downtown Portland. Was a nice scenic detour and we caught up in the end so all was good!
We stayed the night in Yreka, CA which has the best smelling air ever! So fresh! We ate dinner and breakfast at the Black Bear Diner which was super good. Great decor as well!
All in all a wonderful trip. I will post a bit more later on about Sergio and his ministry there (the guy who we build the houses through) because he inspired me greatly. But I probably didn't even have time to make this post.. because I have a lot of work to do in the next couple days and am living for Whistler in an hour! But I didn't want to leave you hanging for too long! ;)
So stay tuned for more thoughts on Mexico as well as Whistler adventures! Enjoy the weekend!
There are more photos of my trip, but iphoto is strange and I dont' remember which I posted and which i didn't. So this will have to do for now.
I'm still exhilarated from the time in Mexico. How great to connect with the people there, the people on the team and to be encouraged in so many different ways. {And the incredibly learning opportunity of building a house of course!}
One night, Sergio, who is the founder of Baja Vision Ministries, came with a group to the school to share with us. A couple people shared their testimonies and then he shared his testimony, specifically the story of how God gave him an orphanage. I sat there entranced with what he was saying, feeling little sparks going off within my soul, passion being lighted anew.
His faith was inspiring. It dripped drops of water on my thirsty soul. Not simply because this is something that sounds great and I would love to relate to God in such a way and live my life with such a pure faith, but rather because I was reminded of what I have experienced in the past. The all-pervasiveness of God in my life. The amazing things that come from a surrendered heart. And in my heart, I longed for that once again. I get it in bits, but then I'm distracted by the things around me. Little by little, God is healing my heart and putting my foundation back in place. And I'm excited, because on this foundation, He will build something great, just like we built this bright blue house on a foundation in Mexico for this family.
And thus concludes the thoughts I will share from Mexico. My heart is full and I have much to thank God for and to ponder.
