2010 Nigeria

Block Party - Save the Date!

2010-03-10T14:33:00.001-06:00

You are invited!!

Click on the flyer to enlarge and open in a new window...

The Block Party!

2010-03-04T08:17:00.000-06:00

Alright, the Block Boys have officially been conspiring together... We are moving forward on a plan that was hatched under sleep deprivation and heat torture in the Abuja Airport... We would like for you, faithful blog follower, to attend a Block Party to meet with us and hear first-hand about our trip...

There will be fun, fellowship, stories, laughter, music, videos, pictures, a Pur water demonstration, but (and I know the guys are bummed out about this) no roasted goats or attacking rottweilers... There are just some things you can't/shouldn't bring back from Nigeria...

We're shooting for the end of March, hopefully somewhere close to Saturday, the 27th... So, more details will follow, but if you would like to be a part of what is surely going to be an incredibly entertaining evening please keep that date open as a probability...

As a faithful blog follower you are the guest of honor... And as the guest of honor you are free to invite whomever you please... Anyone you think that might be interested in hearing more about Nigeria and our experiences there are more than welcome!

Home, Sweet Home...

2010-02-22T12:20:00.003-06:00

Well, we made it...

We are home... All the cliches about "Home" are true... There's no place like it and it's where our hearts are...

The voyage to get home was, umm, cumbersome and, umm, nightmare-ishly long... Feel free to ask us about it... Although you should be warned: It's not what I would call a One-Drink-Story...

Although our trip is over, our stories are not... We want to include you all into the story in a personal way... The good news is that we came up with a great plan to do that! The bad news is that we came up with the plan before we could talk to any of our wives (and it was a planned that was hatched and formed during a 60-hour sleep-deprived travel nightmare)... But it just might work!

So stay tuned to the blog for at least one more post... I want to add a few more comments and pictures that I couldn't really work into the blog while we were in Africa... Those thoughts and some details about a get-together should be coming in the next few days...

Thanks for following along with us... We really felt like you were part of our trip... You can't imagine how much energy and enthusiasm you were responsible for during our journey... We are honored that you took time out of your world to enter into ours...

Our Last Full Day…

2010-02-18T13:46:00.001-06:00

Hard to believe we’ll be leaving Africa tomorrow… On one hand it seems like we just got here, on the other hand we’ve been longing for home for an awfully long time… We’ve learned a lot while being here… We’ve been a part of a lot… We are grateful for the things that we’ve seen and the things that we’ve gleaned…

To Africa we have given the work of our hands, to us she has given us her heart… As much as we’ve been a part of affecting the lives of future generations, we have been affected by the experience of just being here that much more…

Our hearts are different than they were two weeks ago… How can they not be after what we’ve seen and heard and observed? As soon as you step your foot into Africa you know you’re in a different land…

We’ve learned that Nigeria is a land of contrasts… John Fette was the first to observe this… The stark contrast between the rainy season and the dry season… A land with abundant oil resources, but a line two miles long to fill your gas tank… A land of friendly greetings and conversations, but with divisions so deep that they’ll burn homes and places of worship when provoked… Nomadic tribes with cell phones… A democracy where corruption is expected…

Our last full day was a day of reflection… It started out with a morning hike at a place called Cherry Hills… We drove across town through traffic, over crazy roads, and through a gravel pit to get to our destination… And when we got there, it looked like this:

So we set out to conquer Mt. Claustrophobius!

It was a different kind of hike… Over boulders, squeezing through tight spaces, under gigantic rocks whose only supports were each other… The trip was, needless to say, precarious… Here are pictures of our trek up, around and through the rock mountain…

Once we got to the top we had some time to ponder the view, our trip, our experiences, and our thoughts…

My thoughts drifted toward expansion and contraction… In a sense, our world has shrunk – amazing to think that on one day you can be on one continent, and on the next day you can be halfway around the world on another continent and in another culture… But in another sense our world has greatly expanded because of the experiences we’ve shared… I’m sure it has felt this way with any great voyage… And I’m sure it has felt different every time… Almost like we’ve tapped into something holy – this expansion and contraction of perspectives and journeys, of wonder and knowledge, of discovery and understanding… It is the story of history… It is the song of our hearts… It is the breath of God…

After the hike back down to the bottom, we grabbed some lunch and headed back to where we’re staying… Since I don’t think I’ve ever shown a picture of the house, here is what it looks like –

The guys met for a while, and I went to grab some more video footage…

We spent the evening enjoying another wonderful dinner… It’s bittersweet to be writing this now, knowing that the end of a great trip is coming… But like I said earlier, we are missing home and glad to be heading there…

Building the Future...

2010-02-17T14:51:00.000-06:00

Our last day of work! Definitely exciting but also somewhat sad… We’ve been pouring all of our work effort into making a water tower that will feed the Oasis House property… To use some of our vocabulary we’ve been discussing this week – All week we’ve been chopping vegetables in the prep kitchen, today we started to see the Feast… If you remember earlier in the trip there was always a conspicuous “H” in the wide angle views of the property… And now, behold – the walls of the water tower…

Me and the Three Johns worked all morning and early afternoon on building forms for the concrete support columns… It started out great, but then we had to battle the Laws of Physics (which are apparently firm and unyielding)… But we got by with a little help from our friends – namely, John Fette, John Horning, and Mark Parker… John F. was the brute strength (thank you, LifeTime Fitness), John H. was the finesse and good cheer and Mark was the surge that pushed us through the finish line… Mark worked most of the morning on building the most sturdy sawhorses in Africa…

There was a lot of digging going on down the hill… Jason and Brian were digging support holes for an enclosure for the block making machine… The ground was pretty rough so Brian came up with, what he is calling “The Bertke One Thousand”… That guy has a future in Third World construction tools…

Here’s a picture of the Bertke One Thousand in action…

When everything was ready up at the water tower, the guys could finally pour the concrete mix into the forms for the columns… The guys worked as hard as they could, and they used every grain of cement that we had… I have a feeling that this is going to be a sturdy tower!

Brian and I went with one of our Nigerian friends, Adi (Eddie) into the Kisayhip village… We greeted the chairman (who is kind of like the mayor, I suppose) and he took us all around the village… The next several pictures are people we met and things we saw in the village… There is a picture of a woman at a well (the most primitive of wells), and there are pictures of children pumping out water at a well that was dug out by bore-hole equipment…

I’ll leave you with a quote from Scripture that we’ve been pondering today… It’s from the book of Isaiah…

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him,   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58: 6-11

The Internet is Great! (except in Africa)

2010-02-17T14:12:00.000-06:00

I'm working on updating the blog... But nothing is uploading, so I'm losing hope that I'll have anything up before we lose power... So there may be no blog posting for tonight (aside from this one)... But it's written, so if worse comes to worse I'll post tomorrow morning (which will be about 2AM EST)...

Title Trouble...

2010-02-16T13:52:00.006-06:00

I'm realizing that the majority of the work in writing a blog involves coming up with a great title so people will read the post... Titles I've been kicking around today:

The Walkabout

The Real Africa

The Bull with the Angry Eyebrows

Tin Mine Folklore

A Kitchen on Her Head

Third World Irrigation

The Rock with Three Legs

Leaning Sheaves

They Sleep in the Garage

Workin’ at the Car Wash

So take your pick, it’s all in here…

We started the day with a brisk morning walk behind the property where we’ve been working… We didn’t have any idea of where we were going or how long we’d be gone… But we set out determined and excited nonetheless! The Walkabout into The Real Africa!

We first encountered some herds of goats and cows… A lot of animals roaming around… You start to wonder, “Where do these guys drink water? We don’t see any place to get a drink!” That might explain The Bull with the Angry Eyebrows...

We kept pressing on… We had herd (get it?) that there was an old abandoned tin mine somewhere on the property… We were hoping to find it, but we didn’t really know where it was or even if it was… All we knew was that The Tin Mine Folklore was irresistible!We had been walking for quite a while, maybe 45 minutes or so, when we came upon a creek… There was a woman washing her dishes, but also the unexpected sound of a generator… The woman was just finishing, so she packed up and headed across the creek… She had a baby on her back and A Kitchen on her Head…

We followed her across the creek and toward the sound of the generator… What we saw was a lush green field and an education in Third World Irrigation… The generator was pumping water from the creek into an irrigation ditch that fed into the field… It was brilliant, and something you don’t expect to see in the heart of Africa!

We were getting a little suspicious about whether or not the Tin Mine actually exists, so we started heading in a different direction… Within a matter of minutes we came upon The Rock with Three Legs… We called it Tripod Rock, and we’re sure there is going to be a Disney movie with Tripod Rock as the setting… It’s just too amazing to not have it’s own movie…

A little more hiking and we came upon a village! They were very friendly and greeted us with waves and smiles :) Their huts were very primitive but well built, and you could get a sense of how a community lives and works together… I wasn’t exactly sure what The Leaning Sheaves were that were laying on the house, but they make for a good picture!

More and more hiking, it felt like we were heading back to the property where plenty of work awaited us!

The water tower block walls are finally coming together, so we started building forms to pour the concrete supports in…

As we were working a group of kids came up to see what we were doing… It’s interesting, we’re always aware that they are around but they never really get in the way… They’re actually eager to help out in small ways… They want to pick up the nails that you drop… They want to carry the hammer for you… But they’re favorite thing is to see their picture on your camera right after you take ‘a snap’… They squeal with delight and point out each other’s face as soon as you turn the camera around…

We couldn’t pour the concrete forms because the blocks for the water tower hadn’t set long enough so we had to pack things up… On the property there are a couple of night watchmen… We had heard that they ‘stay’ in the garage but we hadn’t seen where… We finally used up enough of the materials to see that they do, in fact, ‘stay’ in the garage… This is where they sleep at night… They Sleep in the Garage… Those are old car seat benches…

So we packed up everything and headed back to the place where we’re staying… Everyday we pass the local ‘Car Wash’… I keep meaning to take a picture, but this is the first day that I had the chance… It’s literally (and you see this a lot around town) a water source (in this case a creek) by the road… Cars pull down to the water, and there are guys there Workin’ at the Car Wash ready to take care of all their clean car needs… The water is cleaner than the stuff on the cars, but just barely…

We came home and worked on the road outside John and Corrie’s house a little more… Then we got cleaned up and had another great dinner (Who has to LOSE WEIGHT after their trip from Africa???)

We’re enjoying a quiet night and wondering what it must feel like to be walking in a foot of snow…

Pure Water...

2010-02-15T14:04:00.002-06:00

Whatever you are doing right now, go and get a glass and pour yourself some of that wonderful American tap water... Seriously, this blog can wait - and I'm guessing you probably haven't had your 8 glasses of water today...

What you see in the bucket is Nigerian tap water... Well, it's well water plus a Pur water filtration packet... To purify the water so you can drink it you add a Pur packet to 10 liters of water... You stir for five minutes, you wait for five minutes, then you pour the water through a cotton filter (also known as a t-shirt)... After you stir and wait (but before you pour), the, umm, sediment, umm, congregates into a floc ('floc' spelling is based on the actual packet) at the bottom of the bucket... Go ahead and sip some of your tap water while you peruse these two pictures...

After we purified the water, it was off to the property where we’ve been working… We still have a lot to do, so we were motivated to get to work! John H. and I worked on a rebar mat (a steel grid that reinforces concrete)… This will strengthen the concrete that is used in the water tower…

John F. and Brian worked on building some rebar columns (support for the concrete columns) for the water tower… Then, after lunch, John H. and Brian hauled cement down to the water tower that will be down by the block machine… Mark worked on laying out a shelter for the block machine… He also worked with Jason to disassemble and reassemble the cooling system for the block machine… It’s a pretty daunting task when you can’t just run down to the hardware store!

Here’s a picture of one of the local masons working on the first water tower… It’s nice to see progress (as opposed to just a big ‘H’ in the ground!)…

We ran some other errands around town, then got back to the house early to rest a little bit… Trust us, we need it! The Nigerian heat and altitude here are taking their toll on us!

Sunday, Church and St. Valentines

2010-02-14T14:11:00.001-06:00

First, a word about blog mechanics…

If you click on a picture, it will open as a larger picture in another window… I’m uploading larger versions so that you can see in more detail, and it would be a terrible waste of time and bandwidth if no one is looking at them :)

Second, it is easy to leave comments... At the bottom of each post there is a link to the comments...

That will take you to the comment page... You can write in the box that says "Leave your comment"... Then, choose how you want to be displayed... If you click 'Anonymous' that's fine, just make sure you let us know who you are somewhere in your comment... It's nice to know who is commenting :) Comments are greatly encouraging to us, we're like kids at Christmas... Seriously...

And now, on with the show –

This morning we woke up, had breakfast, and drove out to the Kisayhip Village church… You’ll remember from earlier this week that Kisayhip is the village where we’re working… This little building (on the right) is where the church meets… About 175 people cram into one room! They are energetic and loud and wonderfully joyful… It’s very moving to be a part of a worship celebration that feels so different on an entirely different continent, but that shares the same focus and purpose…

The service lasted about 2 hours, but it didn't seem very long at all... They worship with a lot of energy and enthusiasm... One of the neatest things they did was during the 'offering' section of the service (above)... They pass the collection plate around to everyone -- standard... But then they invite people up by groups (usually a specific area of the village)... Everyone is singing loudly, and when it's your turn to get up to go to the offering buckets up front you dance and sing and give your offering joyfully... It was really wonderful to see a practice that makes space for the 'cheerful giver' that the Scriptures talk about...

After the service the men stayed in the building while the women and children went outside... The church culture has a strong women's and children's ministry, but there really is a vacuum in the men's fellowship... We stayed to encourage and challenge the men to be the leaders that their community needs them to be... We were expecting 25-30 men and over 50 showed up! We were excited and they were encouraged...

After church we went to a place called the Net Cafe in town... We had a great time eating great food and enjoying each other's company... Although, the whole place was decked out in 'Happy Valentines Day' decorations... It created a bit of longing...

So then, we had the rest of the day off! Time to rest and recharge... A few of us went over to John and Corrie's house to spread some dirt to even out the road... The roads here are really, really, unbelievably bad... Basically dirt roads with hills and valleys where the rocks are... There is no pavement in the neighborhood roads... When the water from the rainy season comes it washes away a lot of the dirt and creates deep channels that make it really hard to drive... There were huge mounds of dirt that John ordered sitting outside his gate, so we went over and tried to level things out a bit... We worked in the afternoon and early evening and made some great progress... There's still a lot of work to be done, but hopefully this was a good first step!

We had a great dinner of chicken, vegetables, Pepper soup and garlic bread... We're not losing any weight, which is of great concern to a few of the guys... I guess we need to work a little harder tomorrow!

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-14T08:33:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note to say, "Happy Valentines Day!!" to the ones we love... Even though we're half-a-world away, you're all still in our hearts... We've been thinking about you and miss you an awful lot!

9 Lives… Our Day with the kids of OLA

2010-02-13T14:49:00.003-06:00

Alright, we’ve come to learn that the power shuts off at 10PM… So I’ve got to work really quickly so that the blog can be posted while we still have electrons!

Last night we went to John and Corrie’s house for dinner… We had chicken noodle soup and great conversation… Corrie had prepared some great questions for us to discuss, and the Guckenberger home was a nice break for all of us…

Today we went to an orphanage run by Catholic Nuns called OLA (Our Lady of the Apostles)… The orphanage is part of a larger compound that also contains a hospital… That means that this particular orphanage is well-suited to care for kids with special needs… Not all of the kids have special needs, but some of them do… Here is a picture of Jason and Agnes (Aggy)… You can’t really tell from the picture but she is severely bowlegged, and it’s painful to watch her walk (although she doesn’t seem to notice at all!)…

Here is a picture of me with a 9-year old boy named Daniel… He latched onto my hand immediately and wanted me to stay near him as much as possible (I think he liked the video camera!)… He’s quiet, but he has an irresistible smile… From what we know, Daniel has been in this orphanage his whole life…

The next picture is of Brian and a young girl named Claire… She lives in the nursery with the babies, but she’s actually closer to 8 or 9 years old… She is deaf and blind… She has seizures and scars on her tongue from biting it accidentally… Her muscles are dramatically atrophied… But she is a child of God, and I believe she must have some understanding that we cannot comprehend… Brian spent a lot of time praying for her and holding her hand to comfort her…

After touring the orphanage we loaded a bunch of the kids into a bus and drove them into town to take them to the zoo… This is a big deal for many of them, as you can imagine… None of the kids had ever been to the zoo in town, so they were all dressed up and very excited… The following are a bunch of pictures from our time at the zoo :)

The girl that John is pushing in the wheelchair is named Abigail… She is the victim of polio, and she spends all of her life in a chair… She was, however, incredibly joyful and thankful that she got to go with us to the zoo… She has a beautiful spirit, and a wonderful smile to go along with it!

There are some differences in just about every institution here in Nigeria… The difference at the zoo is that animals who are mostly docile are, apparently, free to roam around… We were shocked to notice that this camel was just as curious as we were to see the lions! He was friendly because we had good snacks!

If you want to know what these girls are staring at you have to ask one of the guys on the trip… And it is solely up to their discretion as to whether or not they think you can handle the truth of the matter… If they deem you unfit for such knowledge, smile and be thankful…

We’ve passed this neighborhood every day that we’ve gone into town… They call it the ghetto… I would venture to say that these are middle class homes – they have means to have (or more likely share) a home, and it isn’t a hut, but you aren’t going to find much electricity and definitely no running water…

We were heading back to the Back2Back house that we’re staying at to throw a big party for the OLA kids… We had, um, lamb that we, um, bought earlier and, um, had prepared for our feast… If you want pictures you have to organize a comment-a-thon begging me to post them… After dinner we had some traditional Nigerian dancers and drummers come to join our festivities…

This was really fun, but the best part was when the OLA kids jumped in to join them… The little kids were mimicking what the dancers were doing (just trying to keep up)… But the most tender moment for me was when one of the girls rolled Abigail out there in her wheelchair… Although she can barely move her limbs, her entire core was moving to the beat of the drums… And her smile was radiant the whole time!

The last picture is of Aggy… Here she is in her Christmas dress, dancing at the party like a princess… Beautiful, isn’t it? It’s surprising where you can find beauty if you just look for it…

The Nigerian Factor

2010-02-12T19:45:00.002-06:00

Today’s story starts as every other great story has ever started:

At the Lebanese-run Chinese restaurant in Nigeria, the American’s sat down for lunch… But the day’s activities had been set in motion long before that...

The guys had a meeting with some of Jason and Emilee’s best Nigerian friends in the morning… Their names are Daniel and Victor and they are very gifted ‘computer guys’… They do everything from setting up networks, to troubleshooting printer problems, to creating websites… They are some of the best web designers in Nigeria… They were looking forward to meeting with the guys (who are very gifted and intelligent businessmen in the States)… They discussed strategies and plans and goals and the Nigerian Factor and so on… I just took pictures and ate cookies… My biggest contribution to the conversation was trying to not rattle the cookie wrappers…

After we met with Daniel and Victor we loaded up to lunch (the Lebanese-run Chinese restaurant)… It was delicious, and the hot spicy stuff was really, really, really spicy…

After lunch we went to a few artisan markets… We all bought some things… So if you think you might be getting some sort of Nigerian souvenir, well, you just might be!

We went to a place called Gidan Bege, which is a ministry that helps widowed women… They are taught how to sew beautiful things, and those articles are then sold so that they can have a means of income… Here is a picture of their shop (and a picture of a boy I saw running around in the alley where the shop is located)…

From there we went to the local market… This is where Emilee and Corrie go to get food for the groups and for themselves… Everything is fresh, but the conditions in the market are, um, primitive… We are all strongly considering a vegetarian diet from now on…

Something that we’ve learned the last few nights is that the power lasts until about 10:00PM here… Last night I just barely made the deadline, and I’ll be cutting it close tonight… So any inspirational insight or stories you were hoping to hear will probably have to wait until tomorrow…

But tomorrow should be amazing… Tomorrow will be a new experience altogether for the Block Boys from Cincinnati…

Meat Pies with a Swimming Pool Chaser

2010-02-11T15:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, Part 1

So there were a number of reasons to take a break today… Among other things, the guys are getting worried that our supply is running low (our supply of Aleve, that is)… And among other other things, it’s my birthday!

Okay, we didn’t really take a break from working for those reasons, but we did take a work break… Today was a day that was focused on relationships… We got to see a glimpse into the world of the families who live here… Jason and John took us to see ‘Building Materials’ which is like Home Depot minus the roof and the aisles and the floor and the price tags and pretty much everything else except the building “materials”… Jason and John have spent a great deal of energy building relationships with the ‘customers’ there (they say it backwards – the Nigerian merchants call themselves Jason’s and John’s customers)…

It’s really interesting because you can ask someone what their price is for, say, a sink… If they tell you a price and you say anything that is close to resembling, “Oh, okay. Thank you,” you have pretty much given your word that you will buy that item… You have to be very clear that you are just looking, that you are not ready to buy today or you will find yourself in a world of trouble…

After we went to ‘Building Materials’, Jason and John took us to the Hillcrest School… It’s a private school that was started by missionaries in the 1940’s… It’s still an international school, but there are a large percentage of Nigerian students there as well… It’s a beautiful campus, and the quality of education the kids receive there is extremely high…

After we visited the school, Jason drove us to see the finest hospital in Jos… It was nice, but nothing compared to what we are used to in the United States… There were buildings, but there were also hospital beds outside some of the buildings… Buildings were divided into specialties… We didn’t take pictures at the hospital because, even though it’s a third-world hospital, it’s still a hospital…

We then ran back to the B2B House to get something to drink, to unload anything we needed to get rid of, and to change our clothes for the afternoon – because the afternoon wasn’t going to be anything like the morning…

Thursday, Part 2

In the afternoon we took lunch (meat pies) to a place called CLAPAI, Child’s Love and Protection Advocacy Initiative… It’s a home and school mostly for children who have been impacted and affected by HIV/AIDS… That’s not to say that the children have been infected with HIV, but it does mean that the AIDS virus has stolen some element of their childhood and forced them into this place… Many of the children have lost parents and relatives… Regardless of the circumstances that brought the children to CLAPAI, it’s painful to realize that these children must now carry the weight and live in the wake of a disease that’s crippling a continent…

There’s really nothing you can do to fix the broken circumstances of their lives, but you can allow give them a break and a breath of fresh air… In short, you can provide an opportunity for kids to be kids… You can give them the gift of fun and freedom and laughter… What better way than to take them to swimming! We went to a hotel in town that lets you pay to go swimming in their pool… Water isn’t the most plentiful resource here, and clean water is even harder to come by… So when we got to the hotel, we weren’t all that surprised to see that the pool was only filled halfway :) But it was perfect – just the right depth for us and for the kids to play…

We played for a long time in the hot sun… You can’t imagine how beautiful the shrieks of joy were when those kids hit the water! No symphony or song can match the sound of those children… To see and hear them act like kids for a few hours was the most delightful thing you can imagine… Go ahead – imagine it right now…

And when you’re done imagining, pray for those kids who got to be kids today… Pray that the stigma and the suffering of dealing with an unseen deadly virus would be lifted… Pray that they would know love, real and true and appropriate love… Pray that their hearts would be healed and that they would live the lives that God has created for them…

Wednesday - Another day of hard work...

2010-02-10T14:40:00.002-06:00

Today was a pretty solid work day… We had 3 main tasks and a few minor things to get done (and get ahead of schedule)… The three main tasks were building pallets for the new blocks, coating those pallets with oil, and mixing and pouring the first layer of concrete for the water tower…

But first, a word on our safety… Just to let you know that all of us feel totally safe… There was some concern about what is called ‘the crisis’ here, but we literally have seen nothing that is of concern to any of us… We are in the safest part of town, and the guys here are really great about being transparent about any risk there may have been or may be… And now, on with the show…

The first part of the morning we nailed together the pallets that will hold the blocks while they are curing… The blocks need to sit there for a few days before they can be used, and they each need their own individual pallet… So here is a picture of John, John, and John working on the pallets…

Mark Parker is working hard on utilizing the scientific method to tackle the block-making process… He spent all morning and part of the afternoon making forms, altering the mix, and making mini-bricks so we can test them out later in the week… Check out the kids watching his process! The next picture is of Mark explaining some of the finer points of his work to Brian…

Like I said earlier in the blog, the Land of HOPE property is located directly next to the Kisayhip Village… It’s a few minutes’ walk, and this village will be (and has been already) absolutely changed by their new neighbors… We’ve been talking a lot about what it means to help them, what the unintended consequences might be, and how we can best serve this section of this city…

Here is a picture that we’ve seen everyday on the property… People (today this group of three women) working hard for a big part of the day to find and cut down brush to burn… Then, it’s piled onto their heads and carried into the village… I'll give 500 Naira (the currency here) to any man, woman or child who can carry this much wood... 500 Naira!!

After lunch we started working on finishing up the major projects… John and John worked on pouring the concrete into the water tower forms… You would not believe how quickly this sets up! It’s so hot and dry that the concrete starts getting hard almost immediately… I’ve never seen anything like it…

The rest of the guys were back in the shade finishing up the pallets… The pallets get coated with oil (actually used motor oil – they call it ‘condemned oil’)… The oil seals the wood, keeps it from splitting, keeps termites out of them, and stops the water in the blocks from seeping into the pallets… Condemned oil! Who knew?! (Brian was complaining that he was the only original artist, and all the other guys were copying his work...

The last picture of the day is of Mark the Scientist… I’m not sure which is the ‘control mini-brick’ and which ones are the ‘experimental mini-bricks’ but you can be sure that Mark does… His dedication to this is impressive and inspiring… It would be easy for us to get focused on the tasks at hand, but the work that Mark is doing on perfecting the block mix will probably last longer than any of the pallets we made… Even with us using the condemned oil...

After we were done working we had some time to climb up on the rocks surrounding the property… It was so nice to rest and reflect and gain some perspective… The ride home was fast and bumpy (you should see what can pass for a ‘road’ here)… We had some incredibly delicious shish kabobs over the grill, so don’t feel too sorry for us! We are doing well, and really enjoying the company and the work…

Block and Roll!!

2010-02-09T15:19:00.001-06:00

This happened... Blocks were made! This was incredibly encouraging to us and has created a lot of discussion on how to make the best possible block for our purposes here... The guys here don't just want to re-invent the wheel, they want to develop the best process so that these blocks are the best ones that can be made here... It's really great to see how God has placed this specific team of guys together to ask questions that are insightful and brilliant (which is to say, miles beyond my radar!)... Here's a picture of the guys with the first batch of blocks...

There were, as we've grown accustomed to, kids all around during the whole process... Most watched intently, staring at the blue and green machines with the same wide-eyed curiosity as the tall white guys!

Here's a picture of Mark with some of the kids who were down at the making-of-the-blocks...

The kids here are beautiful... They have deep, deep eyes and smiles that are as wide as the sky... They are kids, to be sure, but they have a look of 'understanding' that you don't usually see... It's as if they've earned their visage and their gaze...

After the block party :), it was time to get to work… We spent most of the day measuring and cutting and twisting and building forms that will support the concrete that the water tower will sit on… There is no power where we are working, so we have to use generators… So between the power tools and the generator to run them there was not a lot of quiet today! Notice the curious onlookers...

We finished all our handiwork and dropped it down into it's home... Like I said earlier, these forms will strengthen the concrete that will hold the water tower that will supply the future campus... Here is a picture of us after we had finished for the day (brought to you by the letter 'H')... You can see the forms sticking out of the ground... This was more work than it looks like...

The last picture I'll leave you with is a picture of a few of the boys... These little guys are the future of Nigeria... Our hope is that because of the work that we're doing here today, they will have opportunities that they would have never had otherwise... These guys are children of God who are loved and adored by Him... And so the promises and the words from the Scriptures in the book of Jeremiah absolutely apply to these boys... "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Monday - 1st day of work

2010-02-08T15:25:00.001-06:00

Today we went to the Land of HOPE... This is the land that Back2Back is developing for future use as they work with the local village... HOPE is an acronym that stands for Healthcare, Opportunities for spiritual growth, Provision of basic needs, Educational opportunities... Here is a picture from the rocks that are overlooking the Oasis House...

The Land of Hope is right next to the Kisayhip Village... Kisayhip literally translates to "Living under the tree"... Which I take to mean, "Refuge" or "Shelter"... We got to walk over to that village and meet some of the people who live there... Well, we had been hanging out with the kids all morning, so we got a chance to see how they live...

The conditions in Kisayhip are pretty primitive. Here is a picture of one man getting water from their "well"... Yes, that is a tire around the top of the well... What you can't see is the sewage coming out of the village in a manner that could best be described as "upstream"... There is great need here, on several fronts... Not to say that we (B2B) have all the answers, but it is to say that what is going on and what will be going on at the Land of HOPE will be incredibly encouraging to these people...

One of the most vivid pictures of the day involved kids taking care of other kids... A few of the kids were in charge of taking care of the smaller children... We saw 7 & 8 year olds hauling around infants on their backs for hours... It's a pretty sad picture considering that kids should be allowed to be kids, but that's just a way of life for these villagers...

One of the chores the kids have is gathering brush for fires... As soon as we got to the property we saw some kids bringing sticks down the road, and it continued to be an intermittent sight throughout the day... They carry so much stuff on their heads here! I guess it makes sense, but it seems a little precarious when you're carrying wood!

One of the things that we are so excited about is the block machine... In order to secure the property there needs to be a wall around the perimeter... But it's such a large area that it would be unbelievably expensive to buy all those blocks... So the wise decision is to have a block machine made... This not only allows cheaper blocks, but it also allows B2B to control the quality of the blocks being made... This will eventually enable B2B to provide training and employment to some of the men in the village so that they will have a sustainable means of provision down the road...

Before we left the Land of HOPE Brian handed out some gifts to the kids who were with us throughout the day... It was a really tender time... Brian is so kind and compassionate... He took time to kneel down with each individual child, to look that child in the eye, to communicate worth and value to every one...

The rest of the day involved us sitting in a lot of traffic and trying to get from point A to point B... We had a delicious dinner and a great chance to unwind and reflect upon the day... Tomorrow is back to the Land of HOPE to (hopefully) make the very first blocks for the property! But, we are cautiously optimistic... We're learning that's a way of life around here...

Despite the Laws of Physics

2010-02-07T14:39:00.010-06:00

I'm sure (not really) there's a plausible explanation for these rocks being stacked on top of each other... It's kind of hard to tell, but those rocks that are stacked up like that are huge! Click on the picture and compare the size of the top rock to the size of the shelter on the ground...

This is a sample of our drive from Abuja to Nigeria... There were primitive stretches and more modern stretches, but most of it looked like this... Expansive wilderness exists everywhere... Any road is a main road, it seems, despite its condition... And anything that's within 100 yards or so of the road is most likely wilderness!

We'll be periodically posting pictures and thoughts... Feel free to comment on anything we post... If you do post anonymously (which you can do without setting up an account) make sure you identify yourself so that we know who we're talking to... Thanks :)

Looks like we have a full day tomorrow (Monday)... We'll share all the details as soon as we get a chance!

We Made It...

2010-02-07T10:02:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to shoot out a quick post to let everyone know that we have arrived safely and soundly in Jos... Our trip was not without event, but nothing really out of the ordinary...

Considering the weather we flew out of in Cincinnati and into in New York, I would say we did pretty well! No luggage lost, and everyone is doing great...

More to come later, but for now just know that we are here on the Back2Back property in Jos...

A Shift...

2010-02-03T22:31:00.005-06:00

Just a quick post to get back into the groove of writing... What once was devoted entirely to our experience with Back2Back Ministries in Monterrey has taken a turn to include their newer frontier of Nigeria... So, hopefully, for the next several posts you will be able to see and sense what life is like in Jos, Nigeria through the amazing world wide web...

Amazing to think that images and feelings can be disassembled into 1's and 0's, packaged and sent over land and under sea, then reassembled in your home or office or coffee shop... The world is an unbelievable place sometimes...

I'm quite sure that you will be quite capable to reassemble images and feelings, if only we are able to send them to you... With unpredictable electricity and internet access the updates may be fewer and further between than we would like... So check back often, simply as a discipline of hopefulness... And every time you think of it, pray for us...

Getting Caught Up!!

2008-06-24T11:43:00.019-05:00

Alright, I've started to post a new entry about 10 times and something always drags me away!! We have been pretty busy this past week, so I want to try to get caught up so I can let everyone know what we've been up to!

Last Monday the NorthStar team went to ERJ (place with the ropes course) to pour a concrete floor for their big Palapa... a Palapa is like a big, open, community hut with a thatched roof... it's a great place to congregate outside because you're out of the sun... Jen and I stayed here on the Back2Back property, so I have no pictures of the concrete pouring but I'm told it was a ton of work and that everyone did a great job!

Tuesday we went to Rayitos de Luz (home of our dear little friend, Jose)... I forgot my camera that day (trust me, I'm frustrated enough for all of us!!!), so I don't really have any pictures... But the change in their living conditions is about to be, quite literally, amazing! You can look back in the archives of this blog to learn the story about the Rayitos de Luz (little Rays of Light)... Basically the house parents spent their life savings on a house in the city... They were living in a house that should have been condemned, so Back2Back helped them rent a house down the street that they could actually do repairs on... The idea was that they would come back and build a better, larger, more well-suited house on their original property... But the Scriptures say that God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine... So, through an interesting turn of events, they are now about to move into a huge property in the country that is so much better than what they had ever hoped for! The house on the property is about 4 times larger than either of the houses in the city... There is incredibly large swimming pool in the backyard, as well as a massive court for basketball/soccer, and a huge yard where they can run and play all they want! The only place for them to play before was in a small courtyard in their house (by small I mean about 80 square feet - 8' x 10') or in the street... Plus there are really cool trees that will produce fruit nearly year-round... Unbelievable! And yet, totally believable for the God who can do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine...

Wednesday we worked here on the property (LDM)... Jen worked on VBS stuff for the kids. I helped John work on a fountain they have built on campus... The fountain is there as a symbol of God's continual blessing on this place through the people who have partnered with Back2Back to serve the people here... At this point the fountain structure was done, we just had to run electric lines for the lights and the pump...

Most of the group worked on painting house 6...

Some of the guys worked on the clinic at the corner of the property...

After lunch we all went up to house 5 to pray over the house and for the Lail family... J.J. Lail was part of the NorthStar group down there, and he and his wife and two kids are going to move down to Monterrey in the fall to be house parents in this house with Back2Back... House parents are in charge of up to 8 teens who are too old to live in the Casa Hogars (children's homes) but who really have nowhere else to go... Back2Back pays for their education and all living expenses while they are living here...

Soon after praying we loaded onto the bus to meet the Rayitos de Luz kids at Plaza Sesamo!!! If you haven't already, you should really look back into the archives about my original Plaza Sesamo post (last year)... This place is really great, like a real-life Sesame Street!! It has amusement park rides and a really cool (no pun intended) water park... When we got there all the kids lined and were ready for Plaza Sesamo!

Jen and I were paired up with our little buddy, Jose! So we got to spend the whole afternoon playing and swimming with him...

After all that playing and splashing and chasing around, we stopped at Tacos Fede for a little hard earned dinner... There's no better way to end a long and hard day than with a few Tacos from Fede!!!

Alright, I'm now officially caught up through last Wednesday!! (Less than a week behind) Hopefully I'll have another block soon to get completely caught up!!!

Settling In...

2008-06-17T08:59:00.022-05:00

Sorry it's taking me so long to post stuff here... I spent all my allotted computer time yesterday trying to figure out a better way to share photos... I signed up for an online account that will do photo sharing, but right as I was uploading pictures the internet went down here... So I got frustrated and shut the computer and didn't come back until this morning...

Sunday was a great day! Mexico quickly turned into Flex-ico when the buses didn't show up for two of the teams in the morning... So we had to scrap our original plans and come up with something on the fly... We decided to do church here on the property, so that consisted of Worship, a Testimony from the Pastor of the other group that got left behind, and then some service project stuff... We organized the 'donation room'... The donation room is the place where they store all of the donations that the teams bring down... Then, when a childrens home has a need, they can come to the donation room or ask if there's anything we can bring them from the room...

Needless to say, the donation room gets a little (ok, a lot!!!) cluttered... Let's put it this way - If Oprah was in Mexico, you would see this room on TV, before and after her clean-up crew came in and totally cleaned and organized it... So we laid out these huge blankets with the names of each childrens home written next to them, and we piled up all the donations to deliver them according to their need...

After that we loaded up onto the buses and went to ERJ (see previous post)... We participated in a lot of the Ropes Course Elements and got to spend a little time at the childrens home before returning to our campus...

Here is the walk from the orphanage to the ropes course...

This is a picture of us ever-so-gingerly passing J.J. Lail ("hota-hota" in spanish) through the 'Spider-Web'... Click on the picture for the full effect!

Arrival...

2008-06-15T09:12:00.003-05:00

We have all made it! The entire team from Northstar is here in Monterrey... Most of the group was very tired last night (Saturday night), but everyone seems pretty excited and refreshed from a 'good' night of sleep...

Some of the group had a delayed flight and had to wait at the airport for 8 hours (8 HOURS!! OCHO!!)... That's crazy! But they are all in good spirits now and I'm sure we'll have some good things to talk about today!

Today is Sunday and we are going to a childrens home that we typically haven't gone to in the past... It's called El Retiro Juvenile (sp?)... We call it ERJ for short...

ERJ is really cool for 3 reasons... 1. it's a Casa Hogar (childrens home) that's kind of out of the way, so there is a tranquility to it... 2. They have a grove of Orange and Tangerine trees... (totally delicious, the best sample of their kind) and, 3. They have a ropes course!!

All of the Casa Hogars try to develop a business model so that they can sustain themselves without the help of outside donations... ERJ has a ropes course that is maintained and run by some of the guys on staff at B2B (Juan and Antonio)... Juan is a world-class climber (he climbs rocks and mountains), so businesses pay tons of money to send employees through the Ropes course with Juan... Probably the most successful of all of the business models at the Casa Hogars...

I'll try to snap some pictures of the NSV team wiggling through the ropes course and post them later tonight!

Flying...

2007-07-21T09:47:00.000-05:00

Hey! We're flying back to Ohio today!! We are at the same time really excited and really sad... We've loved being down here and becoming a part of this community, but we are really missing our friends and family back home...

Sorry about not posting... We've had very spotty internet service down here... I was planning on getting all caught up yesterday but there was no internet at all in the afternoon! We will finish detailing all of our experiences down here... It just might not be until early next week!

So now we're off for final packing and hugs and tears...

Tuesday, July 17th...

2007-07-20T10:15:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was an interesting day! We got started way late because there were a lot of people sick in the groups… We had a mini LDM workday - cleaning and bleaching and wiping everything down with Clorox wipes… We couldn’t really tell if one of the groups here was really getting overwhelmed with the sickness, or if they were just tired and run down… The people who were throwing up definitely had the sickness, but there were also people laying on the concrete patio wrapped in blankets… It was weird… Anyway, there was no one sick in our group that was headed to Rayitos de Luz so we were helping with the cleaning… The plan was to leave for Rayitos de Luz at 10:00AM, but that got pushed back to 11:30 or so… Flexico!

On our way to Rayitos de Luz (Little Rays of Light), we stopped at Sam’s to get a bunch of food… Sam’s is really cool here in Monterrey, they sell all kinds of stuff there… They have a motorcycle aisle! They sell delivery motorcycles, scooters, and even big cruiser bikes… so cool…

So we finally left Sam’s and headed on… When we got there Antonio (B2B staff) walked us around the house and explained the situation… When Jen and I came to Rayitos de Luz a month ago there was 1 bunk bed, 1 queen bed, and 1 twin bed… Now they have 5 bunk beds and 1 queen bed… They’ve gone from 4 mattresses to 11! That’s still not quite enough for 17 people, but it’s much, much better than before! Here is a picture of the bunk bed I helped the last time we worked here… It’s still the most sturdy bunk bed in Mexico, but now the wood is stained and sealed beautifully!

We fed lunch to the kids and ate the leftovers… There are 2 new people in the house from the Rio and they wouldn’t eat our sandwiches because they didn’t know what peanut butter and jelly was… Can you imagine! These kids had never even had a PB&J sandwich before! They’ll grow to love this delicacy, it’s just a matter of time…

So we walked around, assessed the situation and quickly got to work… We decided to take all of the kids to a nearby park just so we could have some breathing room to get some work done in the house…

Antonio put Tripp and I to work on fixing a bad water situation… They have a covered patio that doubles as their laundry room, but the drain is about 3 meters from the washing machine… So every time they do a load of laundry, all the water spills out onto the floor, eventually making it to the drain but causing a flood in the process… Can you imagine all of your laundry water just spilling out onto the floor each time you washed your clothes?

So we brought some PVC pipe and routed the water over to a different drain that was nearer to the washing machine… Needless to say, they were very grateful! Some of the other guys built a desk and a shelf in the front room so the family had some functional workspace… They have a table outside where the kids can do homework or projects, but there’s not really a place inside that the family could set up a computer or anything…

Antonio sent Rob up on the roof to seal around a glass block window that was leaking… Rob put several coats of Thermotek sealant on one area of the roof while Antonio looked up from below… Rob said each coat of sealant took 3 minutes to apply and 15 minutes to dry, so it was the job for him!

When Rob was not on the roof he was “schooling” Charlie at the celebrity game… The celebrity game is where one person says the name of someone famous and the other person has to think of a celebrity whose name starts with the first letter of the previous celebrity’s last name… Charlie is clearly just making up names in this picture…

You may recall that the last time we were at Rayitos de Luz we were with the Northstar team… A lot of the guys worked on securing a fence to make it harder to break into the house… The fence is now finished (with the exception of a spot over the door)… So a big thanks to all the NSV team members who put a lot of work into something that was impossible to finish… We are now standing on your shoulders!

So while we were working at the house, a group of folks took the kids to a park a few blocks away… Jen went with them because she couldn’t wait to spend the afternoon playing with Jose! This little kid is amazing… His smile is like a diamond in a coal mine!

So Jen and Jose played on the swings for a long time… It’s just always amazing to me that these kids are so happy with so little… A swingset in a dirty park, some sidewalk chalk, a soccer ball…

For the kids who didn’t want to be active (it was really hot) some of the ladies set up a craft area… The kids drew pictures, colored with crayons and markers, and made cards for their house parents… What a wonderful way to brighten the little wall space they have!

After we were done working and playing in the park, we took the kids to McDonald’s to get sundaes and play in the playland area… The kids were filled with such joy and excitement (sugar)… They ran around and climbed and wore out the plastic yellow slide… It was so fun to watch them have so much fun!

On the busride back from McDonald’s the kids were worn out… Shortly after this picture Jose was asleep in my arms... It’s such an interesting experience to hold someone in your arms that you believe in so strongly, but who’s experiences you will never be able to guide… I wonder who Jose will become… I wonder if the world will succeed in beating this joy out of him… I take great comfort, though, in seeing how God has already provided for Jose… And I know that His arms will always be able to reach farther than mine…

Monday, July 16th

2007-07-18T19:19:00.000-05:00

Monday started off pretty crazy! Jen had been getting ready for the big VBS launch and the time was counting down... Everything came together wonderfully though (as always), and the kids absolutely loved every second of it!!

The theme for the Vacation Bible School is Lava Lava Island... Everyone got dressed up in their favorite pajamas (since it was pajama day) and headed to Todd and Beth's backyard... The kids were divided up into 3 groups: the Fiji's, the Maui's and the Tiki's... I (Chad) had to get into character to lead worship... My name is now Chief Mahalo... All the kids call me Chief Mahalo now around LDM...

There were several stations for the VBS - storytime, crafts and games/snack... Brilliant! The kids loved each station, and as they went from station to station they chanted the names of their tribes the whole way!! You could here them from a mile away, "Fiji! Fiji! Fiji!!" It was so great... There was truly a buzz around campus because of the excitement of the kids! I hope they are as excited about church functions in 20 years...

After I, Chief Mahalo, led worship for the kids I ran to change and walked to Casa Hogar Douglas just up the road... The group left to go to Douglas while Chief Mahalo was leading worship, so I was about 15 minutes behind all of them... I was about to learn that there was plenty of work waiting for me there!

When I got to CHD the group was shoveling gravel and cement to make concrete for the steps on the side of the palapa... Todd worked on making the forms for the steps while the team mixed and brought the concrete over...

I worked on cutting down 3 trees that were hanging over the playground... The trees were dead or dying so we wanted to get them out of there... Todd is going to build a treehouse across the top of the three stumps of the trees... We cut the trees off at about 7 feet off the ground, so it was pretty precarious! We had to remove some of the fence so we didn't destroy it... This was quite an ordeal, so ask me about it sometime!

When we finished with the trees they were finishing the steps as well... We took a break for lunch, then everyone cleaned up their area for the trip home...

On the way back to LDM we encountered some huge ant hills... These are about 5 feet wide! Charlie is standing next to one of the anthills (he's 5'4")... Everything is extreme in Mexico! The heat, the rain, the sickness, the anthills!!

While I was at Douglas, Jen went to go see her little girl at Del Norte... We found out that her name is Daisy! They cut her hair really short so Jen didn't even recognize her at first... A lot of times they will cut the hair of smaller children so that they can control lice... Even though she didn't have hair, it didn't take long for Jen to recognize Daisy's smile... Here's a picture of Jen holding her...

So that's it for now... we're hoping to get fully caught up tomorrow, so stay tuned!!

Super Duper Hubers!

2007-07-15T12:13:00.000-05:00

We got a fun surprise around 10:45 pm last night (Saturday). Our sweet friends from home, Brian & Tanya Hubers, and their 4 kids - Annika, Elise, Leyton, and Ashton, sent us a HUGE bag of brownies! We love chocolate, but the better gift that came was a super encouraging letter to both of us and then one from Brian to Chad. (They have friends who came last night to be here for the week and sent these fun things with them!) You guys are incredible and we are so thankful for your friendship. Thank you for encouraging us with this yummy gift and for all your amazing, life giving words in the letter. We were thrilled to hear from you!! We're excited to see you soon! (& the rest of our family and friends!)

Friday and Saturday highlights... (July 13, 14)

2007-07-15T11:44:00.000-05:00

Friday and Saturday went so quickly here! Usually the teams leave early on Friday and then the rest of Friday is spent relaxing with the staff...then once Saturday at 8:30 comes...it's time to dive back into the schedule again!

On Friday, we met as a staff at 8:30 am to discuss some of the highlights from the week prior and then to talk about the new week ahead. We spent a lot of time praying...there's been quite a bit of the 12 hour flu bug here amongst the teams and the staff...and we also prayed for the Merrill's and Cooper's who are soon to have some teens from children's homes come live with them in the houses on the new property. After that, I (Jen) met with the nannies to plan out the VBS for the staff kids. We are using Group's Lava Lava Island - Where Jesus' Love Overflows...it will be fun...

After that meeting, John Guckenberger (staff member here) made egg sandwiches (AWESOME!) for us and the Halls (from NSV) for lunch. Immediately after that, Courtney (Todd and Beth's nanny - the directors) was baptized in the pool! Beth read some words from Courtney that she wrote out prior to the baptism, sharing that she's ready for the adventure to begin...she's ready to be a fully devoted, passionate follower of Jesus...it's all or nothing...and she wanted to be baptized by her Uncle Todd and her dad to tell the world that she wants to lay her life down and pursue all that God has for her. I love this girl...it was really fun to be with her for that moment...

We took a picture of the girls in red..it was funny that we all walked out for the morning in red tshirts and black shorts...oh the things that girls get excited about and love to take note of! :) Courtney is on the right... I've had a lot of time to connect with the high school/college aged intern and nanny girls here...I've always been drawn to this age...their fiery spirits and excitement for life are contagious...it's been so fun hearing their stories of how God brought them down here and their journey with Him over the years...I've loved every second of it! That age just feels like home to me...they have so much promise ahead of them...so much potential...so much that they are expectant of God to do...it's contagious...

Afterwards, I went with Corrie (John's wife, in the yellow) - are you confused yet??! - to go shopping for the VBS stuff that I couldn't fit in my suitcase or that were too big to bring down. That was a fun 3 hour shopping trip with Corrie and her oldest daughter Sarah. She has wisdom beyond her little 8 years and it was fun to be near her. Chad and I are in love with that family!

Friday night Beth and Todd had us over for kabobs, grilled potatoes, salad, and brownies! Todd is such a great grillmaster. It was a feast!! Their hospitality has been amazing. We are incredibly blessed to count them as friends.

Afterwards, once our stomachs settled, we all went to see the movie Die Hard 4. I am not a fan of action packed, gun shooting, Bruce Willis movies...but I have to say that it was really good! Totally unrealistic and unbelievable of course...but really good! I also appreciated the 10 second love story at the end... :)

Saturday went by in the blink of an eye. I spent the day sorting VBS supplies into stations for each day and typing up notes for parents, schedules, signs, etc. and worked with Courtney on making posters. Kristine Hall painted this beautiful mountain with lava oozing out of it for the kids on a shower curtain for the entrance into our area. She is amazing! It's been a joy having a familiar face here from our home church. She is a deep thinker and I love that...

Chad spent the day with John getting him ready for his big date out with Corrie...I thought girls went shopping together...these two are inseparable...but's it fun to have a couple we BOTH connect with...it's been a huge gift...

I guess that's it for now! We are all caught up! I'm looking forward to visiting Del Norte this week and holding my (ok, their) sweet little girl! I have many onezies to dress her in! We are also looking forward to going back to the Casa Hogars and building more for them as well as loving on some more kids... As tiring as it gets, you just can't stop here...it's an atmosphere where you can feel the Lord on the move and you just want to keep up with Him...you just want to stay in step with Him. Our constant prayer is "Lord, help me to see what you have for me today and dive in...help me not to miss it!"

Today (Sunday), Chad and I have the day off...Chad led worship this morning...he's helping me fine tune some VBS stuff for tomorrow, and then we are off to spend the day near the mall and have an Italian dinner! Yum! We're excited to rest, relax, and read and just hang out together...

Hasta luego! Thanks to all of you who are keeping up on the blog and posting comments! It's so encouraging to know that you are with us and for us miles and miles away!

Love to all of you!

Thursday (Chad's Version, then Jen's)

2007-07-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

Jen and I split up on Thursday, so we have different accounts of the day... But both of us started the day with this little dude... They call them rhinoceros beetles and they're huge... They are the size of at least 2 quarters laid next to each other... Jen said that one almost ate her...

So Jen went to the zoo (more on that later), and I went to the pool... We drove through the mountains to Cadereyta and picked up some kids that we took to the pool nearby... We did a bunch of work that morning (essentially finishing up everything for House 3), so John and his son Gus were both really tired on the bus ride!

Cadereyta is a relocation project... Basically all the people who were knocked out of their home during Hurricane Emily had no where to go... So the government designated this piece of land for those people, which gave them a place to build a home...

There are good things about Cadereyta and there are some not-so-good things... One good thing is that it's relatively cheap... The government pours a slab of concrete that the families rent and can build on... One bad thing is that Cadereyta is pretty far out of town... It's basically located on the furthest outskirts of Monterrey, so getting places can be really hard... There is a pastor who is living there and investing in the community... He has chosen to stay there, immerse himself in their context, and spend his life serving and meeting needs in Cadereyta... He's a really great resource for letting us know how we can help the people there...

So we loaded up the buses and drove everyone to this oasis pool about 10 minutes from Cadereyta... It was huge! We played and played and it was wonderful... Then we grilled hot dogs and cut up watermelon and made a meal of it!

The group from Horizon was great, great! Here's a picture of Matt McKee (He's Daniel McKee's brother)... It was great to get to know him a little during the trip! I didn't tease him at all about being a hillbilly, even though I wanted to...

There were enough hot dogs for seconds and thirds, so everyone was definitely well fed... Gus Guckenberger was manning the watercooler... What a stud!

Gus worked with us in the morning, played in the pool all day, and still found the energy to help serve... I love this kid...

It was great to talk to these people and watch them enjoy one another... They looked like totally different people, like something was lifted off of them... Their faces softened, their eyes brightened, and their laughter grew louder and louder... There's something magical about this kind of joy...

Right before we left we lined up for a group picture... I took the picture because I had the big camera, so I'm not in there... We loaded onto the bus and headed back through the mountains...

On our way back I got a good shot of this cave... It holds one of the largest bat populations in the Western Hemisphere... I wonder why they all hang out here...

Alright, onto Jen's version of Thursday...

We loaded up at 10 am and went to Rayitos de Luz...the smaller, new orphanage that NSV has fallen in love with! We picked up Puri & Esteban (the house parents) and their 16 kids in a couple of buses and went off to the zoo! We brought lunch with us and ate inside before splitting up and scurring around to see every animal possible -- oso grizzly (grizzly bears), tigre (you can figure that one out), monos (monkeys), and elefantes (I'm sure you have that one too).

These kids had never been to the zoo...so literally we sprinted from one area to the next to visit with the next animal. The animals were a lot more up close and personal...strange, but really fun.

I got to be with Jose again...he was so excited to be near these animals he could hardly stand it...he kept saying "no lo veo" - "I can't see it"...so i would lift him up so his feet could be on the edge of the fence, practially in the space where the animals were. I asked him if he wanted to live with the elephant and he said he wanted to ride it! :)

After the zoo we took the kids to McDonald's for dinner and to play in the playland. They played for 2 1/2 hours. I sat with some ladies as Jose and his friends climbed through tunnels and down the slides...and about every 4-5 minutes, he would make his way back to my table, give me a hug, steal a couple of papas fritas (french fries) and a sip of my coke and run back to play. It was precious. I'm beginning to taste motherhood...it's welling up within me...I am enamored by these kids...I can't imagine what I will feel for my own. I'm beginning to sense how deeply the Lord loves me as I can't help but love the fatherless...that is something there are no words for...it's indescribable...but I love how it feels...I guess that is just a sliver of what God feels moment by moment...

The last picture here is of Jim (a full time B2B staffer) who fell in love with a sweet Mexican woman here, Betty. There were engaged during the two week period I was home...they came with us to the zoo with Betty's two daughters...such a cool couple with an awesome story on how the Lord has begun to weave their lives together...

Friday and Saturday are coming soon!! :)

Wednesday, July 11th...

2007-07-13T10:34:00.001-05:00

Forgive us for being a couple of days behind…we promise we’ll catch up! It’s been a busy, busy week…we have record of it all, but it’s just trying to find the time to write about it!!

On Wednesday, Chad and I both were helping at House 3 so that Matt and Julie Cooper, the house parents, could move in before the end of the week! I had a team of 6 ladies who split up to do a bunch of finishing touches and 2nd coats of paint on doors. We also painted some plywood that covered the top of a clothing unit in both of the downstairs bedrooms for the teen boys who will be staying there. Dad, you would be so proud! I got to work with Courtney – Todd and Beth’s (the B2B directors) nanny. She is an awesome girl and I’ve grown to love her in just a few short weeks! Mom, she can’t stop eating your cookies…no one can! You are famous here! (Check out the comments on the blog!) Chad was busy installing appliances and working through a 2-page list of final items that needed attending to. We worked for about 3 ½ hours and were so crazy busy that unfortunately don’t have pictures from that…sorry!

The 2nd part of the afternoon Chad stayed on campus to prep for the evening and I went with a team out to the Rio. As you probably know, the Rio is one of 2 squatter’s villages that B2B visits frequently. The first picture is right when we got there, shortly after unloading the supplies.

The 2nd picture is of Junior, one of the teen guys from the Joshua house – the 1st ever teen home, and one of the teen girls from a team up for the week. She was sharing her story of how Jesus has been real to her even from a really young age. Junior was translating for her. A lot of the team members shared their story of how Jesus has impacted them and caused them to live, move, and have their being differently…

The little girl I am holding was sitting with her mom in front of me. She was more interested in playing peek-a-book and giggling than listening…she eventually came to me…I think it was because we had hot pink in common.

We served dinner to all 85 people, and then we did a give-away. We gave all the kids in school some new school supplies. They were elated. Toward the end, the line was still incredibly long and we were worried that some sweet little ones would be disappointed when it was there turn to receive a bag and there was nothing left to give. Immediately we thought of the fishes and the loaves story and prayed that the Lord would just make it work! It’s true that the orphan is close to the heart of God…He does in fact maintain their cause and incline His ear toward them…because not only did we have enough, as in the fishes and the loaves…we had extra…enough for the 5 people who came toward the end of our time there. Isn’t it cool how God is in the details of our lives? And if He cares enough to provide pencils and erasers and notebooks for His kids, surely He cares about our families and friends and everything else. I love how He chooses to show up.

Here’s a picture of some girls playing… The smiles here seem to be more beautiful because the circumstances are so bad… I guess the darker the room is the more you notice the smallest of lights!

I took a picture of the sweet little one in the stroller to ask you to pray. This little girl is 2 and ½ and has 2-3 seizures a day. She can’t crawl or walk. She spends most of her time lying in her mom’s arms and is in a constant state of discomfort and look of sheer pain. She hardly eats anything which only complicates the issue. Please pray for her…her family…and her siblings. Sometimes God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent in His power…I know He is utterly trustworthy and utterly good…I just pray that this sickness will be used to allow her to know and love the Lord one day. Pray for that day!

Three of Todd and Beth’s kids met up with us later for dinner at Pollo Loco (the Crazy Chicken). They have a nacho bar…then we order chicken on the bone and pull it off to make delicious soft tacos! Emma (right) is their own…and Lupita (middle) and Carolina (far left) are 2 of the girls they’ve adopted. They all got their hair done that day (typical Mexico tradition) and joined us after the Rio for dinner. They are incredible people with incredible hearts…which I am sure you have gathered being that they have 9 kids (only 3 of which are biological) and they still have a thriving marriage, ministry, and life!

Later that evening, John & Corrie, Beth & Todd and some of the other summer staff, along with Chad and I went for a late night Tacos Fede run! YUM!

More is coming soon!

Tuesday...

2007-07-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was another day on the property... I got up extra early to do some work in House 3, just some small stuff that I had to tidy up from the day before... Jen had what Todd calls the "Mexico Sleepys"... He says that on your second or third day in Mexico you get incredibly and inexplicably sleepy... When she did get up she had an upset stomach, so she was out for part of the day... But she's feeling great now, all rested and ready to go!

I worked with Dain installing the kitchen countertops... We had to cut these to length so it was a little tricky, especially in the corners... The harder thing to do was cut out a hole for the sink... The kitchen sink in House 3 is huge, and it takes up almost the entire depth of the countertop space... It was really hard making the cut against the back wall under the window... But we worked it out!

John had a really hard time tying the water supply line into the main house water line... The two pipes were just slightly out of alignment, but he did a great job "manipulating" the copper... Now the Gas, Water and Electric are all hooked up in House 3!

The group that was working on the property with us mostly worked on painting House 4... Jen ran around and snapped off some picture of these folks... There's kind of a trade-off when it comes to painting... if you are cool with heights, you can paint the exterior... Painting the exterior of the house is great because you can move pretty fast and feel like you're getting a lot done...

But if you aren't cool with heights it means you get to paint on the interior... No fear of falling here, but you have to be really neat and clean... If I had to choose between the two I'd probably paint the ladder...

Perhaps the highlight of the day, and the buzz around the property was something somebody posted on the board outside the main building... The staff here has set up a "Static Blog" to go along with the devotional material that everyone is reading... The idea is for people to post their thoughts and ideas on the wall so that people can stop by throughout the day and read what other people are saying... It's like an internal version of what I'm doing now!

So anyway, one of the intern guys ran up to me laughing really hard about something somebody wrote on the blog about me... It is very funny, and we can't figure out who wrote this up there... We all have theories, but we are afraid to ask the people in the groups because it might be embarassing for the writer... We all think it's hilarious though... It's very encouraging, even though I'm not a teenage intern who has chosen to pursue God instead of girls and school glory... Just click on the picture and have yourself a good laugh... We sure are!

John and Corrie invited us to hang out with them at night after worship... I was in a hurry tearing everything down so I totally forgot my dang camera... We went to this really cool place called Manhattans, and everything there has a New York theme... Jen got the Big Apple Pie dessert (cleverly named), and I got the SoHo Chicken Strips (not-so-cleverly named)... But they were both great, and it was really cool hanging out with our two friends... I can't believe I forgot my camera...

Sunday y Monday...

2007-07-10T18:26:00.000-05:00

Sunday started out with church here on the property in the palapa... Greg Huffer, one of the pastors on staff, spoke to us from I Thessalonians 1 and I led worship... I was in a little bit of a hurry, though... I was eager to get in the car with Cesar to go pick up Jen!! Her flight arrived on time and we had some lunch at Carl's Junior in the airport... What a great day!!

We brought Jen back to LDM (Lugar de Misericordia, where we stay)... She unloaded and I told her about our Anniversary surprise! With Todd's help I booked a cute little place for us to stay in a town just up the road called Santiago... It's this really cool, quaint little village... We stayed right in the town square (we actually didn't leave the town square the whole time)... The square was more like a triangle with the large Catholic church stretching above every other building there... It was beautiful!

We unpacked our stuff at the place we were staying and Jen pulled out these huge chocolate chip cookies that her mom had made!! I'm about as happy as I can possibly be when I sink my teeth into a chocolate chip cookie (especially onces made with Ghiradelli chips), so this completely made my day!! Thank you, Mama Lo... Thank you!!

Once we got settled we took a wonderful nap and then got ready for dinner... We went to this incredible Italian restaurant across the square called L'Anfora di Iannilli... It was perfect! We had a nice, long, lingering dinner... Jen got spaghetti and I got lasagna... We were there for around 3 hours just catching up and talking, it was great!

Here is a picture of the restaurant when we were done
(seriously, 3 hours later)...

We walked back through the square and I snapped off some pictures...

Here is the view from the place we were staying... It was so beautiful... a fountain in the courtyard, everything lit up, beautiful scenery... Perfect!

Monday we woke up and lounged around... We got cleaned up and we both did some relaxing reading... We decided we would organize our stuff, check out, grab something to eat and be ready to get picked up by Cesar who was coming at 2:00...
We ate some food at Las Palomas, the Mexican restaurant next door... Jen is showing off her beverage of choice: CocaLight! CocaLight is definitely different than Diet Coke... It has more flavor, I can't really explain it but it's really good...

We came back to the property around 2:30 and helped get ready for the Rayitos de Luz (Little Rays of Light) pool party... We invited all the kids from Rayitos de Luz over to swim and have dinner... This was great because Jen and I got to hang out with our little buddy Jose!!

Jose totally stole Jen's heart a few weeks ago, and she brought him a bunch of little gifts when she came back down... Jose is radiant... He exudes joy with an infectous smile... I wonder if he realizes that his circumstances are so dire... I wonder if he knows just how poor he is... And I wonder, if he did know, would it matter nearly as much to him as it would to me? These kids are teaching us about life... about how to have joy in spite of our circumstances... about not comparing our situation to everyone else's... about finding beauty and happiness with little more than each other...

Jose liked his new clothes, but he liked being with us more... He enjoyed being with us more than any gift we could have brought... In fact, to him we were the gift... I think that's how it's supposed to be!

I have to run down and lead worship, so I'll write more later... (un poco mas tarde)

Sick Again...

2007-07-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

My friend wrote a song called "Sick Again" and I'm completely sure he wasn't thinking of me throwing up in a Mexican bathroom when he wrote it... But, it was all I could think about during my recent illness "event"... More on that un poco mas tarde (a little later)...

Friday was a really interesting day... All the teams left really early, so when I woke up everyone was gone! We had a staff meeting and talked about the upcoming week, complete with master spreadsheets and the highest level of detail in Central/Latin America... Then we all split up and started working on projects... Some people cleaned and got ready for the new teams, I worked on house 3... I've got to finish these doors, I need to do something else! But I've developed a pretty good system, so I've become the on-call guy for doors...

Rob and Kristine were sweating it out with me in House 3... They were working on installing the overhead lights in the closets and bathrooms... They were awesome! Kristine bent over laughing when I told her that John would probably have them working on wiring the lights...
But within the hour she was on a ladder with wirenuts in hand... That's the process here: Someone asks you to do something, You think to yourself that there's no way in the world you can do that thing, and then 15 minutes later you are an expert at it...

We took a break for lunch and went to Las Alitas (wings, in English)... Alitas is a great Wings joint - air conditioning, free refills and ESPN (don't know what the latinamerican ESPN channel is called - I think it should be called ESPNish)... Lunch was so, so good... Todd took Rob and I and the guy interns... Here's a picture of August, Andrew, Andrew, Rob, Todd and Brian... Missing from the picture are Cody, Kurt, and me... After Alitas we took the interns home and Todd took Rob and I to Wal-Mart... (in spanish: Wal-Mart)...

When we got back to LDM...
some of the staff kids had found a new "pet"... I'm not sure what they named this cute little moth, but whatever its name was it didn't make it through the afternoon... How amazing that the little moth got to spend its last few hours on earth with these cute little girls!

Todd invited the Summer Staff over to his house for dinner... He made dinner for us just to say thanks for being here this summer... He made Arracherra (marinated grilled steak) tacos...

The Arracherra was incredible! It was great to spend the evening with these wonderful servants...

Here is a picture of Diane and Beth... Diane is the mother of one of the staff members and has come down for the summer... Jen went to college with Beth, and she's here for a few more weeks...

The other picture is of Dain and Beth... Dain is the head honcho of the Back2Back offices in the states... He's a great guy that comes down frequently to help out...

After I left Todd's house I got sick... I don't think it had anything to do with anything I ate or drank, I think I'm just getting run down and dehydrated... I'm better now, but I required a nap Saturday afternoon...

Saturday

Saturday (before the nap) I worked to install the door hardware in the new bathrooms by the pool and the palapa... I had just finished when John came up and asked how things were going... I said that I thought they were working out pretty well and shut the door to test it... I then realized that I left the keys in the bathroom behind the locked door! So we had to break in through the window on the side of the building... I told John I would arm-wrestle him to see who had to shimmy through the window, but I think he was afraid to lose so he headed straight for the ladder... It worked, we popped off the screen and I told him to "Dukes of Hazzard" through the opening... Great Job, John!

Saturday (after the nap) we had a group from one of the group homes (Manantial de Amor) come for a pool party and cookout... We grilled hot dogs and served nachos... They were so good!

Here is Brittany (one of the interns) dishing out cheese...

And here is a picture of Cesar (who lives in the Joshua House) eating nachos after serving all the kids... Cesar is going with me to pick Jen up from the airport!! I'm so excited... It feels like forever since I've seen her... I can't wait to post pictures of our Anniversary Surpise!

Wednesday & Thursday

2007-07-05T21:18:00.000-05:00

Wednesday was more of the same... working on house 3, finishing up the door hardware... This day was a little more frustrating because I was hanging the "catches" for the door latches... It was more frustrating because the door jambs are all metal here... John said something about them being only $19 dollars or something... That's fine, but he didn't have to install the door catches...

But, hard work deserves a great reward!!! So I tagged along with some of the guy interns and went to Tacos Fede... Mmmm... I got the Arracherra (Grilled Steak)... This stuff is so good, you have no idea...

Thursday I got to sleep in a little because all the groups went out on outreaches while I stayed here to work on House 3... Usually John makes me get up really early to help him, but he took his wife, Corrie, out to breakfast... So we started work around 10AM... I worked on securing the doorknobs and deadbolt locks for the exterior doors... This time I had to deal with metal door jambs and metal doors! My hands were really tired by the end of the day...

This afternoon the Hall Family arrived (Rob, Kristine, Charlie, Gracie)!! I'm really excited, I've been looking forward to them coming all week... Todd took us out to Carl's Junior (I still haven't figured out the grammar on this restaurant)... Carl's Junior is like a Super Burger King... It's a fast food restaurant, but it's really, really good... And luckily, the Star Mascot from the Carl's Junior billboard was here!!

As we were sitting in Carl's Junior we saw this great rainbow right in front of the mountains... So cool...

So we loaded up in the Suburban and headed back to LDM, just in time for the Market... The Market is a really cool deal for the teams here... Instead of taking teams to the individual markets around town, a small group of people on staff go to the markets and buys stuff in bulk (so they get a much, much better price without the haggling)... So then they bring all that stuff back to LDM and mark it back up to the price that the groups would have paid without the bulk discount, and they use the profits to help support SMCA... Brilliant!

So now I'm sitting in Todd and Beth's house, chatting with Todd and Kristine (Rob has passed out on the couch)... Worship was great tonight, except really hot and humid... But it was a special night... Tomorrow the groups leave and we clean up and rest... John probably has a project cooked up for me to do though... I'm sure it will be an interesting day...

Monday and Tuesday (July 3rd)

2007-07-03T22:20:00.000-05:00

So Monday was just a day to get settled in... I slept in, relaxed, got some of my stuff from the white house (where we were staying before we left)... All in all a pretty easy day... I got to meet some of the teams... There is a group from Columbus, a group from Wiskahnsen, and a group from somewhere else (don't remember right now)... It's really hard to get to know people in a week, then say goodbye, then meet brand new people... Hard for me anyway!

Tuesday looked like this: I worked on installing all of the door hardware for house 3... We are really close to finishing house three... We're trying to get it ready for Matt and Julie Cooper and their family to move in... We were trying to have them moved in by July 1st, but we thought it would be better to push back that date a little bit so they could have electricity, and running water, and doors with handles...

There's a lot of work going on around here... Here's a picture of some guys working on installing lights and fans in the kitchen of house 3... This picture is hilarious to me because this guy used to be an OSHA inspector... He's standing on an upside down unfastened countertop... I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think that would fly in the US... Viva la Mexico!!

Here are some pictures of the work being done on the SMCA school... If you recall, SMCA is the Sierra Madre Christian Academy... It's the school for all of the children of the missionary families... Today was an eventful day... John went over everything with the guys who were operating the heavy machinery... 10 minutes after John left they hit a water line... So John told them to dig a trench so he could run another line, but they went too far over and hit a gas line... The good news is that one of the masons working on the property is really good with galvanized steel, so we had both lines back up and running within an hour and a half... This would take days in the US... Viva la Mexico...

I took a nap this afternoon because I got up at 6AM for our small group with the staff guys... I'm not a morning person... In fact, anything that comes out of my mouth before 10AM sounds, to me, like a person who babbles on and on after having one too many adult beverages... So what better realm in which to show off my unpolished dialogue skills? A Bible Study...

So I needed a nap... After the nap I got up, took a shower, did some reading and headed to dinner... I led worship, then got to talk to Jen on the phone... I'm making some plans for our anniversary, but don't tell her, it's a surprise!!

back in the saddle!!

2007-07-01T18:08:00.000-05:00

but without my sidekick :( It's like the Lone Ranger without Silver, or Tonto

I (chad) have arrived safely in Monterrey, but Jen is still at home eating clean American food... and my stomach is already growling at me because it's sensing the Mexican onslaught...

but I'm excited to be here! I can smell the food cooking and I'm already kind of acclimated to the heat...

I thought I would be really homesick when I got back to Monterrey... I thought that being home (in America) would make me remember all the reasons I love it there... And while that is totally true, I don't feel as homesick as I thought I would be... It has been really hard to bounce back and forth, I feel like I can't really rest yet... But I'm really only homesick for people... Friends and family are the ones I miss... I can do without strip malls and I can do without being the king of my own little world, but I'm really having a hard time missing all my loved ones... So, as you go to sleep tonight, know that I'm thinking about you (ALL of you)... all in pictures flashing through my mind!

I hope you are all doing well... And I can't wait to see you again!

Thursday - Cadereyta

2007-06-23T14:51:00.000-05:00

And the best of the best of the best has come...

Thursday was full of all kinds of experiences for the NSV team. Our original plans were to spend the day aat Cadereyta, a much larger version of the Rio - the home of the poorest of the poor. This area houses over 1000 people. These people were relocated after Hurricane Emily forced them out of their homes a couple of years ago. The government provided them new land and built cement blocks for them to begin rebuilding their homes (and lives) over from the ground up. Tarps, cardboard, and scraps would still be their means to build...but they were still looking forward to starting over again instead of meandering their way through the streets of Monterrey. Because of the intensity of the storms from the previous day and night, it was too muddy to work the full day at Cadereyta. So, we went back to Meme's Rio (the smaller squatter's village) for the 1st half of the day and spent time with the people there, did a food outreach, and got measurements to more securely affix the bridge to the ground that NSV helped build a couple of years back - the bridge that, by God's grace, saved many lives! The sun was hiding for most of the day and with our area to serve and love on the folks there now a small lake, it seemed to be a more sullen place. However, the kids brought the place alive, as did those who were intentionally seeking out others to pray for them. We were only there a short time so please forgive the lack of pictures!

We then took the bus about 25 mintues to Cadereyta. We stopped along the way at 7-11 to eat lunch and grab some snacks before heading over. Once we got to Cadereyta, we were immediately greeted by about 35-40 folks who were smiling ear to ear to see "los americanos". We circled up to get the history behind this area and ask God to be conduits of His blessing while we were there. We saw the beginning construction of a soup kitchen and church where we parked. The soup kitchen will help provide 2 meals a week for the adults and children there. The land alone for this cost around $7,000. B2B is still trusting God for the rest of the funds for this but are expectant that He will again come through for these people. Again, the reason B2B provides so much care for these people is largely due to the fact that many of the children that fill the children's homes come from areas such as these. Instead of coming alongside dozens of "rios" and dozens of children's homes, they choose to go a mile deep instead with 2 squatter's villages and 7 children's homes. We love that.

Here the pictures you see are of the team doing various things. When we first got there, a group gathered to fit kids for shoes. Most of the children were running around barefoot and were up to their knees in mud. A team spent time literally washing the feet of kids and fitting them as best as possible with a pair of shoes. Talk about major deposits of love into their little lives...

Others of us immediately began preparations for the meal we were going to serve them. That involved filling cups of water, cutting up cabbage, and setting up each station. They ate a meal similiar to tostadas. They had a large crispy shell with refried beans, "crema" - similar to sour cream, topped with cabbage and "salsa" - which accompanies ALL mexican meals in huge amounts, so we've learned! "Mas salsa, mas salsa, por favor!"

The high school guys immediately took to the young boys there. They put them on their backs and began racing with them down the street. Their energy was limitless. They were covered in mud from head to toe from running up and down the street but the giggles and smiles from ear to ear were priceless. The adults were awe struck watching them pour out their lives emotionally and physically and making enormous deposits into the hearts of these little ones. The pastor thanked them specifically at the end of the day saying he had never seen those kids smile so much. If you are a parent of one of the high school guys, you should be VERY proud!!

After Cadereyta, we went back to campus to pick up some of the ladies (and Chad) who were not feeling so great that day and stayed behind. We also picked up some of the little guys that hung out with the staff kids too. Off the team went to Pollo Loco - where they had chicken tacos and nachos and endless fountain coca-cola and coca-cola light!

After dinner, we braved the pouring rain and headed to the little palapa for last night of debriefing. It was clear that the Lord was already on the move before sitting down - the reality of the last night in this place was moving many to tears already. Because Chad was still really sick, Sally stepped up to take over leading worship by playing piano. Talk about a God ordained moment...it was a joy to have her lead us into worship and communion time. We missed Chad but it was a great opportunity to see the Lord raise up another leader!

During communion time, groups nestled together to pray and thank God for all He had done and we knew this was the beginning of a special night. I was in and out checking on Chad...and updating him on what God was doing...I'll let your friends and family give you specific details...but what I saw was nothing less than God's presence thick within our team. It was pouring rain and a group of guys stood outside the palapa anyway praying together and receiving from the Lord. The little girls did the same, thanking God that He worked in and through them this week. All in all, 13 team members decided to get baptized this night right on campus in the pool at B2B. Unfortunately, Chad and I weren't there to capture pictures...but we listened from our room to the celebration that followed each one - in fact, we thought it was the other team due to the explosion of cheering after each baptism. Thankfully the rest of the team took pictures! We also have some video of it and look forward to sharing that with you if you are interested!!

It was a great week...this team really connected...and experienced what deep, rich community is all about...pull them aside as you see them in Meijer, at Panera, or at NSV on Sunday mornings. Ask them what it was like to offer themselves, what God did in and through them, and how they are changed as a result. There is so much to share!! Thanks for sharing it with us on this blog...

The Powers' still have a few weeks in Monterrey, so stay tuned for more stories in the near future!!

Tuesday and Wednesday...

2007-06-22T08:19:00.000-05:00

Alright, so I'm a little bit behind! As we'll see over the course of the next few days, Mexico is the land of extremes! When it's sunny outside, it's extremely hot... When it rains here, it pours!! When you get sick here, it's awful (I, Chad, got really sick this week)... You work hard, you play hard, you eat until you're full, and you sleep like a rock...

So in order to catch up we'll start with Tuesday... Tuesday we went to a new children's home called Rayitos de Luz (Little Rays of Light)... This children's home was started by a couple who lived in the Rio (the poorest of the poor, the ones who build their homes out of garbage)... For years they couldn't have children of their own, so upon praying about their situation they felt like God was moving them to take in kids who needed a place to go... So they took their entire life savings and bought a small house in the city... They initially took in 5 kids who were all of the same family... Shortly after that they added 13 more! They all lived in this little cinder block home that was pretty beat down... Then a grandmother of one of the kids came and kidnapped him, telling the house parents that the living conditions were unsafe... So the family moved down the street in a rented house...

This is where we worked on Tuesday... They needed a little more bunk space and a little more organization to their new house... All 18 people slept in 2 rooms (2 queen beds, 2 twin beds)... And remember, this situation is way better than where they came from! Some people worked on shelving (moving old shelves and building new ones), some people organized the kitchen, some people played with the kids, some people fortified the front wall (they already had their TV stolen), some people folded and restacked their laundry, some people worked on the roof... It was a busy, busy day!

Here Mark and Paul are working on securing the post for the new front wall... Currently there's just a half front wall, and pretty much anyone can hop over and take whatever they want... This will make it nearly impossible for anyone to get in or out without a key...

Slick Vic and Quick Nick worked on sealing the ceiling... The Sello (sealant) keeps out water and bugs, and it's white to reflect the sunlight making the inside cooler... These guys were working pretty hard! You can hardly see up there because the light reflecting off the sello was soooo bright!

This is the bunk bed that I (Chad) worked on most of the day... Hopefully this will help ease their sleeping situation problems a little... They really need about 3 more of these... at least... But now instead of 18 people sleeping on 4 beds there will be 18 people across 6 beds... Cozy!

After working we got to take the kids to a movie! This is a pretty rare treat for these kids, so they were super excited! We saw Shrek Tercero (todo en Español)... Jen got to take Jose, who absolutely loved the whole experience!

That evening, after saying goodbye to the kids, we came back to LDM (that's the place we're staying - Lugar de Misericordia - in spanish it means Place of Mercy)... We had dinner and then Debriefing... For Debriefing we worship and then sit in a big circle to talk about our day... We start off by sharing our Picture of the Day, which is the one thing we don't want to forget about each day... We all see and experience so much while we're down here, and the Picture of the Day helps us to sum our experiences...

Wednesday!

Wednesday started off with the SMCA Groundbreaking... SMCA (Smicka) is the Sierra Madre Christian Academy, and it's where the kids of the missionary families go to school... This is a huge deal for the families here! Mexico is a very, very relational culture, so it's really important for the people who come down here to stay down here... The longer the families can stay the deeper their impact while they're here... One of the main things that forces the families to move is education... Parents want their kids to have a good education and it's hard to find down here... There are very few International Schools down here, and the parents would have to spend a lot of time and energy just transporting their kids to and from school... It's hard enough to live down here, pouring your life out to the people you serve, to worry about anything else that might otherwise drain your energy...

So, they need a school for their kids... A proper school building with resources (computers, books, study areas) for the kids will make a huge difference in a family's willingness to stay for the long haul... Our community at Northstar got together and raised enough money to build a schoolhouse for the families here... It is basically a three-room structure with bathrooms that can be used for many purposes... There are 2 classrooms, and the room between the classrooms will be used as a computer lab/study area/project center... In the summer when the kids are not in school this space can also be used to house more teams to come down... All the space at LDM is currently maxed out!

So the SMCA groundbreaking is a huge deal for the families down here... We had a ceremony where kids from SMCA introduced themselves, quoted Scripture, and gave us a picture of our investment in their lives... Todd did some vision-casting and thanked us for our help... John outlined the layout and construction of the building... Beth cried (she's going to hate that I put that in here)... And we all prayed for the building, it's construction, and it's ministry...

A big "Thank You" to Northstar for their continuing investment in the work of God here...

So after the groundbreaking we worked on the property... There's always stuff to do here, so we grabbed our work clothes and got ready to dive in... Some people worked on house 3 (the house that's almost finished), some people worked on house 4, some people worked on the new bathrooms between the big Palapa and the pool, some people worked on moving a tree, some people worked on sorting donations...

Here is a picture of the Bodega... The Bodega is a big barn a that's used for tool storage, a workshop, a place to store donations, and any other overflow storage that's needed...

On house three we worked on prepping the electric upstairs and installing shelving for the pantry... Here's a picture of me (Courtesy of Eric Weller) cutting down the shelving units to fit in the pantry...

Check out the paint job on those bathrooms! Tanya and Kathy are giving a beautiful facelift to the bathrooms by the Palapa! This is going to be a huge blessing for the kids who come to LDM for pool parties... Not to mention it will be so much better for us since the closest bathroom is a pretty good hike up the hill!

These guys were in charge of moving a tree... The tree unfortunately sat in the middle of a new soccer field, and since it's a nice tree we decided to try to save it... The new home for the tree is only about 20 feet away from its previous location, so it was a little bit maddening! But these guys worked really hard and got it done! As you can see, it was a pretty dirty job, but no amount of mud or pain or frustration could deter these guys... They were unstoppable!

After the work at LDM we cleaned up, had lunch, and made our way to PLAZA SESAMO!! We met the kids from Rayitos de Luz (who we hung out with on Tuesday) and a few kids from another childrens home and made a great day of it! It wasn't nearly as hot as it usually is, so we didn't spend the entire time in the waterpark area... We actually spent most of our time riding the rides in the amusement park area...

We went from the "rides" area of the park to the waterpark... We spent about an hour in the waterpark then took the kids to get some dinner in the park restaurant... Here's picture of Jen with Jose and Antonio... Antonio is on staff with Back2Back and is a great, great guy!

Our whole time at Plaza Sesamo it looked like it was about to storm... On our bus ride home the rains came down! When it rains, it really pours here... The streets were flooded, but the cars just kept plowing through the water...

Wednesday night, I got pretty sick... I was completely out for Thursday, so Jen is going to do the blog update for yesterday! Thanks for all your encouraging comments! It really helps us feel like there is purpose in taking our time to do this!

Two for the price of One!

2007-06-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

We got back pretty late last night and it was hectic, hectic! We didn't have much time to post about the day, so we've got to bring you up to speed pretty quickly... Today is Monday, yesterday was Sunday... Sunday started out with church... We went to church at Nuevo Pacto where the staff attends church...

It is a pretty large church, so it didn't feel like the whole congregation was staring at us wondering what we were doing there! The music was great - great musicians, great feel, great saxophone (surprisingly)... During worship Jordan felt led to pray for an elderly woman, so he prayed, she prayed, they smiled and hugged and cried and then sat together for the whole service...

After the service we ate lunch at a park then headed to the Rio... If you remember from a previous post last week the Rio is a community of people who live down by the river... They are the poorest of the poor... It's basically a squatter's village... They pick through trash and leftover construction supplies to build their homes... We brought them food and crafts and donations and hope... It was a great, great way to spend the day...

Karen Holliday held this little guy for 5 hours (alright, maybe only 3 hours, but she never let go of him the entire time!)... It was great because she got to talk to the little dude's mom (who knew quite a bit of English!), so they were able to truly enjoy each other's company the whole afternoon...

Tanya Hubers did a great job cutting hair for much of the day... She just told me a story that she had a pretty bad headache on the way to the Rio, but she prayed that the pain wouldn't inhibit her from serving... She said she didn't feel any pain until she finished the final haircut... Amazing!

Greg Holliday was helping stir the pot of spaghetti sauce to perfection... Here he is with Meme, who lives in the Rio... Meme works with Back2Back helping out the staff families, but she chooses to live in the Rio because it's her community and this is where she most effectively serves and loves her neighbors...

Jen and Kathy started helping out with the haircutting... This is a great way to serve these people because it means that they don't have to pay someone to cut it... Imagine if you didn't have access to regular haircuts... We, as humans, become so self-conscious about our appearance that our identity gets wrapped up into it... Giving these kids haircuts is like renewing their whole personality...

There is a man who lives in the Rio who has a horse-drawn delivery cart... Once you think about it, it makes pretty good sense... No one is going to come to the Rio to buy a drink, or some beans, anything else for that matter... So this guy takes that stuff out to the people where they will be able to access his goods... Hmmm... Sounds like a good church metaphor! Here Mark hitches a ride in the field above the Rio...

When we finally said our goodbyes at the Rio we loaded up the bus and went to this great place called "Tacos Fede"... Fede is the name of the guy who owns Tacos Fede and he makes some really, really good Tacos... You can have your choice of Beef, Pork, Beef and Pork, or grilled Steak! They all come in a tortilla with cheese, and the table has a few different salsa choices to spread over your mound of meaty goodness... This place is legendary around here! It's open from 7PM until 3AM, with the busiest hours between 11 and 2... Jen and I went there last week, but I didn't have my camera... If you're ever in Monterrey, just ask around for Tacos Fede and you won't be disappointed!

After dinner we gathered with the other group that's here (Southbrook Christian Church, near Dayton)... We played a game called Birdie on a Perch where people pair up and walk around in two opposing circles... When the music stops the person who is the Birdie has to find the person that is the Perch and sit on his or her knee... It's like an instant and hilarious traffic jam... We worshipped, debriefed, and settled in for a nice, cool evening of sleep...

A new day!

Monday we worked at Casa Hogar Douglas (CHD) all day... CHD is about a mile from where we stay so we sent the supplies ahead of us and we all walked there... This area we are in is something else... All of these dilapidated houses everywhere... But some of these folks have really nice cars... It turns out that this is actually a pretty wealthy area... This neighborhood used to be mainly thought of as a retirement community... Sometimes people have a home here and a home somewhere more close to their family... The buildings don't look that nice, but the land is incredibly expensive... Since we sit between two ranges of mountains there is really only one direction for the city to grow... Imagine if all the main development in the Cincinnati area (West Chester, Milford, Beechmont, Mason, Loveland, etc.) had to be squeezed into a few miles on either side of I-71... So land here is literally more expensive per square acre than it is in Indian Hill in Cincinnati! Unbelievable...

So here is a picture of us at Casa Hogar Douglas... Todd explained some of the history of CHD and also some of the projects we had to work on... There was plenty to do! Some people built picnic tables, some worked on roughing in the electric on the new Palapa, some worked on tearing apart old playground equipment, some pulled out concrete forms, some built new concrete forms, some shoveled gravel, and some worked on a fence at the back of the property...

Everyone worked incredibly hard and we got a lot of stuff done... After lunch we continued working, but some of us got to play with the kids who were just getting out of school!

Here is a picture of the Sport Court that we worked on last summer... It is finally finished! The kids absolutely love this thing, it gives them an all-weather playing surface that won't make them dirty or dusty... It's so cool to come back this year and see the finished product... It also helps us to see the big picture of our work projects... We know that the work we are doing now is the foundation of the finished product... It's great do to things that are so meaningful!

BROWNIES!

2007-06-18T08:38:00.001-05:00

This is a THANK YOU to our sweet friend Jessie who sent the Northstar Team Leader, Mark Weller, with 2 giant packages of brownies just for Chad and I. For those of you who have not had the privilege of diving into Jessie's brownies...I'm really sad for you!! She has a way of making the most perfect brownie - a great balance of chewy and fudgy and downright delicious. Jess, thanks so much for thinking of us. We've not had a lot of chocolate here...so this is a huge treat! We love that you know us well enough to know how to really bless our socks off. I miss you a ton and pray that you are well! See you soon, friend! :) Love to you - Jen

Happy Fathers Day!!

2007-06-17T22:36:00.000-05:00

So, it's 10:37 pm...but still FATHER'S DAY!! We've been out since 7:45 am this morning...but could not allow the day to close without wishing our incredible dads a Happy Father's Day. So, here goes...

Thank you for rallying behind us...for trusting us...for encouraging us...for challenging us...for being available to us...for working so crazy hard over the years to provide for us...for everything. No blog has enough space for us to adequately describe how incredible you are. Just thanks...again and again and again...to the moon and back. Love you - Jen & Chad

Northstar Arrival

2007-06-17T09:21:00.000-05:00

The Northstar team is here after surviving a few hiccups along the way... If you haven't heard yet there was a pretty cumbersome process that involved navigating the ever-changing-passport-rules-while-traveling-to-Mexico as well as a lot of "pulling strings" with some people in the passport processing office... They got that mostly sorted out, but then their flight from Indianapolis to Dallas was delayed (which meant they missed their flight in Dallas)... But it really only cost them a few hours, which is probably good because there was crazy traffic between here and the airport... The picture of Jen shows her looking out the bus window at the traffic (oil tanker spill, 14 car pileup, hours of waiting)... It's interesting in Mexico when there's an accident! First of all, everyone stops to look... And not just a passing glance - they want all the details... I guess they figure they've waited their turn so they want to see as much as they can... But then you have to wait for a representative from each of the insurance companies to get there to document everything... So you can imagine - traffic backed up for hours, everyone waiting for the police and the insurance representatives to get there, but the insurance folks are stuck in the same traffic! Crazy!

Some of the team members were pretty tired by the time they got to the bus... Jordan found the bumpy, non-airconditioned bus to be the perfect place for a quick and peaceful nap!
As soon as we got back to LDM (the camp) we stashed our bags and ran down to the Palapa to eat... After dinner Beth briefed us on some rules and gave us a picture of what the week is going to look like... Then we did some worship and headed straight to bed... We are ridiculously excited that the Northstar team is here... It's going to be a great, great week...

La Huasteca

2007-06-16T14:49:00.000-05:00

Well, yesterday was kind of a day off... The CHCA teams left early, early, early in the morning, so we got up a little later than normal... We made some breakfast and had a staff meeting at 8:30... During the staff meetings we talk about the week prior for a little bit... We go over some highlights and try to tighten up any loose issues from the week... Then we start talking about the next week, go over responsibilities, and discuss any potential gaps we might not have thought about up until this point... The staff here is great! They have great hearts and a great ability to work together... This summer will be a great experience in learning to live in community well with others... I already have some thoughts about making it work, but I want to discuss some of this stuff with the staff to make sure I'm not jumping to conclusions...

So, onward... Jen was pretty tired after the meeting so she went back to our room and read a little bit and took a nap... I went with John over to one of the houses we're working on and hung some doors... It's really hard to do finishing work on the houses because they are either not level or out of plumb... It's hard to work with the building materials (not much drywall or plaster here)... The walls are all a masonry material so they are wavy... Wavy is not good... But we're working with it!

After lunch we loaded up with the interns and John and Corrie and headed out... Fridays are mostly a day off for interns - no work, just a morning meeting... So every Friday one of the staff takes them out somewhere cool... This Friday we went to a place called La Huesteca (pronounced West Tecka)... It's one of the most famous places in the world for mountain climbing... And it's also the place where they filmed Lord of the Rings... just teasing, but it sure looks like it... There is a big open field that sits surrounded by mountains...

We decided to hike up to one of the caves, which was great but a little precarious (see the picture)... If we were in the states we would have to sign a bunch of waivers and swear that we would never sue anyone there ever and sign it in DNA-readable blood ink... But since we're in Mexico we just started hiking! It was great, and there were really only a few tricky places... If we would have had more time we would have kept going (I can't imagine the pictures that were waiting up there!)...

After we got down the mountain we were pretty hungry, so we went to this all-you-can-eat buffet place called Sirloin Stockade... We ate a lot of food... We ate about $20 worth of food each, but there was a special going on so we each ended up paying under 5 bucks per person... We came home worn out and headed straight for bed...

Today's been pretty good, some work in the morning and some basketball in the afternoon... There's not too much to do once the camp is clean... We just kind of relax and wait for the teams... This week there are two teams - one from Northstar and one from Southbrook... I heard both of them are delayed, so the waiting continues! I'll post some more pictures later...

I have been waiting for this day all my life...

2007-06-15T00:26:00.000-05:00

There has never been an answer to one of my life's greatest questions...

Until now...

I have pondered this mystery for years... Throughout my childhood it was always been just out of my grasp... In my youth I spent countless hours studying an entire show devoted to the discovery of this up-until-now-seemingly-mystical place... But it IS real... I knew it... No longer will the jingle in my head taunt me... No longer will I fall asleep wondering... I have seen with my own eyes... I have entered and partaken in the great mystery...

The Great Mystery that is Plaza Sesamo.

It is clear to me now that the reason I could never find the answer to the questioning jingle, "Can you tell me how to get, how to get to "Plaza Sesamo" was because they've gone into hiding... If only we were from Central America! Clearly the main Bird character has gone into hiding because he's completely changed his colors... No more canary yellow for the big bird...

Sunny day...
sweepin' the clouds away,
on my way to where the air is sweet...

Can you tell me how to get,
how to get to Plaza Sesamo?

Come and play,
everything's a-okay.
Friendly neighbors there,
that's where we meet

Can you tell me how to get,
how to get to Plaza Sesamo?

OK... seriously now... Plaza Sesamo is a theme park (bet you can't guess the theme)... We took kids from a few different orphanages there today... I paired up with my buddy Dean and we grabbed some kids (Isaac, 7, and Carlos, 6) and made a day of it... It was really hot today... Really, really hot... Plaza Sesamo is divided into two areas - a theme park with rides and a waterpark... Carlos and Isaac went straight for the water park and that was fine with Dean and me! That is, until we realized we had to walk around the waterpark barefoot... Our feet were screaming hot!! It was incredibly and intensely painful...

The only Spanish we needed to know today was "Otra Vez!!!" Otra Vez means "one more time" And if I hear "Otra Vez" one more time I'm going to pass out!

There was a really cool area in the middle of the waterpark that was a little water playland... Although I was sure we had lost our little dudes in there dozens of times... They just get so excited they can't stay put...

Jen still can't get in the water because of her toe so she stayed with the little orphan babies who can't swim... She played with this little girl for a long time until she finally sang her to sleep... Jen wants to adopt every little baby in Mexico, starting with this little girl!

So we got to hang out with those kids all afternoon, then we fed them dinner... Today seemed really long, maybe because I got up really early to run again... After running we ate breakfast, spent some time on the Bible Study we're doing for the week, and then had some free time while the group from CHCA cleaned up the camp... Jen went back to the place we're staying to take a short nap... I walked around and started figuring out ways to take a bunch of pictures and stitch them together into one larger picture... I've just been so dissatisfied with my ability to communicate through pictures... They're great and all, but they're just not enough... If you were here you would be able to see that these pictures I'm sending are just a glimpse of the beauty and majesty and splendor of this place...

This evening, after Plaza Sesamo, we had our own dinner and then went to worship... After that we spent some time saying goodbye to the CHCA group that's been here all week... We're really going to miss them, they are great people... We had such a great time getting to know them, and we both will take away several lasting memories from this week...

So it's off to bed, and ready for tomorrow... We have a meeting early, but most of the day is free... We're thinking about going with one of the staff couples and the interns to a park that is a huge field in a beautiful canyon... I'm telling you, we're surrounded by beauty here...

Until we post again, here are some more pictures of the mysterious and wonderful
Plaza Sesamo!

Comments...

2007-06-14T00:27:00.001-05:00

If anyone would like to comment on the blog there is a little tab down at the bottom of each entry you can click on... that will lead you to a page where you can either sign in (by creating an account) or post anonymously... if you do post anonymously it would be great if you could identify yourself so everyone knows who you are! And click on all the pictures because they're much better when they're big! Good Night...

Day 4 (Jen's entry)

2007-06-13T19:27:00.000-05:00

So, it's Jen here...

Today was super fun...like Chad mentioned, we went to Mundo de Adeveras and did a bunch of soccer stuff. At the last minute, I paired my sweet little one Niercas, 6 year old girl, with a high school student who didn't have anyone to hang out with. So, I ended up tagging along with Jessica, who had Jose who is 4 years old from a new orphanage called Rayitos de Luz (or Rays of Light). The first time the B2B team went to visit this new orphanage it was shocking. There are 18 kids there and they had only 2 beds for them and an empty refrigerator...literally. Perhaps even more shocking was that this was extremely better than the conditions the kids came from. The oldest child is 10...and is the oldest by far. So most of these ninos (children) are 7 and under.

Jose is a ball of energy. He has a belly laugh that can melt your heart. Jessica and I spent about 4 hours with him, playing on a soccer-goal-type moonwalk, giving piggy back rides, and kicking the ball back and forth. The rest of the "big kids" (from other orphanages) played organized games of soccer and did some drills. We ate dinner at Mundo de Adeveras...cheeseburgers and papas fritas (french fries) and COKE!!! It's been a long time since I've had that! Afterwards, we did a soccer ceremony where each child ran down a tunnel and they received their own soccer ball. They also got a waterbottle and a t-shirt.

Jessica and I found out we had the same circle of friends at Miami. She was 2 years younger than me and we were often in the same company. She is awesome - someone I have really connected with this week. She lives in Cincinnati so I'm excited to see her after the summer as well. We're finally getting beyond the surface with a lot of the team. That's been a little challenging not knowing people and having to have the same conversation (specs -where you are from, what you do, why you are here, etc.) with loads of people. But Chad and I have finally built some relationships here with John and Corrie (who we ran with) and myself with Christy (married two years like us and here for a year) and Jessica from today. The extrovert in me has an insatiable need to have depth in conversation with others. Alice Daniels, a CHCA teacher from the elementary school, is also here...who I know from when I taught Kindergarten. Her sweet face was so refreshing to see when I got here. She is one of those people that is so excited to see you every time you walk into a room. I can't get enough of this lady...

Gosh, I am longwinded...okay...time to run - t-minus 7 minutes until worship, baptisms, and debriefing!

Day 4 (another uncreative post title)

2007-06-13T16:44:00.000-05:00

Well, it's only 5PM, but it sure feels like it's been an entire day already... Jen and I woke up at 5:15 (AM!!) to go running with John and Corrie Guckenberger... It was great! We've been dying to run, but in order to avoid the 100 degree heat you have to go really early or really late... John and Corrie usually run at 6:00, but they had deliver breakfast to one of the nearby orphanages so they had do start early... We LOVE John and Corrie! They are great... The only thing wrong with them is that they run at 6AM...

So we loaded up the tools to finish the jobs that we started yesterday... There was a group of guys doing concrete work - they were pouring a sidewalk that leads from the new bathrooms to the pool... It's finished now and looks great!

I went back to work on the shelves in one of the houses... They're all installed and they look great (See the picture from yesterday)... After we put the wooden shelf/drawer units in we realized that we couldn't open the drawers! It looks like you should be able to open them, but they are so tight you can't get your fingers in there to open them... So we had to get some drawer pulls (knobs) and attach them today... Jen was back on the roof rolling the marshmallow fluff... The hills are alive with the sound of painting!

After we were finished we wrapped everything up and headed over for lunch... Jen and I could eat Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches every day... On our way over to lunch we checked out the progress on the ramp... The ramp is being built so that trucks can get up to the basketball court... Trucks need to get up to the basketball court so that we can deliver concrete and materials up to the area for the new school!!

Northstar raised so much money for the multi-room schoolhouse that we are able to begin preparations to break ground! This is amazing, and it will be a total blessing for those in this community... I'll definitely be sending pictures of the progress...

After lunch Jen got to go to a place called Mundo de Adeveras with most of the team members here... They brought kids from several orphanages to go and play at the park... Mundo de Adeveras is the coolest "amusement park" ever... It's set up like a small city with grocery stores and fire stations and TV studios and movie theaters and Home Depots (corporate sponsorship)... In order for the kids to be able to do the cool stuff they have to earn points on there little credit card... For instance, you get a certain number of points for going to the grocery store, then you get more points for answering 911 calls in the fire station, then you get more points for helping print the newspaper... All of these activities are fun on their own, but when you accumulate enough points you can do more extravagant things... They have a place where kids can ride in bumper cars (behind the VW dealership), they can go on the life-size airplane and take a mock flight, or they can trade in their points for the standard Chuck-E-Cheese-type toys...

But they didn't do that today...

Today they got to play in a huge outdoor sports complex at Mundo de Adeveras... They have a big soccer field, batting cages, places set up for refreshments, etc. I'm hoping Jen is out there right now taking pictures for me to post later!!

Tonight we're doing worship by the pool because 8 people want to be baptized! Everything is planned out and most things are set up and ready to go... We are excited and exhausted and everything in between, and we are so glad we are here...

Day 3 - Full Day!

2007-06-13T07:08:00.000-05:00

Day 3 turned out to be really full! I (Chad) got up to meet with the staff men early (6:20, ouch)... But of course, the mountains had already been up for a while so that helped me get going! We then had breakfast, met up with our crew leader (John) to go over the projects we were working on that day, and organized our tools...

Here's a picture of John going over the layout of the property... They are building homes to house some of the teens who are too old to stay in the orphanages... I'm going to do an entire entry about these homes later... But I wanted to show you now because a) that's what we worked on today, and b) it's just really cool what they are doing with these homes... The vision for Back2Back is "Care for today, Hope for tomorrow" (Atencion para hoy, Esperanza para el manana)... They are giving these teens a hope and a future for their lives by housing them, feeding them, paying for their education, providing a family structure, and investing in their character... It's much easier to work really hard on these homes knowing that this is what they're all about... It makes a day of seemingly mundane work become very purposeful...

Today I worked on installing shelving units in two of the bedrooms... These were wooden shelves that had to be fastened to the masonry walls... I worked with two ladies from Cincinnati named Shelley and Denise... They were super-energetic and not at all afraid to tackle the job! Jen worked on sealing the roof, which involved rolling this stuff onto the roof that looked like marshmallow fluff! I'm sorry I didn't get a picture, but I promise I'll get her in action for Day 4...

After we were done working we packed up, loaded some supplies onto a bus, and drove to the Rio.. The Rio is a community of people who live down by the river... They are the poorest of the poor... It's basically a squatter's village... They pick through trash and leftover construction supplies to build their homes... I'll do another post on the social and economic challenges of living in this place... But as you can see, they are using whatever they can to get what they need (Check out the tree limb they are using for a utility pole to run phone and electric lines... And someone has figured out how to tap into some "clean" water)

So basically we brought a lot of stuff to these people... We rounded up the whole village and provided food, juice, clothing and (maybe most importantly) attention... We gave them tacos, juice and shirts (for their physical need), each kid got a water bottle and a soccer ball or sandals (for an emotional need - kids need to feel like they can have fun), and offered to pray with people who were hurting or sick (for their spiritual need)...

Then we loaded back onto the bus and headed home for dinner... All in all it was a very full day, and by then end of the day we were exhausted... We had some great conversations with people working on the homes here and interacting with the people at the Rio... Day 4 involves more work on the homes (I'll get a picture of Jen) and a "field trip" of sorts... We're taking a bunch of kids to this place called Mundo de Adeveras so they can play and feel like kids :) Remember you can click on all of these pictures to get a much bigger picture... and you know you want the big picture!

Day 2 (up until dinner)

2007-06-11T17:43:00.000-05:00

Today started out great! We got a full night of sleep (although I did wake to the bed shaking a little, after which Jen informed me that we were in the presence of a huge bug)... Upon completing my duty to remove the bug from our presence (I had to use Jen's sandal, don't tell her), we walked over and had some breakfast... After breakfast and a quick meeting with Beth (of Beth and Todd Guckenberger - head honchos), we got ourselves situated and did some reading... The devotional reading this summer is called "Offer" (from Romans 12)... Here's a picture of Jen in the Palapa (probably telling the Lord that she wishes I would take less pictures!!)

This is a picture of the basketball court (big staff game tonight at 6:30) and the soccer field...

We made a quick trip out to Wal-Mart (in spanish it's spelled "Wal-Mart")... This is just like any other Super Wal-Mart, except everything is in spanish and there is immense and picturesque beauty in the parking lot!

And after our Wal-Mart run we came back and helped organize a swimming party for the kids in one of the new orphanages... These kids are all young, so most of them can't really swim without the aid of a flotation device (en espanol "floaties")... Jen was a great lifeguard since she couldn't swim because her big toenail hasn't completely healed yet...

We are having a great time, and we're looking forward to the rest of our time here... Tonight is Dinner, Worship, Debriefing from the day...

Day 1 - Pictures

2007-06-11T16:04:00.000-05:00

I want to let you see some of what we're seeing, so here are some of pictures... You can click on them for higher resolution pictures...

The first picture is mostly of the mountains... I'm telling you, we are surrounded by beauty... I just heard a song, the chorus sings about God:
When You stand, the tall trees and mountains bow
When You speak, the fiercest of oceans is still
And I see the sinner seek devotion
The lost become chosen, and I fall to my knees

When I think about us, about our place in the world, about how incredible the God of the universe is, I'm just amazed... And even more amazed to think that if God were to stand here, right here, that these mountains would bow... Unbelievable...

The next picture is of our "revival tent"... It's not really a revival tent, but it looks like one... We had a big party, invited all of the kids from all of the orphanages that we serve, fed them dinner, did some crafts, and sang some songs with them... We had 160 Kilos of steak (that's about 350 pounds) and it was delicious! That's the thing about this place... They could have ordered hamburgers and hot dogs... They could have saved a lot of money and did a pasta dinner... But they wanted to show these kids how much they are worth, how much God cares for them... How much does God love these kids? Steak Much! (Arrachera Mucho)...

The last picture is of Jen holding one of the little guys... She is so great with these kids... I just sit back and marvel at how well she loves on them! Her favorite trick with this guy was to cradle him and swing him around...

arrival!

2007-06-11T10:09:00.001-05:00

After 2 flights, immigracion, customs (strange customs process with random screening - you press a button, if the light turns green you're good, if it turns red they open all of your stuff!), we have finally arrived...

We were greeted by a big dude holding a paper with our names on it who went by the name "Junior"... Now, usually, I wouldn't necessarily trust a man in a foreign country to take us 45 minutes away in his car, but I went with my gut and followed this one fail-proof rule: Always trust a man who wears a headband. Always. Plus Jen was really excited because she's always wanted to be greeted at the airport with someone holding up a sign with her name on it...

So we crammed in the car and rode all the way to the camp... I had forgotten just how beautiful this place is... And I can't believe how much stuff they've done over the last year... Last summer we started work on one of the new houses, a group of guys loaded several thousand cinder blocks up to the second story of a now completely finished house! Now there are two other house built! One is about 98% done, and the other is about 50% done... I'm telling you, this place is especially beautiful right now...

Camera Obscura

2007-06-10T00:27:00.000-05:00

Alright! We've got a camera! This is what we'll be using to update you (visually) on what's going on... I'm really hoping that there's some reliable internet service down there... It seemed like we could access it last year... I guess we'll see!

We are leaving in exactly 5 hours!! Still some packing to do, but we should be alright... The next posting will probably be in Mexico! (I'll still write in English though!)

Purpose

2007-06-05T21:24:00.000-05:00

In order to let you all in on what we're doing this summer, I decided to create this blog... If I can figure out how to work this you should be able to read and see what life looks like in Monterrey! Stay tuned, I'll figure this out eventually!