Day 6 - Thursday - Getting Ready to Leave...Our Hearts

Thursday.  We leave the keys to the house we (actually, the Lord) built.  We want to thank all of the people who donated money to pay for the house.  Just so you know, the family who we built it for has some skin in the game, too.  They had to raise the money for the land.  No easy feat for the people here.  We had a short leave to go in to Ensenada and shop. And, then, after one final day of play and making a lip-dub that sums of the week's fun in about six minutes, we give a tearful leave to the children.  We tucked them in to bed our last night at the City, leaving them small tokens of our and God's love.  Then we went up to the amphitheater to leave at the altar some of our memories of the week, each contributing a single phrase, the fun and serious, the pointless and the poignant, all of the shared words and experiences that draw us together. Finally, we were left to clean up our dorms, kitchen and gym and pack up.

Six Minutes to Sum Up the Week

Following is the Mexico Mission Trip 2011 Lip Dub that was created on Thursday and edited in less than a half an hour by Eldridge Alexander (does he ever feel the pressure?).  Grab someone who went on the trip to explain some of the inside jokes...like why Callie is hugging Harry Potter and Stephanie is covering her mouth.... Just click the link below.

2011 Mexico Mission Trip Lip Dub

Closing as we began.  With thanks...

We close now with some pics from the day and night and a very special thanks.  We want to thank our trip's many Sirviente.  The cooking crew, who missed a good deal of the fun, slaving away so we'd have the energy to have fun and make some fun for the kids.  In honor of the cooking crews contributions and Randy longtime support of the NBYG, our interns made the final presentation of the Festival of Sharing cap/crown to Randy Hobbs. (Be sure to check out how Randy and the kitchen crew sparkle in the Lip Dub).

We want to thank Skid, Vicki and the three interns -- Eldridge Alexander, Rachel Bowen and Ben Higgins -- for all their hard work organizing and energizing this trip.  We also want to thank our four elders who not only made the trip but truly MADE the trip with their participation -- building houses, scooping ice cream and donning eye makeup (now that's liberal!).

Finally, we'd be remise if we didn't thank parents, friends, family members, church brothers and sisters and coworkers of many of our team members -- everyone who contributed prayer and resources.  This was your trip as much as it was ours.  We thank you for sharing it with us.

And, team, remember.  It's not about 1 week.  It's about the other 51 weeks.  We've found the treasure but the mission continues.

Praying for the family and the home

Day 5 - Wednesday - We Were Warned... about Weary Wednesday

Skid warned us about Wednesday.

The fun and newness and adventure and enthusiasm for being in a foreign place, doing God's work and meeting new people is beginning to wear thin.  As Alex Pearcy put it... we're just "tired." Or, as Brennan Alexander said after a day putting the tarpaper and shingles on the roof of the house we're building: "We're tarred. [Add thick hillbilly accent]."

And when you're tired or tarred, the temptation is to focus on yourself and not the kids and to just offer up minimal effort and conserve energy.  The temptation is to withdraw and just take care of the yourself.  But we're not here for that.

We're here for the kids.

They're need for interaction and activity seems inexhaustible.  Working with them and fighting off Wednesday's weariness makes you aware of the incredible work of the City's staff and dorm parents.  We'll need to remember them in prayer.  They're amazing people to put forth so much and work so hard.  Their labors go beyond service.  They are truly sacrificial.

So Wednesday's was about fighting the weariness, tapping into the strength God promises and making sure we finish strong.  It's also about finishing some of the other work we've begun.  The house crew put the finishing touches on the house that tomorrow when we turn over the keys will become a family's home.  The food crew made the final food deliveries.  And our four nights of skits also drew to a close.

In our skit, a group of castaway kids have been pitted against several pirate crews as everyone searches for a mysterious treasure.  Instead of focusing on getting home, the kids have been lured by the riches the pirates seek.  So powerful is the promise of treasure, the kids have even taken on pirate garb and pretended to be in league with the evil captains and their crews.  It's, of course, a metaphor for how we tend to live our lives.  We're distracted from our journey home by the things of this earth that catch our eye.  We're tempted to outwardly fit in and the act of looking/acting like the world arounds us draws in and captures our heart.

In the end, our castaways uncovered the true treasure as well as a few other surprises along the way.   We learned that Captain Amerigo La Quinta Ricardo Gonzales Officina Eric Estrada Enrique Iglesias Jennifer Lopez de Soto Montoya (his name got longer each night) was not a pirate captain at all.  It was Juan, who lived on the Island and wrote of his Captain.  Juan was there to aid the castaway kids in their search for the true treasure though his actions and words were often misinterpreted.  In the end, Juan's Captain made his appearance as Sirviente (servant) -- both Captain and Sirviente -- he revealed to the children the true treasure...an empty treasure chest.  It was empty because the true treasure is not what we get it's what we give up to become our truest selves.  It's the washing away of sin and not the gaining of riches that is the truly amazing and enriching treasure, Christ, our Captain and Sirviente, gives us.  That and the peace in the midst of struggle.

Seeing the truth for the first time, one by one, the castaway kids filled the treasure chest with their discarded pirate garb....  Not able to understand the nature of Sirviente's treasure, the pirate captains walked way to continue their meaningless and endless search for the world's riches.  But their henchmen stayed, each giving up their pirate swords and shirts...until only one henchmen remained.  In this moment our week's lessons came first circle.  Skid began the week on Sunday using an illustration in his sermon, in which a person was lead to find something by the audience, who clapped louder as he/she got closer to the object of their search.  The last pirate henchmen was led to the true treasure by the claps of the castaway kids.

This blog doesn't do the three days of skits justice.  It's just a tip of the iceberg as far as the story goes.  But so is any retelling of the amazing story of what Christ has done for us.  If you want to read the script for our skits, go to the book of John chapters 13 and 14.  Add pirates and read.  As Skid explained, Jesus taught by putting hard to understand things in simple stories.  So we tried to follow his example with our story.

We closed the day with celebration and devotion.  And the recipient of the Festival of Sharing cap/crown for Wednesday was Erica Goslowsky, who had been battling stomach and eye issues most of the trip.  But, even so, every day saw her up and at it.

Erica at her FOS crowning

We made it through Weary Wednesday.  Thanks for all who prayed.

Check Back Later

Stay tuned for more. Over the weekend I'll be posting the write ups for the rest of the week and more pictures.

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We're Safe across the Border

We appreciate your prayers. We're back safe across the border. Watch over the weekend for more updates and pictures of our activities during the week.

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Day 5 - Wednesday - City of Children