They came, they saw, and then they had to go…

We had an amazing gift from home, a group of ten ladies came to visit us. I (Misty) had the wonderful pleasure of being tour guide to Robin (Birthday girl), Lisa, Sandy, Julie, Tiana, Jean, Claudia, Karen, Elaine, and Cheryl. These ladies were a hoot! They arrived bright and early Thursday morning, after a cell phone call to reset our clocks, Mexico is an hour behind till Saturday, I arrived at the port just in time to be turned around because I wasn’t authorized to go in. They all made it to the van and we were off to shopping in downtown. After a few guys trying to get us to drink beer at 10 in the am, one of the happy ladies began dancing on the sidewalk with one of the waiters, I’ll let you guess who it was, I than took the ladies to the YWAM base, I gave a small tour then off to our apartment, which now I know I need more seating!

I was blown away that they remembered that my birthday is only a few days away (4-7) and they brought me gifts. All together now ahhh. Thank you to Lisa S. and Carol S. and JoNell my b-day lunch buddies for the beautiful lapel PINS, I can’t believe that they are now international pins, Lisa for the Lip Smackers which I am thoroughly addicted to, I also can’t wait to use the gift at our new APPLEBEES! Thanks to Robin for the bunko kit, I’m in the stages now of planning a bunko takeover in Ensenada. I also received some cash in my Microwave from a fairy (Hey Tiana, how was that muffin in the microwave??), Sandy for my cute purse, and a few other angels gave me gifts of cash as well. THANK YOU!! Those gifts will be used to get a much needed Dryer for our laundry. Thanks for making me feel so special I appreciate all of you!

We had a special time of prayer (any updates would be awesome), and then it was off again in the van this time to see the house that the DTS (Discipleship Training School) had a chance to build. After a scare with the 12 passenger van not wanting to make up one of the majorly steep hills I dropped my friends off at the ship. We ended with hugs all around and a security guard telling me I had to get going. I had tears in my eyes as I was realizing how fast, fun, and heart tendering this day turned out to be. That old saying you don’t know how much you miss something till it’s gone is true. I can’t believe how much I miss Sparks Christian Fellowship! I look forward to seeing photos, videos, and hearing the Cruise Ladies side of the stories.

Anyone else wanna come for a visit? Check out the YWAM website http://www.ywamsandiegobaja.org/ on how you can bring any size group down. We can’t wait till July to see the students from Generation come down!! What a party that will be!

Wednesday Night

Hey,

We have started the first week of Mission Adventures here, it has been an adjustment. Misty is learning about Bible study during DTS, Dad is feeding a couple of hundred people for meals, and the kids are in school. Misty tried to see Joey marching in a Disfile (parade) she thought she was on the correct street but couldn't find Joey's school. Tomorrow we will see the spring program at Joey's school. Both Kids will be in the program Joey has a duck costume and Emily has a chicken outfit. I can't wait till the Christmas party, we are going to get Misty a chicken costume and I will dress up like Colonel Sanders we should be a hit. I never implement the ideas but sometimes I think of cool Halloween outfits for us as a family. I want to go with Joey me as Igor and Joey as a Mad Scientist, or have Joey and Emily in little police costumes and me and Misty dressed up like convicts.

But back to the program, Joey's class will be singing a song in English! It is YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE I guess they picked it because it has the word "sunshine" in the title. Unfortunately the song text isn't so joyful.

Last night as I lay sleeping,
I dreamed I held you in my arms, when I awoke dear I was mistaken
So I hung my head and cried.

Seeing the kids in their animal costumes will make me forget the maudlin lyrics so I think I will come away fine.

Another Day Another Adventure

It's an early Friday morning and Bill is awake. The week here has been busy up to now we had more than 200 people running around from 2 churches building 6 houses. It's a bit depersonalized when we have so many people here and I only met one person. The rest of the time I was pretty busy trying to help get the food cooked and when the bell rang to keep it on the serving table out in the courtyard while everyone was eating. Here is another way to say we had a lot of people here, Misty was buying some gas at the Pemex station yesterday and she saw a convoy of white rental vans gassing up and started talking to the people there. "Are you on a mission trip"? So after a minute of conversation it turned out they were here with YWAM Ensenada Baja building houses. Wow, small world. We had a lot of people here.

Sorry this post is a lot about Bill right now but hang in there or scroll down if you are so inclined, I was very tired and discouraged the past couple of days, I want to do everything perfectly and when I don't I get upset with myself and with others and the whole system starts to get on my nerves. I was really encouraged though through something that happened during the morning. I posted last month about life in the kitchen

We had a really good week in DTS our speaker was a guy named Kenny Peavey and he lead worship and spent time talking about Worshipping God and connecting with Him through worship and as that happens we participate with Him in what He is doing in the world and with other people. So for me (Bill) God was putting on my heart what goes on in the kitchen and all the people I interact with while I am at work cooking there; other staff and students, people from the Rehab center that come in to work in the kitchen sometimes and even the bums who live on the beach nearby coming to the side door asking for food. It was an awesome week actually.

Yesterday when some guys from rehab were here working in the kitchen a man named Carlos introduced himself and he had come here before to the side door asking for food and I did the usual and gave him a trash bag and had him fill it and take it to the dumpster and I gave him some food and water. (depending on the leftover situation it can be an awesome deal) So now he is in rehab and it was neat to see someone I reached out to when they were sick and starving in a place where they can get help and has returned home to the One who really cares about us and loves us.

We are almost through with the FM3 visa process, I can't believe it! Monday we all went to a photo shop and took pictures... again and Misty filled out paperwork and through Ivonne the visa coordinator we might be legal and more than a tourist. I can even get a Mexican drivers license; for that alone I can't wait to come home and visit my old job and whip that out. Joey and Emily were really cute in the pictures I should go back and get another set done in a larger size and on Disc so they can be shared. Yesterday we were visiting a lady from the Follow up department named Ester who has a 3 month old little girl. Joey was waving a rattle for the baby and Emily was kissing her and laughing and saying something to mama and baby about zapatos (shoes) it was a great 5 minute party there. I also got to introduce Emily to the DTS speaker who was with us the first three days of the week, the speaker was Rob Morris who was talking about justice and sharing about his NGO Justice for Children International www.jfci.org I knew Rob 11 years ago in Texas while I was in my DTS. As the years went on he moved back east with a ministry called AXIOM that is in New England and started JFCI after become aware of the issue of the Trafficking of Children for the purpose of becoming slaves in Brothels. Misty has had an intense week. Pray for her and all of us as we get challenged in classes and challenged at work.

We love you all

I MADE IT!

Hey gang, I made it back off the mountain in one piece. Nikko, is a Greek word meaning to overcome. So when we finished a task we would scream I Nikko'd it! Meaning I overcame the task given.

We headed off on wed afternoon into the mountain region south of Ensenada. We were split into three teams pictured above is my team. We than picked a leader and gathered our packs and began walking to our first stopping area. Two hours later up steep mountains and down small paths we arrived. We had a bit of a break and then we were told to put our packs back on and then a blindfold, our new leader had to direct us back up the mountain we had just climbed down from. This was awesome for me! I was so comfortable with Ashley our leader I had no problem in listening and being lead by her. That hike was the fastest by far! We then headed off to our sleeping camp which was oh yeah another two hours in the opposite direction. Goodness I was beat! and didn't sleep till about an hour before we were woken up for our all day hike. At each stop we would have a small teaching and time of discussion, Archie and Clint our leaders truly wanted this to be a classroom experience. We woke up Thursday and appointed another leader, got directions, got our packs on and were off. There was a team ahead of us and a team behind us. We arrived at our first meeting sight with not seeing a soul but Archie and Clint. We had followed the directions and made it on time about 2 1/2 hours trek. We never ever did see the others teams the whole hike. We dropped our big packs, and a breakfast, and a potty break. This is the best potty in the world here's it's view, yep no door and plenty of air whirling around no need for TP either. It's truly an amazing site and my favorite potty on the whole trip!

We gathered our day pack with lots of water and we were off. We were told that we should get back to our base camp in about 4-6 hours. I was like WHAT?? Hello we just walked, fell, slid for 2 1/2 hours already and we are still going? I was so happy to give up my huge pack I have to admit and Clint assured me that the more I walked the lighter the pack would become. Ya RIGHT, I get the direction behind it, because as we eat and drink what it's in our pack it will become lighter, but we still have to make the trek. This was all endurance, it was persevereing and for me it was awesome to see me humble myself through the pain and give up my pack after my team has asked numerous times to take it. I can't tell you how hard that small lesson of Mat. 11:28-30 was for me, I gave my junk to Jesus so I can "learn to live freely and lightly." (the message) My team was amazing, they pulled me through when I needed it encouraged me when I couldn't get my foot to move any more, and laughed, cried, and journeyed with me. I am forever grateful to these people and have learned so much from each one. So I'm sure you are asking hey what happened to the other teams. Great question the other teams went the wrong direction at the very beginning of the hike and got lost. One team walked 2 1/2 hours in the wrong direction to have to turn around and make up that time plus continue the same hike we were all on. Everyone did make it back to base camp. Our team took 5 1/2 hours! You'd think after that hike I'd sleep like a baby, oh nope not yet. We woke Friday morn, and were off again. I was pretty sore and stiff and cried out at our time of prayer to the Lord, " I confess, I'm done! I don't want to do this any more." Then in my heart I heard, "You can do it, I know the way, You can do it." It was like God was whispering in my ear I'm here follow me we can do it. I was energized, and for the first time my knee stopped hurting and I started singing praises. This was a silent hike so I had to sing in my head but it was still as loud and powerful as if I were shouting with my voice. This hike God revealed to me in the silence how precious I was to him. I felt like I was giving out all the time and this was my moment to receive back from God, I began to weep, and my poor team thought I was in pain, with out speaking I was letting them know that God was talking to me. They cared so much for me and it did this moms heart good to see them caring for me instead of the other way around. We arrived at our last base camp and it was time to pick another leader and I was the last so it was my time to shine. My task make lunch for my team. Yep, this is where the chicken comes into play. I gave instructions to my team and then we were off. I'd like to tell you all the details and will if you want to know but I'll pass on it right now. It was extremely difficult for my entire team!! All of tasks that were placed before us were to prepare us for outreach. I totally see that! I would rather do what we had to do in a safe environment rather than out in the bush and people freaking out! I am glad I went on the trip and would go again if given the chance. I would recommend Nikko to everyone going on a outreach, it was AWESOME.

Misty Striking the Pose!

We will see how she looks in a couple of days.

Misty Striking the Pose!!!

We will see how she looks when she gets home.

Mom's Big Adventure

Tomorrow Misty is going to go with the DTS students on a trip to the outdoors. It is supposed to be somewhat intense, there will be hiking, team building activities, and there will be chicken for dinner. The chicken will be very very fresh, as fresh as a chicken can be. I hope she has a really good time. But seriously, pray for Misty this goes from Wednesday through Saturday and it is a lot of physical exertion and and she is going backpacking for the first time ever. She could have taken a pass but she is going to go for it and I am really proud of her.

We are having a quiet few days here on the YWAM Base, but next week will be pretty exciting and soon we will be having a lot of week long programs happening and that will be a bit of an adjustment feeding a lot of high school age students here.

We have finally taken everything out of our storage unit and all that needs to get here is the flat bed trailer full of furniture that is in the San Diego Offices warehouse. Hopefully soon the furniture will be here in a couple of days.

Joey is making his dad really proud as he writes letters on the side of our van in the morning, and this evening he was putting down numbers on a piece of paper and keeping score for Emily as they played with the bowling game our friend Heather Nielsen gave Joey. I like the school that Joey and Emily go to during the week, there are a lot of things they are having the kids in Joeys class do, PE, learning about the Mexican Flag, expositions (Joey talked about Cows), Spanish Lessons, art, computer's math, writing letters and numbers all of this in Spanish. Last week Misty went to a parent teacher conference and heard a really good report about how Joey is learning the language, and is a problem solver whether it is school work or other kids fighting with each other. I am so proud of my little boy! Emily is so sweet when she comes and goes to school, when we pick her up her hair has been put up into little pig tails. Next September she will start Kindergarten, and as she starts Joey will be finishing so they will be together. I can't wait for the program they will have, we loved Joe's Christmas one and I cannot wait to see them together.

March Already!!

WOW, where is the time going? We had an amazing time last weekend. We are working on getting some photos and a video done to show you the house build. We started Sat. morning with a warm breakfast and an orientation on how to correctly put a nail into wood. After that we were off to a new area of Ensenada. Our house was near the downtown in the mountains area. The Family Gresiel and her two daughter were waiting along with her mom and dad, and the co-Mayor of Ensenada, his wife, and another man on the city council. It's been awesome to see God moving in the city government these past months. We all got to pray for the family on the foundation of their new home. We then split into teams, me and the kids were on the painting team!! We had a blast painting our hands first and then the boards. While painting we met a new friend same age as Joe he lived a few house down from the build, Joe played a bit with this little guy while Emily and I helped his grandma pull weeds. I was happy to see in the midst of this amazing work for this family we are being use to bless another family. Dad was back at the base finishing up his work. When he arrived we had lunch and got back to painting! It was great to work side by side with G and her cute girls, we have many pictures but they are not on our camera, they are soon to come! Cleanup was next and by 5 we were back at that base exhausted! After a quick scrub down in the shower, the kids fell asleep and slept through dinner and the whole evening they were pretty wiped out. The next morning it was another wonderful HOT breakfast (I tell you this because it's not everyday we get hot breakfast) then off to the build site, the walls were up and roofing was being started, we were again on paint duty this time inside. Mom did most of the painting while Bill and the kids were outside playing. We hope to go back and visit again soon! Together as a DTS this was awesome for us all to gel together as a team! I know it is an amazing blessing for G and her girls to receive shelter but it was more amazing to be used by God to bless this family and the family down the road. You who read this site are blessing us as well by your prayers, and support! I love God's perfect circle of blessings, don't you! Thanks again, and we look forward to getting photos and a video up here soon! March is going to be fun! Marie our niece will be having a birthday, and at the end of the month the "Cruise Girls" are coming for a visit. We are excited and can't wait!!