Tuesday, May 29, 2007

First day of Base Leaders Training Conference

So it is early Tuesday morning. Today is the beginning of the Base leaders training that will be held this week, I have been preparing for this for a while and there are a few things that need to be purchased from the store but mostly we are good to go. Last Friday I posted that we were to go again to Tijuana to try to finish our FM-3 visa process and that was a successfull trip. We are now legal like that and in a couple more weeks we will be able to pick up the actual visa, then I can get a drivers license here from Mexico. I can't wait to go home and visit my old job and show some of the Mexicans I used to work with.

Sad Topic ahead.....
When we first arrived last Sepember we were hearing through announcements and emails occasionally that one of the couples here had a very sick baby, we finally got to meet the couple; but sadly after struggling through many months their baby died yesterday. His name was Kaiden Murillo and it is hard to have to deal with that right now, staffers that know them very well are just devastated and I can't even imagine what is going through the parents Omar and Stephanie's mind right now. They are in Los Angeles right now, hopefully we will see them back soon. Pray for them please. Omar and Stephanie are in charge of the local outreach department, there are a zillion kids that live around this neighborhood.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Friday Morning

Will be better than Thursday I hope... Yesterday we drove to San Diego and then back to Tijuana to try to finish getting our FM-3 visas.... Heh Heh Heh.

We started all this before we even drove to Mexico last September, we arrived and during the first week we went to a passport photo office in Chula Vista California to have pictures taken. Then months later we went to a local office and did it again, and then the other day just a couple of more pictures needed to be taken. I think these photo shops have some sort of conspiricy going, photographers definitely are a big part of it. THINK about it people whenever there is some big event and something happens a Photographer just happens to be there and take pictures. But back to the story, it was one of those days where you feel very frustrated. We knew we were supposed to be going on Thursday morning but it took forever to get out of here from Ensenada. and when we didn't know that the office was supposed to close at 1 in Tijuana. That was the big surprise for me, but it wouldn't have mattered if we had made it in time because one of the forms needed to be done differently. The whole process for the visa's involves a lot of papers to fill out, and lawyers, and government offices. The offices all charge different rates so you have to shop around; and we have a staffer here on the YWAM base that does nothing but coordinate our Visa's. I guess this has been a thorn in the side of YWAM San Diego Baja for a while so I am not alone in my suffering. So now we are going to go down one more time and try to get the paperwork in. And give them a bunch of money. Because that's the most favorite paper of all.

Ok, so we are looking forward the DTS students arriving tomorrow from Peru, and the coming week will be our Base leaders training conference. I hope so catch up with one of the leaders from my DTS outreach I went on in Puerto Cabezas Nicaragua back in the day (1996), her name is Brenda Lewis and her and her Husband work with a ministry called AXIOM in New Haven, Connecticutt. I have been near there when I was in the Navy, I spent some time in Groton and New London. My Submarine school and my first Submarine was there. I have many impressions and memories from those days. I'm glad I was there I learned some stuff about life and people and myself. But other than that I was very lost at the time: pornography, alcohol abuse, I felt so alone and homesick. I really was pretty miserable back then; but hey I earned my Silver Dolphins to wear on my uniform though!

So that's all for now, maybe leater this afternoon I can post about how todays trip went.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Text Only today

Hey everybody, I just dropped Misty off at the kids school and she is going to be there this morning and early afternoon as a volunteer. I hope she has fun. I am going to finish my menu I am writing and start getting stuff out for next weeks conference. I also hope to squeeze in a walk in the morning before its too late.

I am trying to really get the blog Ball rolling again. It's not so hard just things made it difficult earlier and I like to avoid my problems..(did I say that?) We are supposed to put stuff up on our YWAM San Diego Baja page as well and I have no idea how to really get that going. So I just avoid it.

Love to all from Bill

Monday, May 21, 2007

May 21, 2007

Today is Monday, we just finished dinner and I am writing a nice large entry, this will kind of summarize the last couple of months.

I do want to start off with the really good stuff that went on lately. Misty went on her outreach to Peru for 10 days, she had a really nice time visiting the other students, doing ministry with them and getting to see the Amazon River and experience the humidity and heat of the rainforest. Misty said she took cold showers everyday, the showers would keep her cool till she got out of the shower and then immediately she was all hot and sweaty again before she was even dried off. UMM the Jungle. It was a great trip though. The DTS students will be back here in less than a week and we are really excited to see them all again. Last week we got the word that one person on the team, whose name is Eduardo (he is pictured here with Misty and Amanda, he has and is our translator on this trip) he had a seizure while bathing in the river with other members of the team and had to be pulled out of the river and given CPR. He is doing a lot better but is still in the care of the doctor as I type this. It sounds like a very scary story, especially the part where he was underwater and one of the girls pulling him out.

This week Misty is going to volunteer in Joey’s class, the English teacher will be there on the days Misty is there, so it should it should go good.

We finished our spring batch of programs and moved right into a series of weekends that have been pretty intense; we built 7 houses during the past weekend. Meanwhile we have been changing out our walk in refrigerator and putting in a walk in freezer as well, we are losing a little bit of space in the refrigerator, but gaining a lot of space in the freezer so I will have to adjust a bit while shopping.

We did a big cleaning project last week it was a good experience and a lot of people all teamed up nicely to get the place cleaned up. We have a couple other things to take care of though; we are waiting for an oven to arrive that was ordered a while back, supposedly it was going to get here faster if we bought it inside of Mexico but I think that idea has been discredited. It reminds me of a car my dad bought from a neighbor who was going to get him a good deal at an auction and he waited a year for the deal to finally go down. There is also a nasty water leak from our garbage trap on the side of the building that really needs some professional attention. I will say though, that the kitchen is going good, I have some really great helpers, Imelda and Vicenta. When I first got here it was a bit of a struggle finding my way around and trying to get meals out, but now I have a great team! It makes all the difference.

Soon we will be into the summer season and will have even more workers assigned so that is something to look forward to. Another thing to look forward to is that Misty will be working with me again, we make a good team and it is fun to go shopping with her. Her other duties will be doing administrative tasks. She has been offered a job to help in the hotel services department. For right now I am glad to have her with me. Actually we have never had so much time together as a couple ever, so this is an excellent situation for us. Also we get to see more of the kids than we did before when we were at our last jobs.

Joey and Emily are doing great at picking up Spanish, the YWAM’ers here that have Spanish as their first language will be talking to them and telling us how good their language skills are; we know especially Emily she will be just going on and on in Espanol in the early mornings and I swear I need a translator. Last night she woke up around 3ish and climbed into bed. A little bit later I farted (sorry) and I heard a little voice say “COCHINO” Cochino is Spanish for Pig by the way. Emily’s hair is all long and pretty again, and Joey is just growing and growing; doing well in school and Misty and I love them tons and bunches.

Last weekend I visited my cousin Jimmy and his family on Saturday night and Sunday, we went to see Spiderman 3 at a drive in theatre and then when we got up on Sunday morning we went to church with them. When we are in San Diego we go to Canyon View Christian Fellowship. Check out their website at http://www.cvcf.com Initially we went there to visit our cousin’s church and really to encourage my cousin to actually get more encouraged to go to church with his wife. It is a good church and I look forward to going there when we visit. Misty and I really like what they are doing in their neighborhood. They do outreaches all the time in their own neighbordhood. The church is in a mall set inside a residential neighborhood that has houses, parks, schools, Military housing, and office parks within it. They reach out to all these groups as well as reaching out globally.

Before we arrived at my cousin’s house on Saturday we went on a trip to Los Angeles and I got to stop by a music store in Sherman Oaks, California. I had a guitar I had bought last summer from there that I never really played so I emailed them and arranged to trade it for a different guitar. I went and traded for a guitar that I have had a good time playing with this past week.

OK So that’s it for now, this week we will be getting ready for the base leaders conference that is coming up, and then we will soon be getting into the summer programs, the summer DTS, and Generation from SCF will be here in July!!




We are also planning a trip back to Sparks in September more on this later.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Mossfamilyadventure May 15, 2007


Ok so I haven't been as faithful in posting as I used to be, I thought about it and decided that I don't like sharing stuff that isn't much fun, I will talk about what's going on but I don't want to make people think I am whining.


Joey's pirate campimento.

A few weeks ago we took Joey on Friday in the late afternoon to his school and they had Pirate Sleepover at school. Joey was dressed up as a pirate and he had a great time, the principal said he was up till late running around the school yard and finally went to bed late. He also looked really cute in his little costume.