Monday, June 25, 2007

SURPRISE!!!!


Joey turned five on the 13th of June and we celebrated Super Hero style! SURPRISE to us the Mission Adventures staff got into dressing up and helping out at the party as well. It was tons of fun!

Misty went to a wedding last week in Reno, her friend Sandy Blancey got married and it was fun for her to actually be able to get away and make it to the wedding. While there Misty was also able to go to church and visit friends, go out to dinner and see her parents. Everyone was asking where the rest of the family was, we appreciate that! We will all be there in September for a couple of weeks to chill out a bit and re connect with people and do a bit of official work related stuff. We just got our FM3 work visas and we are now eligible to get our Mexican drivers licenses. I can’t wait to show some co-workers from my old job. So that was and will be a good SURPRISE.


While Misty was away, dad was home with the kids; they hung around the YWAM Base and spent time reading and watching movies. It was a pretty OK weekend actually, the house got a bit messy though and Misty had a SURPRISE when she arrived home on Monday evening.

Mission adventures for the summer has started and every now and then during the week we have had several SURPRISES: kitchen helpers being called away to go to worship band practice, meal time changes, number changes etc. My plan (not really) is tell the Youth Pastor’s to re route the flights to LA instead of San Diego, then let the staff of mission adventures deal with it. SURPRISE!!!






This past weekend Misty’s parents were in Mexico and we visited. We went to the hotel they were staying in Rosarito called the Newport Hotel, they had a trampoline, kids play equipment, and a huge pool with a hot tub. We went to Foxploration which is the movie studios FOX has there with sets from Titanic and Master and Commander plus some stuff from some other movies: Planet of the Apes, X-Men, True Lies and Monkey bone, and Night at the Museum.

It was really cool all of got these cool makeup scratches, lots of heads were turning and one little boy actually ran up to Emily to ask if she needed help. We love the Mexicans here they are so friendly and concerned with others.

This coming week is the last few days of the first cycle of Mission Adventures, we will then have a few days of fun, and then SURPRISE Generation will be here!! That will be great! Also the school year is ending for Joe’s Kindergarten, when that’s over we are going to keep the kids in daycare for half days, this way they will keep up on their Spanish, and then bring them home for lunch on the base and do stuff with other kids here and let them interact with the Mission Adventures teams.
This is their favorite part!! Ours to actually, there's nothing like pouring your life into young people!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Tuesday June 12, 2007

Hello evveryone who likes to check in and see what's going on...

The next little chunk of the year is coming around the bend, it is time for summer mission adventures. We have about 25 new summer staffers who are going to be helping out with the summer programs; a bunch of new names to learn and new people to get to know. Everyone has been helping in the kitchen and the strategy is to have rotating teams of 5 people learn to cook the various meals we have on the menu this summer. It has been quite a good experience getting to know people. I am happy they are here, it is going to be a good summer.

We all drove up to San Diego on Sunday and went to WalMart and a couple of other stores, some things you cannot easily get in Mexico, like Boudroux's Butt Paste that keeps me (Bill) from getting a painful heat rash downstairs. We also got a new boom box for the kitchen it isn't too big but it is loud enough, the last one dissappeared one night last December and we have been using boomboxes that people bring in from their rooms or sometimes someone has their iPod and portable speakers. So I got something new that has a Radio, CD player and a built in area next to the CD with a plug to go into aforementioned iPod or MP3 player. I think I will fill it with Batteries and set it next to the window, what I really want to do sometimes is listen to baseball games from the San Diego Station in afternoons. Speaking of Baseball, my cousin had a ticket and took Joey with him and his two other younger kids to the Padre's game on Sunday, Joey had a great time playing with the Yo Yo he got at the gate, and likes his cousins especially Tristan who is 8. Joey doesn't exactly understand baseball yet though so he needs to wait a while till he goes again. I am so happy for him to have had that day at the park though, I can't wait till I go.

While Joey was with his cousins Mom and I were shopping with Emily, she is our little friendly girl, "Hola" a waitress at the Sizzler we had lunch at was from Mexico so Emily said Hola to her and told her her name and showed her 2 fingers when she asked how old Emily was. I love Emily so much, she is so sweet to people, when we walked outside she ran over to a little girl who was with her mom and another lady visiting before leaving the parking lot and Emily and the little girl gave each other a hug like it was a reunion or something, kids are so friendly. Once the hugs are over then Emily goes to the open trunk and starts to have a quick look around to see if there is something there she wants to look at so we had to get her out of there before the ladies think we are some professional thieves or something.

So I guess I will close and share what is happening inside of me also, I was thinking the other day about Carrying the Cross like Jesus said to do, I read up some and I guess it means dying to my selfish wants and being others oriented, there is a guy who has carried a cross all over the word though since 1985, I think I saw him at an Agricultural Fair in New Zealand in 1989. Related to carrying my cross is Laying down my rights, Jesus laid down his rights when he was on the earth and I find that when I remember to lay them down I get less mad at people. I don't want to become mr. doormat of course but sometimes if I remember these things I can spend time reaching out to hurting people or encourageing people instead of being VERY Offended at all the jerks who are making me mad.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Saturday Night

I said it was going to be busy and it has been. The Base leaders conference has been going on and it will end tomorrow night. Things have been going pretty good, I have had some moments of stress but it was me getting stressed out. I had to apologize to one of the people I had working with me one morning I was getting upset because I wasn't able to communicate what I wanted to say to someone and what I needed pulled out of the refrigerator. I wish I wasn't so mean when I get frustrated.

We had the DTS graduation last night, I got to be there with Misty and I had a good time hearing the stories from the outreach. One of our guys whose name is Jenish went to Modesto, California and worked with some people who were working with people living in trailer parks. I was so proud of Jenish and the way he spent time with kids that were living in some really rank circumstances. The biggest story was when the students talked about Eduardo and how he almost drowned in the Amazon River. Kim from the DTS talked about their side of the story and then Eduardo shared his perspective. A lot was said about trusting God, crying to Him with all of your being when you need Him, and Eduardo talked about what it was like to drown in a river. So essentially what happened was that the undercurrents were so treacherous and he was so tired he went underwater. Eduardo did manage to call for help and miraculously one of the other students felt his body against her leg under the water. After an intense bunch of minutes Eduardo was back with them. Look this is really quite a story I feel bad that I am not doing it justice. I guess you had to be there.

Back to the BLT I was wanting to say that I have been thanked by a lot of people for the food; I need to make sure everyone knows that I really appreciate the comments and I also want to thank the people that were helping in the kitchen. There is no way I could do all this stuff myself so I am really grateful for them. Especially Imelda, she really knows how to cook. I have had a chance to say hi to several YWAM base leaders here and I enjoy these times. When we had our community meeting we got to listen to Jim Steir who is the director for YWAM all of America, he started YWAM Brazil and I read his story in a book about 10 years ago and I really liked it, he is very low key and real and a good example of what I think of when I think of a YWAM leader... a servant.

Ok so I need to go now and get ready for bed it is almost 10 and I am so excited to get into the rack!