Update

Alrighty then, its towards the end of the month and the train of excitement and all the other stuff keeps on rolling! Our last posting was pictures from the group from Sparks Christian Fellowship; we had such an awesome time visiting in the evening, visiting the team when they were out building and doing ministry. My favorite moment was on a Saturday afternoon, we met up with the team at a park where they had been doing evangelism, and helping out a neighbor by painting their house. The team took the sandwiches and other cooler items to the Bahios area (red light district) and handed them out. So I am walking with Emily and getting behind Misty and Sheri Shannon and some others, I was half lost and Emily spotted the rest and we were going up the street and trying to catch up, Emily had a open individual pack of chips and as we walked up the sidewalk we ran into a few of the Prostitutes. It was so sweet seeing Emily giving the girls chips and just being sweet; my heart was touched seeing this. Afterwards we went to the local Applebee’s restaurant THANKS RICH! The whole week was a rush of activity, and it was great seeing everyone.

Since then we have hosted another cycle of Mission Adventures which was 150 mouths to feed, and 2 groups of teams just here to build houses for our needy families, plus we have another team here as I type: 50 teenagers, 4 days, 8 houses, YES 8 Houses! They built 4 houses on Thursday and Friday and another 4 houses on Saturday and Sunday. They are using a new kind of material that we are building here in Ensenada, it's like refrigertation panels, so it keeps the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. This team as put in some major hours building these homes, we appreciate their hard work, and most of all their willingness to give the most precious gift of a home to the homeless.

Things get a little crazy here sometimes. Joey is doing a 3 week class doing art and learning about the earth and other climates, the other day they went to the beach to find shells and play in the sand. They were near the YWAM Base and when Joey saw the base he told the other kids “hey I live there” (in Spanish) and than took off up the beach and to home; a few other kids ran after with the teachers shortly thereafter. Misty and I had spotted Joey running around and the other kids and so we met the teachers and handed Joey back over to them. Safe and sound. At least Joey knows where home is. Emily is doing great also, growing up into a beautiful little girl.

K till next time.

Los 4 Fantastico

To see more photos of our group and the other students here check out. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ensmaphotos/collections/72157600302608120

Generation Serving in Ensenada

Here's our team serving in the Kitchen. We usually ask the students for six volunteers to help out. Not Generation! Everyone got involved! Many hands make light work, is true. They are doing great and have such a great heart to do whatever is needed of them. Tuesday evening we were returning back to our apartment after a time of teaching and worship, and one of our neighbors was getting his groceries out of the back of his truck and a few of our guys, Jake Z., Steven, Randy, ran over and began to help this guy with his stuff. That was such a blessing to see these young guys take the initiative and help out!!

Generation Meets a Mexican Youth Group

This afternoon the team spent some time with a local youth group. Togehter they will do an outreach event this weekend. Tomorrow they will begin learning together some drama to share, today was a time to do some team building, play some soccer on the beach, and just hang out while downing an ice cream. Emily and Joey are having a blast too!
To have a larger view of the picture just click on it.

GENERATION IN ENSENADA

Look Mom and Dad they made it safe and sound! Here is some of our students from our youth group in Sparks, Nevada. "Generation", is here for ten days to learn some really cool evangelistic tools, give food to the hungry, and build a needy family a home. We are excited to have them visit, it's like getting a gift from home. Thank you Lisa S. for the magazines and other stuff that Hil says she has but hasn't given it to us yet, hey there's still time! I'll keep snapping photos and giving you updates whenever possible, check back often.

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

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 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!

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 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.

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

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.

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.

I know what you did last Friday!

Friday morning we went with a staffer from the Homes of Hope Follow Up, and we took a couple of ladies from a colonia to the office that holds their mortgage papers. They had houses built for them during the winter, and the families that had came down to build later sent money to pay off the property; they both owed about 4000 dollars and I was the guy that got to carry the money. It was a good experience. On the way there and back we were talking to our Homes of Hope staffer, her name is Esther Gastelum and she has a sweet little baby named Iliana.

Other news is that we keep going back and forth on Misty's outreach, as I type though tickets have been purchased and Misty is going to go to Peru for a week along with Sam Kemp who is married to Tym Kemp the DTS director. While there she will be working at the YWAM base in Peru, I will be here in Ensenada with the kids and will work in the kitchen and shop while the kids are in school. The rest of the time I will be chasing them around and hoping for the best. I'm excited for Misty though and I think she will be a real blessing to the other students when she gets there.

We have had a little extra time in the mornings or afternoons lately and have taken several walks on the beach. It can be very soothing as you are walking in the sand and looking at shells and having the waves crash so loudly that you cannot hear anything. It's a good walk though and another interesting part is that a road is getting built right behind the YWAM base and we get to see the latest progress. The builders have put down the basic shape of the road and have installed sewer pipes and storm drains near us and then the road is packed down with dirt, sand and some cement mixed in. And down the street they are laying down the 12 inch thick slabs of concrete to finish the job. One day in the future it will be nice when all the dirt roads around here are paved and there is less dust floating around.

So thats all for now.

Sorry it's been a while...

Hey everybody!!

Today is Wednesday and we are in the midst of the last week of spring programs. We only have one group here, they are from Virginia and it is a smaller group of people. This has gone on for 6 weeks, at the beginning it was crazy, I was really overwhelmed at first with all the work going on but I got through it and I learned some things as well. I am getting more and more items delivered here, and we now have a new storage pantry to keep food safe and in sufficient quantities.

Today a couple of our leaders are going to BBQ for us for dinner, I look forward to that. The kids are doing great, and I am getting tired of saying this but their spanish is going great, I think its better than mine at this point. This is really good, Joey and Emily are able to play with the other kids now and we even have a frequent visitor named John Alexander who lives upstairs, he is 6; I think he likes the toys the most. They run around outside with the plastic guns and then come in for the V- Smile.

We are supposed to go to Tepic next Monday for 2 weeks, I hope so, its for Misty's DTS outreach since we didn't go to Peru with the other students. After that I have a conference at the end of May and then we are into summer programs. I think that will go better for me now that I have experienced it and I feel ready.

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.