Goodbye, Julio!!!

Tropical Storm Julio came to visit this past weekend. All we received from him was some wind and a lot of rain, but it was pretty exciting tracking his progress via the National Hurricane Center (when the power wasn't out, which happens quite frequently during rain storms here).

Anyway, yesterday Doug, Evie and I took a little stroll down to the beach to see what the waves looked like. Of course, it started pouring right after we left, so we were completely drenched when we came home...which made the walk more fun. Would you believe that even with a torrential downpour of rain, we still fought mosquitoes as we walked? They are just insane this time of year!!!


So, it drizzled and blew all day and then in the late afternoon, the sky began to clear. Here's Julio rolling away up the coast.
I went to work over at our neighbor's house and on my way home, the sky was incredible! When I walked into the house, I ran for my camera, but it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Frantically, I started tearing through the house searching for it. I did finally find it...on the roof in Evie's hands! She'd seen the sunset, too!!! She struggled with getting really clear shots, but the colors are still tremendous.

Enjoy!!!

Mexican Food

One of our favorite parts of Mexican life has got to be Mexican food. The food here in Sinaloa is a little different than Mexican food you might find in the northern Mexican states or in the US. We wanted the team to experience some “real” Mexican food, so we arranged a few meals at some of our friends’ houses.



Lupita, Esteban’s mom-in-law, loves to make tamales and was willing to prepare a couple hundred of them for our first lunch. Several of the ladies from the team went to Lupita’s house early in the morning to begin assembling tamales. Oh how I wish I had photos! We had a great time tying tamales and talking.

---

Lunch was served in Lupita’s yard. She has the most beautiful flowers of all of Boca del Rio!

Other great Mexican food we introduced to our team included Armida’s hot dogs and horchata, gorditas at Gloria’s house, empanadas and pan de mujer at Victoria’s house (pan de mujer is a flat bread filled with brown sugar), barbecoa at Aristeo’s wedding, seviche and ostiones crudos at the river (the seviche was planned, the raw oysters – I’m not responsible for any stomach ailments caused by the consumption of raw oysters!!!), and a special going away dinner of posole served by the school of ministry. Of course, we ate a lot of gringo food, too, but that’s boring! :^)






Oh, by the way Marc and Nancy, Rebecca found proof that she really did sit down and eat at least once!!! ;^)

Volleyball Outreach

The volleyball tournament/outreaches and the riverboat trip were the two hardest events to choose photos for. Between Dann and Rebecca we had almost 400 pictures of those two events alone! Wow!

This volleyball tournament was the second we’ve hosted at the church. The first, in April, was such a huge success that we thought it would be the perfect event for this team, too. In addition to the 20+ groups who signed up to play, dozens of other people came to watch and fellowship.

---

The evangelistic outreach was done as an intermission on each of the three days, so that the people would stay. The team shared music, dramas and personal testimonies.
















The volleyball matches gave a great opportunity for the Americans to interact with the nationals in a non-threatening way.




















Team members handed out cups of water for the spectators during the volleyball games.


Through the volleyball outreaches, foundations have been laid for some lasting friendships. Several of the men and women who played in the tournaments would never have set a foot inside the church’s doors, so the tournament outreaches are a perfect place for them to hear testimony of believers.


Pray for a man named Manuel. He played on Doug’s team both in April and in June and also was one of the guides (the boat guy) on our river outing. He is beginning to count the cost of a decision for Christ. Praying to receive Christ is a very serious decision here, and is not taken lightly. Pray that he will see the eternal value in a life dedicated to Jesus Christ and that he will choose the “narrow path”.



Short-term mission teams don’t always see the fruit of their labor immediately, but we see it here after they leave! The impact they make is eternal.

Wordless Wednesday -- Friday Edition

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105

Special thanks to Dann Hagstrom who snapped this photo of Braulio when the Restoration Life team was here.

Laying a Foundation: Part 1

On Wednesday the Restoration Life team rolled up their sleeves and got busy! Doug, Ramon, our boys and Chuy had worked to level the back hill and lay forms for the cement to pour. Before the cement work, though, there were a few more things to do. A heavy metal screen and a perimeter of metal bars needed to be laid down and wired together and of course that one small thing was a pretty big job.









Everybody pitched in and got step one of the project done before lunch. Good work, Team!!!

Mingling

Here are a bunch of photos of the Rest Life team “mingling”. I tried to get a shot of everyone, but if you notice that someone slipped through a crack, let me know. I have at least one bad shot of everyone!!!

One of the most impacting things about mission teams is the way they connect with the nationals. Generally speaking, kids connect faster than adults, simply because kids don’t tend to let the language barrier stand in the way. This is one reason why VBS programs work so well when most of your team doesn’t know the local language. All kids can relate to an adult with stickers, markers, bubbles or playdough! The only thing a visiting missionary has to do is smile and offer his hand. He’ll have a friend for life – maybe for eternity!




I think that Gabby wins the prize for having the most pictures taken with the most children. She did a great job reaching out to the kids of Boca and the kids just fell in love with her!





Marina and Katie came in a close second!







It was great seeing friendships being built during the teams’ short time here. There was talk of another trip down soon. We certainly hope so!!!!!

---

Thanks for sharing your lives with us, Restoration Life!!!