Not Exactly the "African Queen"

I'm finally getting to posting the photos from our riverboat excursion. Sorry it took so long! Our boat trip was the day after Aristeo and Armida's wedding, so I guess you could say that the Restoration Life team and our family and a bunch of folks from the church went with the newlyweds on their honeymoon!

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As soon as we arrived at our picnic spot, the Mexican guys started building an arbor for Rebecca and a ramada for the group to eat under. One thing we've noticed about the men here: they work hard and they play hard...and sometimes their work looks a lot like play!

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.

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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.

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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!!!