Back in the swing of mission trips!

It's been a while since we posted here! No excuses -- just a lack of internet and a lack of time! Now that we're back online, albeit buzzing along at a whopping 52kbps via a dial-up connection, we'll be able to share some of what we are up to now. It might take a while to catch up, but I think it can be done!

Rather than start back in August and then try to get current before the current becomes the past, I thought perhaps I should start with the "now" and then move backwards little by little until I fill in all the gaps. It should work. I mean, after all, this is a virtual scrapbook and you can always jump around in a scrapbook, right? Sure!!!

So here we go...the present!!! This is the end of October. The weather has shifted, and the days are now beautifully warm and the nights have a distinctly "autumnal" feel to them. We have entered into the Wonderful Time of Year, climate-wise, and are enjoying it fully!

Two weeks ago, a mission team from the state of Washington came down. We were invited by the hosting missionaries to tag along as interpreters and also to help with transportation. God worked it out so that our entire week was free to spend time with this team and with the body of believers in Guasave, Tamazula and Alomito. God is so good!

Here are some photos of the team and some of the things we did during the week. Some of the things not pictured are the outreach at the local prison, the pouring of the roof at the pastor's house in Guasave, the picnic afterward, several different excursions to the ocean, a fishing excursion with a bit of excitement, and a trip to the Guasave open-air market, to name a few. With so many hundreds of photos to choose from, one has to make some tough decisions, you know!

Friday night the alliance of churches in Guasave sponsored a youth concert at the church of Betesda. The team shared a powerful drama about mankind's need for a savior.





Saturday morning, the church of Tecumate (another section of the city) hosted a youth conference. Two of the visiting American missionaries were invited to speak and the youth were really encouraged. It was good to see a few new faces at this youth event! Sarah and Caleb joined up with Josh and Becca and another friend to lead the worship.

Sunday, we attended the church in Tamazula, which is where we do weekly parenting classes. Having the American team there for a Sunday service was a real treat -- I think as much for the Americans as for the local church! The Mexican brothers and sisters were encouraged by the team's presence -- that they came down, even though the whole world seemed to be warning them not to -- and by the love they showed. The American team members said that they were touched by the local church's love and acceptance of them and also by their passion for prayer and for the Word. It was a beautiful thing to see the Church working together as one in Christ!














At the end of the church service, the pastor invited anyone who wanted to pray or to be prayed for to come forward. Practically the entire congregation moved.
During the course of the week, we did a lot of running around and ended up exhausted by the end, but it was a very good sort of exhausted -- very fulfilling! We've missed having mission teams come down to work alongside of us. Now that we're back in "Mission Team Season", we're looking forward to being able to connect with more teams from the States.

Sunday night, we made the inevitable trip back to the Tufesa bus station to bid farewell to our brothers and sisters in Christ. That will never be the easy part of mission teams. Fortunately, we know that as Christians, our good byes are never permanent! They're just, "See you later!"

Playing Baseball till the Cows Come Home

About a month ago Joaquin, one of the brothers in the church, approached Doug about starting a baseball camp for the kids of the area. It didn't take a lot of persuasion to get all our boys interested!

The kids from Boca meet with kids from the local village of Alomito six days a week (two days for each of three age groups). Joaquin played semi-professional baseball for several years and is passionate about the sport. Joaquin's passion for baseball paired with Doug's passion for youth is making quite an impact on these young men!

The majority of these jovenes come from homes where the father is either absent or totally disinterested in the raising of the children. Along with instruction in baseball, Doug and Joaquin are hoping to instill in these boys a sense of accomplishment, personal responsibility and dependability. It's a big job!

Each day's training session starts with a time of warm-ups and a couple of laps around the cow/baseball field.

Most of the older boys have already been playing baseball for a few years, but have had little or no serious training. The biggest challenges in this group are breaking bad habits and overcoming bad attitudes. However, the men's consistency, along with their baseball ability, is winning the young men over. Even though several of the boys have found themselves running laps because of disrespect or lack of attention, they keep coming back and are improving with every training session -- both in skill and in attitude.

The men also struggle with the lack of equipment. We haven't had any serious injuries, but at least one black eye could have been avoided if we'd had batting helmets which fit all the kids. Of course, if the kids didn't horse around so much, there would probably not be as many fat lips and bruised knuckles, either, but better equipment won't solve that problem! We call that "self-correcting behavior". In the older group, Joaquin and Doug frequently have to tell the pitcher to slow down his pitches, since they don't have catcher's gear.

When Joaquin showed up at practice with a big piece of fishing net and a piece of rope, the younger boys wondered what he was up to. He tied the net into a nearby bush, but still the boys didn't see the purpose.

Only when he lined them up and demonstrated a proper batting stance, did they understand the point of the net. Pretty creative and worked like a charm!

I don't normally try to upload video, but I wanted to share this. Most of you won't understand what Joaquin is saying to the boys, but you'll definitely understand the boys' response to his demonstration.

The boys were obviously impressed!

Practice ends when the local cowboys herd their cows through the baseball field. That's the signal that the day is ending and it's time to wrap things up!

With the help of Doug's sister and brother-in-law in Oregon, we're making an effort to raise funds and gather equipment (new and used) for all the kids. If you're interested in helping with this project with either a financial contribution or the donation of used equipment, please send us an email at allcreationsings@hotmail.com !

June's Youth Prayer Meeting

Each month the area churches' youth groups congregate to pray and fellowship together. Our turn to host this meeting came in June. We worried that since we are so far "off the beaten path", few churches would drive all the way out here. Boca del Rio is situated at the end of a 20 mile stretch of narrow, two-lane highway. We were sure that our neighbors in Alomito would come, but from as far as Guasave? We weren't sure.

We were pleasantly surprised! Approximately 50 youth from the area churches came to join us in prayer for our church, our village, our state, our nation, our world and all the authorities in it. A truly annointed time it was!


In addition to the visiting youth, eight missionaries arrived from Sacramento the same day. It was a blessing to be able to include them in our fellowship and prayer time.

During each monthly meeting, a special time is set aside for evangelism and intercession. Teams were formed to go into the streets of Boca del Rio to pray and hand out tracts. People were also invited to come to the meeting.

One benefit of having our church services outside now is that people don't have to actually "come in". You can hear the message just as clearly standing on the corner or sitting on the steps of the market next door.

After the time of prayer and a short teaching time led by Braulio, the American team led the youth in some fantastic ice-breaker games. What a blast! Unfortunately, since it was a Sunday night, the kids had to return home relatively early. The swine flu scare and the subsequent school closures forced the schools to extend classes another two weeks. Bummer. We were sad to see the night come to an end, but encouraged by the new friendships we had forged.

I have a feeling that youth groups all over Sinaloa will be playing Dog/Car/Tree for years to come!!! (You just had to be there!!!)

Los Jovenes -- The Youth

Our youth group continues to meet on Saturdays -- although last week we cancelled because of a quince años party, and this week we're cancelling because of semana santa. Next weekend, a local pastor is hosting a youth fellowship weekend, which the kids are looking forward to attending.

Two weeks ago, the Guasave Alliance of Churches sponsored a city-wide youth concert. Each church was invited to bring a "youth band" or worship team to share a few songs. Boca's youth band consists of Sarah on guitar and Caleb on drums and neither of them was really excited about getting up to perform in front of a couple of hundred youth. We're praying that God would be raising up a few more Christian instrumentalists in Boca!

We did, however, take a van full of kids to the concert. I think the final headcount was 25.

The concert was great. Several local churches have fantastic worship bands, some of which do tours and concerts of their own. Here are some shots of one of the groups.

It's been, well, awesome watching God work in the lives of a couple of the young men of Boca. When we arrived three years ago, there were no youth in the church. We believe that through our kids' example -- not that they are perfect, but rather that they are genuine -- God has been drawing some of the youth of Boca to Himself. Aby and Esteban stop by our house frequently, usually bringing friends with them, and we try to always be available for them...and to keep a little food on hand for their visits! Youth are, afterall, youth no matter what country you're in!

The guys are planning another "wilderness camping excursion" for next week before the boys go back to school. Pray that God would give Doug insight as he works and plays with these young men.

I noticed at the last youth meeting we had, that while there were about 15 young men and women inside listening to Luz's teaching, another 3 or 4 were standing just outside the church door listening. One young man sat on his bicycle for almost an hour just listening...not moving. I prayed that God would be speaking to this young man's heart.

We believe that God is preparing to do some mighty things in the lives of the youth of Boca del Rio and Las Glorias. It's a privelege to be here to witness it first hand!

Pray for the youth of Boca del Rio!

Let them Eat Corn

The first harvest of corn is in and the #1 snack of the season is...elotes!

When we first arrived, seeing corn-on-the-cob in street vendors' stands made our mouths water for that luscious, sweet corn of Oregon summer...until we tried it.

This is not that kind of corn.

The corn of our area is a more hearty, starchy variety; more suitable for grinding into cornmeal or using as grain. However, as is pretty typical for the Mexican people, they have found many uses for it, and once you learn how the nationals prepare it, it really is a treat!



Braulio got to man the firepit last Saturday for Cristina (who was in charge of cutting the corn off the cob and seasoning it).

Doug gathered all the kids around for a time of teaching and worship.

Sarah and Caleb led few games which worked up everyone's appetites.

We all gathered 'round for our special snack.

Elotes - corn cooked in a broth of salt and jalepeños, cut from the cob and served with mayonaise, salsa guichol and lime. Yummy!!!

Batter-Up!

Doug's position as youth pastor has been expanded to include baseball coach. With 4 boys of "baseball age", he can hardly avoid it! Doug's team includes some of the boys who are in his Thursday afternoon youth group, so he already knew most of the kids.

The first few weeks of practice were a real struggle. Just getting the kids to show up to the practices was a challenge, plus he needed to use a lot of terminology that he didn't know in Spanish and then, once they were all there, a new problem arose: not enough equipment. We pulled out all the balls, bats and gloves that we had, but even with those, we barely had enough to scrimmage. Uniforms are out of the question. Fortunately, once the games started, we discovered that most of the other teams have the same problem, so the teams share gloves during the games. Whew!

It's been fun watching the team begin to learn to work together. It's still a struggle, but it's fun. Our boys have their hands full trying to remember their "manners". What an opportunity to be lights!

One thing we've noticed which is different here from in the States: good sportsmanship. There ain't none! Well, to be totally honest, there is good sportsmanship...just not on the Boca del Rio team. So, Doug's main goals this season are to teach his team how to encourage each other, how to respect each other and how to work as a team...and hitting, catching and throwing, too. I think he's got his hands full! Pray that God would pour down grace and mercy on Doug and his team! Also pray that our boys would keep good attitudes! It's hard to keep a positive outlook when all/most of your teammates are grumbling and complaining.[and if anyone would like to help with baseball equipment, send us an email!!! :^) ] [Editor's note: Praise God! We received a gift of about a dozen gloves, a few balls and some batting helmets! Hurrah! Now everyone on the team has a glove to use and we're not so nervous about the boys getting beaned in the head by a fast pitch!!! Thanks for praying for us!]

Team Boca del Rio