Our dog Pedro used to love bringing us moles he would hunt and kill in our back yard in New York. Yesterday morning he brought us a nice present after being let out to do his “business”. He thought we would appreciate him killing a rat for us, which we did. Good Boy Pedro! lol!
Yesterday we had the wonderful opportunity to have a getaway with our student ministries staff and our spouses. We went up to Beaumont in the mountains about an hour from us. We spent the day visiting local country stores, enjoying the scenery, and had a nice picnic lunch with dialogue about life in ministry. It was a great time of connecting our hearts together through laughter, play, and conversations. I have found through the years that these times of getaway/retreat are vital to the success of team ministry. Have you done team getaways? What have you done during your time that was fruitful in terms of connection and equipping? Would love to hear your experiences.
This morning we got up at 3:45am and were on the road by 4:30am. We crossed the border at Tijuana after an hour-and-a-half traffic jam at 7am. We drove to Temecula and stopped for some breakfast, then trekked up over the mountain and back home to the Coachella Valley. We arrived at the church at 12 noon on the button. Glad to be home. I gassed up the van and took it in for a serious car wash. The guy at the carwash said it took them quite a while to clean the van then clean their floor of all of the mud with the power washer. lol! Tomorrow I’ll get some pictures up for your viewing enjoyment. Thanks for keeping our team and the people we were reaching out to in your thoughts and prayers.
After a restless, cold, rainy night (and by cold, I mean probably 35 or 40) in our loft house, the girls and I woke up at 5:45am. Good news! Although we had no electricity in our house, the shower house did! And even better, there was HOT WATER! Yeah! Felt good after sleeping on a very firm wooden bed with a thin mattress. Breakfast was at 6:30am, and by 8am we were on the way to our start construction. The road out of the ranch to the main paved road is 10 miles and it takes 45 minutes to drive. It’s one of the most bumpy roads – if not the bumpiest road – I ever driven on in all of my years of going on missions trips – rivaling Tanzania. Adventurous to say the least. We then broke off into 6 teams – 5 from our church, Southwest, and 1 team from another church – and went to 6 different build sites. Like all of the teams, our team spent the whole day building a loft house for a family with 6 children. It was absolutely amazing to watch a muddy corner of their lot have a fully functioning house on it by 5pm. The build even included a a stove, gas for the stove, some bags of rice and beans, beds, and cleaning supplies. After cleaning up the site, we had a beautiful moment giving the mother of the family a Bible, praying for her and her family, and presenting her with the keys to her new home. It was moving to see her gratefully wiping the tears from her eyes. The team effort was awesome, and I was so proud of both of my daughters. They worked super hard and loved playing with the local children. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my card reader, so I’ll have to post pics when we return. The plan is to shoot out tomorrow morning at 5am to get to the border at a good hour for crossing.
We left the church this morning at 11am. We hit rain up in the mountains and it didn’t let up the whole way to Ensenata. The road to the border crossing we were going to take was closed because of an accident, so we ended up stuck in traffic. I am driving our brand new church van, and, wouldn’t you know it, someone rear-ended me in San Diego. No one was injured, and no damage to the van, thank goodness. The other guy wasn’t so furtunate. He rammed the trailer hitch and poked a hole in his radiator. After getting his information we were on our way. Went through the border at Tijuana with no issues. Drove down the coast and finally turned off onto a very muddy, incredibly bumpy road which we took for about 15 miles to our ranch. When we arrived we had dinner with the entire team (about 75 people) then got settled into our quarters for the night. The girls and I have our own home. We are staying in the exact type of loft houses that we are building for 5 families on this trip. No electricity in the cabins (only in the dining hall). Roughing it. But I turned on my computer to check the time and found we had wireless. Go figure. lol! Heading to bed. Breakfast at 6:30 a.m. – and you know what a sucker I am for early mornings!
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