Wednesday, July 25, 2007

one last YIM post

Hello all,

Today is our last full day in El Paso. We are going to a local water park (which is actually on the border with New Mexico) with some of the youth from First church, some of the Tooley and Carney families, our friend Fabiola and her family from Juarez, and our friend Luis from Juarez.

VBS at Trinity Church went well. We had maybe 10 kids altogether, and I usually had 4 in my 7 and up age group. The first night I only had Allison and Krystal, and Krystal didn't want to do the motions for the songs. I tried to get her to do them, but she refused, so I relented as long as she sang. The next night, she was doing the motions. :D

Wednesday we volunteered at the Rescue Mission again, and it was nice to see familiar faces again, and to say hi to people that we remembered.

Thursday during the day we went to the Juarez Market with the Tooley family to buy souvenirs. As we drove around and I looked out the window, I tried to take it all in again. I'll definitely miss being there (I already do), even though being there was tough at times.

Friday morning we went to the little El Paso Zoo with the Tooleys and Sanchez family. That evening was our last night of VBS at Trinity, and boy were those kids wired.

On Saturday we spent some time with Pastor Charlie and his daughter Lanee, and Stephanie from Trinity Church. In the afternoon we went to Norlyn and Bobbie Brough's house. Norlyn and Bobbie had actually been missionaries in Nicaragua and Mexico too I think.

In the evening we went to the church softball games. Rachel and Angela played on the women's team, and scored two runs altogether. It was fun to watch the games and talk to our friends, since we hadn't been to any of their softball games. Betty told Rachel and Angela that we weren't leaving, that we had to stay and play softball (the
team isn't the greatest but they have fun). Afterwards, we went out to IHOP with Sara, Daniela, Esmeralda, and 3 of Esme's friends from school.

Sunday we attended service at Trinity Church. It had maybe 20 people there, including ourselves. There was a family of 3 there, and the daughter had been at VBS. I hear that her parents had been looking for someplace to go to church, and if that's the case, that's really cool that they came on Sunday. In the evening, we had the VBS closing, including the kids singing the songs, a brinca-brinca (moon bounce), facepainting, balloon animal-making, and food. When Barb (Charlie's wife) presented all the leaders with thank-you gifts, she said that we had really been a blessing and encouragement to them.

That evening the Tooley family presented our team with gifts, including sombreros for each of us. We have no choice but to wear them during our flights to Kansas City and home, because there's no way we can pack them. :D

Monday we went with Pastor Fred to the New Mexico district campground, Bonita Park. It is located near Ruidoso, NM, about 2 hours north of El Paso. It was awesome up there...we hiked, went swimming, and walked around the campground a bit. It was a lot different climate-wise from El Paso; I'd say it was 80 something degrees out,
and there were lots of pine trees, and we were in the mountains more. Pastor Fred took us to Bonito Lake, just around the corner, so we walked around there, took pictures, skipped rocks, and climbed on some of the rocks.

Tuesday Norlyn and Bobbie Brough took us to White Sands, NM, and the sand dunes that are there. We had a great time with them, sledding down the dunes and sometimes attempting to surf down them. At times it reminded me of the time I went sledding in Maine. :)

I will definitely miss being here, as these people and this place have become my home for the past two months. We have felt very welcome, and have felt the "Mi casa es su casa" hospitality.

Thank you again for your prayers and support. This trip was great, and slowly but surely I will process all that it has meant for me. :)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

VBS frenzy!

Hi all,

***this part typed July 15***
We have just finished a week of Tumbleweed Gulch Vacation Bible School at El Paso First, and this coming week we'll be doing the same theme at Trinity Church on the westside.

I worked as a "crew leader" for posse #3, grades 3-5, and led them to each of the stations every night. This was one of the larger groups, as we usually had upwards of 11 kids each night. I had two helpers from the church with me to help with crowd control. :) I remembered the first night how fun that age group is, since I had worked with that group at kids' camp for two summers. It reminded me of why I
became an Education major. :) Rachel led crafts, Angela led games, and Brandi worked with the 1st/2nd graders.

Thursday night was the toughest I think, because we had changed around the routine to allow more time for practicing the songs. This of course confused the kids (as well as the leaders!), and it was just one hectic night. However, more of my kids were actually doing the motions to the songs that night--I wasn't continually asking someone to do the motions or not mess around.

On Friday we had a special time to present to the families, where the kids sang their songs, said their verses, and had their crafts displayed. We also had food for them and facepainting and balloon animals.

We had a total of 58 kids last week (not all at the same time), and 35 helpers, Melissa said. This is a switch from when we had started with only 6 helpers, and that was just before Monday.

Saturday we went to Trinity Church and helped decorate for their VBS, which is this week. I think we'll probably have the same roles there as we did at First Church. This afternoon we decorated some more. There are some awesome "barn doors" (to the sanctuary), fake barbed wire along the walls, and a corral around the stage.

***typed July 17***
Last night was the first night of Trinity's VBS, and there were only 7 or 8 kids there, all of them already involved in the church. I had two girls in my group, Allison and Krystal, both age 7 and they were the oldest ones there. The leaders at the church were very enthusiastic, getting the kids to "yee-haw" at various times.

We will continue with this VBS the rest of the week, and hopefully more kids will come.

It is sad to think that we have only 9 more days here, but I want to make the most of our time, especially with VBS, the families/teens we've met, working at the Rescue Mission, etc.

Prayer Requests
~health/safety
~VBS at Trinity Church: that kids that are not already "churched" will come, that we will have the right time/right place/right person and right words to lead people to Christ, that we will reflect God's love
~Joel Tooley's mom Dee is in the hospital in Mississippi, and she could very much use prayer

That's about all I can think of for right now. Thanks again for all your support and prayers, and I will see you in August/September!

Monday, July 09, 2007

update #3 YIM I think

Saludos a todos!
(Greetings to all!)

Today is my first week back in El Paso after a week in Juarez. It has been a while since I've updated you all, so I'm not sure what I have and have not said.

I think when I last wrote, we were in Juarez for two weeks. The second week we were there, we had gotten to know more of the youth from Cuarta Iglesia (4th church), including Fabiola and many others. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we helped with VBS at the Peniel mission where we had gone door to door. The funny thing is that our team became translators for the Work and Witness team from Denver. It was great to see the kids from the community again, for three days, and continue those relationships with the kids we had seen before.

The following week we returned to El Paso to help with the basketball camp. These were the original dates, except that they weren't the correct dates. We still had about 20 kids show up, which was great. We helped with the younger kids, teaching basic skills of dribbling, passing, and shooting. And if you know me, you know I'm not usually athletic. Mike (our site coordinator) had me lead a couple days, and a few times we just had the kids do whatever they wanted when they got tired of basketball (whether it was coloring, frisbee, or Uno). Pastors Fred and Marco also did devotions at the end of the morning. One night, I realized that I needed to be more extroverted to get to know these kids, and to ask them their names. I knew that I couldn't do that on my own, or with whatever energy I had, and so I definitely
relied on God for that. With the basketball camp, it was about encouraging the kids in their efforts and simply being their friend. That will probably go for Vacation Bible School these next two weeks as well.

Last Saturday we decorated the El Paso First Church for the Tumbleweed Gulch (think old western theme) VBS. We made a splendid fence out of brown poster paper and markers. We had a few people from the church with us, including 13 year old Amanda. It was awesome having her there, because Mike says it's tough to get her to come to things other than Sunday mornings. She and I made a pretty amazing cactus out of
this brown tubing and paint and tissue paper.

Our team also did some canvassing around the neighborhood, including some follow-up with families that had come to the previous basketball camp. Yet again, we're just connecting with people in the community.

We did attempt a movie night, and invited some people from the community to come see Facing the Giants. We really didn't put out much effort, and planned it at the last minute, so maybe it's not surprising that we and Marco's family were the only ones watching it.

Last week we were in Juarez again at Tercera Iglesia (3rd church), with Gedeon and his family. The first night we were there, they wanted us to go into the community and do evangelism door to door. We ended up just handing out these tracts to people, including some kids at a playground. That night we went with Fernando, who is Nayeli's dad, and on Thursday night we went with Jonatan, one of the youth who is in seminary. We were frustrated because all we could really do was recite our spiel. However, it was awesome to hear that on Saturday night and Sunday morning that about 3 girls came to the services because of our going into the community. I know many of you hear of missions trips where hundreds/thousands come to faith in Jesus because
of the JESUS FILM! but we are content to simply see small steps like this for the churches here. Now it's up to the congregations to continue reaching out to the communities.

When we were with the youth back in Juarez, we actually went to an alberca (pool/park) with them as they had an "esgrima" competition. The awesome thing is that we saw two rounds of Bible quizzing, and I was able to help keep score (despite the language barrier).

Many of you heard me say before the trip that I was looking forward to using my Spanish. But having spent three weeks in Juarez, I recognize Spanish as simply being a tool in communicating wtih people. If you are curious as to how we are doing with Spanish, I know that words are coming back to me from the book learning I had in high school. Being able to learn words in context, whether it is by pointing to something and asking, or continual reference to something, or by looking at things in S-Mart, is helpful as well.

These next two weeks we will be helping with two VBS's at the two churches in El Paso. After that we have a few days before we head back to Kansas City. It is strange to think that our time here is almost at an end, as some days seem slow. But once you plan out the weeks, it seems a lot shorter.

I almost forgot! We have had quite the health adventures here. If you have been praying for our health, thank you because we have not died. For about a week, one of our teammates had a rash on her face. When she went to the dermatologist, she found out that she was allergic to mango skin, as it is very similar to poison ivy. Who
would have thought she would have mangoface? Another teammate had, as she calls it, dysentery (which it was not at all) and became moderately dehydrated. She stayed in El Paso for a few days recuperating while we were in Juarez. It was good to have her back after a few days!

Prayer Requests
~VBS: for the leaders (including ourselves), the kids that come, the parents, and the church here to connect with the community
~Health/safety
~the Nazarene Border Initiative leaders Joel and Barry, and the work they want to do here
~Our site coordinator Mike S

Thanks again for your support and prayers,
Jessica