Saturday evening 1015
We had a really easy trip down. Weather was great for driving. We stopped every 2 or 2 1-2 hours to stretch, get gas and play. We arrived at Tracy (CA) First United Methodist Church at about 6 pm on Friday night. There were numerous activities going on including a family movie night and a confirmation class dinner. We played outside, had a great dinner (prepped by Rosie and Karen) and a number of us gathered around my laptop to listen to the Ducks basketball game over the internet. (Natually all of the CA radio stations were broadasting the USC game occurring at the same time.)
We left Tracy at 630 this morning (Sat), had lunch at a park in Sant Clarita that we frequent and arrived in Tijuana at about 4 pm. Traffic through San Diego was unpleasantly slow but everyone was very patient.
The church here is comparable in size to Clear Lake if you took down the walls in the Sunday school wing and expanded the fellowship hall. The parsonage is adjacent. Both buildings sit on a hill overlooking part of the city.
A group of 4 teens from the Mexicali church are here for the week to visit an work with us. We will be doing a number of projects that mostly revolve around cosmetic repair and lots of paint a the parsonage and the church. Jim Frisbie and Mark Oldenkamp are tackling some electrical work and Mickey Hatley and Marcos Ruiz are going to do some plumbing and drywall repair.
We had dinner (Some of our favorite tacos from a stand near here!), play time, worship and team meeting and are now down for the night. Tomorrow (Sunday) promises to be very busy. We have a service at 10 am, dinner with the congregation, shopping of paint and construction supplies, Mitchell, Pastor Martin and Martas oldest son, 13, has an American football game at 3 and the at 6 pm, we are driving to Tecate, about 30 mins, for a joint service with 4 area UMC chruches. We will likely not be back here until 10 pm.
Sunday was a day of adventures! Since the church service did not start until 10, Jim, Jane, Marcos, Mickey, Mark and I wanted to start the day by getting all of our supply shopping finished. We had checked out the opening time of the hardware store and arrived right when it was scheduled to open. (We thought!) After waiting about 20 minutes, Marcos flagged down a passerby and asked about the store time. The guy said it opens at 8. By our clocks it was 820. They passerby said it is only 720! Only the US changed to earlier daylights savings time. We wondered why Pastor Martin thought we were eating dinner so early on Sunday eve! We completed most of the shopping on our second trip to the store and made it to the church service only a little late.
Great worship service. Pastor Martin had a lay leader give the message and there was an English interpreter so that we could follow along. We sang 2 songs ' I{m Trading My Sorrows and Yo Tengo Gozo. After the service we listened to the Ducks lose (sad face) and had dinner with the congregation. There are about 35 people in the church, úp from the 10ish that we here when Pastor Martin started. A very young, energetic crowd with lots of kids.
After dinner a group of the women went fabric shopping while most of the rest of us went to Marcos football game. They play on rocky dirt - a very dusty and apparently painful experience! Marcos scored 2 touchdowns and 2 extra points and led his team to their first win of the season! We headed out to Tecate (about 35 minutes drive) for a joint worship service as soon as the game was done. We packed into a tiny chapel, heard a 2nd impassioned sermon calling for people to work together for Gods glory, sang a couple of songs for the congregation and made it home by a little after 9 pm (Tijuana time!). By the time we ate, had a team meeting and devotion (led by Andrew), we were all beat and headed to bed. The roads are not in very good condition or very well marked and the drivers move around pretty quickly seemingly oblivious to everyone else. Driving is a challenge that require full concentration!
Great weather for working on Monday. Mid 70s, not too windy. We had our team meeting and worship at 730 then began tackling the various projects by 800. Laura and Robin led a group of people cleaning and painting the social hall in the church. Jane, Rosie and Karen led groups painting all 4 bedrooms of the parsonage plus the living room, dining room and kitchen. They will do the bathrooms as well if time allows. Marcos and Mickey worked at the parsonage and led a drywall and plumbing repair team and Jim and Mark and assistants tackled electrical projects and supported the drywall repair team. The parsonage is definitely a major focus and the whole team will have a major feeling of accomplishment if we can complete the projects that we have started. Pastor Martin boys, Mitchell and Marcos, and the 4 visiting youth from Mexicali all pitched in and worked with us all day. All of the team members did a great job of staying on task and working together.
After lunch and a brief siesta (Too brief!), Jane organized the VBS teams and assigned the craft duties. After a little practice on the crafts and face painting, we took the 35 minute drive to the colonia. I thought the roads were bad where we were yesterday... The roads today were outrageous! The chapel-clinic at the colonia is a single-wide mobile home on a small fenced lot on a corner of 2 very rutted dirt roads. Fortunately the chapel-clinic has a real bathroom and electricity! We set up inside the fence and did our crafts, puppet shows, songs and skits for a very polite group of around 60 kids from the surrounding neighborhood. Everything ran amazingly smooth - especially since this was the first time around for half of the team. We scoped out a very nice small park about 2 blocks away that we are going to use the rest of the week. This will allow us to play some soccer, have a more level work area and we will likely pick up 40 or 50 more kids just because we are at the park. As we were leaving the after VBS a local doctor who volunteers his time arrived and began examining both kids and adults. It is great to see people reaching out to help each other!
Spirits are up this evening even if folks are a little worn out. After another great meal prepared by Pastor Martins wife, Marta, and a crew of ladies from the church, Jane got a jump on tomorrow and assigned and practiced the VBS crafts before Mark led tonights devotion. Marta and Mariane are sleeping in the church with us tonight because their house is torn apart. Pastor Martin and the boys are sleeping in the house because they are concerned about people getting into their house. They have had 2 cars stolen and their house broken into in the 6 months that they have lived here. It is 1030 and time for lights out!
Tuesday was a much cooler day with a high in the mid 60s and even a pretty good downpour. This afternoon a really strong wind kicked up and made VBS a challenge. The day started with a team meeting and devotional at 730. Everyone was deeply involved in the next stages of their various projects by 800 and kept focused and working until about 100. All of the projects are making great strides although Jim and Mark have been flummoxed by the Mexican electrical system. There is a small apartment in the daylight basement of the parsonage that has not had electricity for some time as there was some sort of incident that left a blackened ceiling and some charred joists. There is also a bathroom attached that we have been using that is without lights. The couple in the apartment, Elena and Christian, are newlyweds and Jim, Mark and Robert have made it a goal to get the electricity flowing again. Brandon and Andrew tackled a couple of leaks in the church roof with a couple of buckets of tar. Not a very pleasant learning experience...
I made our daily hardware-building supply run and 2 trips to a glass store to get various window glass cut (and recut due to my mis-measuring!). Pastor Martin{s vehicle left a huge pool of transmission fluid on the driveway this morning so Jane and I helped with kid transport. We also got in a trip to Costco to replace a couple of flat air mattresses for Art and Brady and to buy a vacuum cleaner for the parsonage. We would like to use it for the church as well but Marta feels that the carpet is so old and filled with dirt that the vacuum would be ruined.
Mitchell, 13, goes to school at 730 and comes home at 1130. Marco, 11, goes to school at 100 and comes home at 500. Mariane, 5, goes to school at 9 and comes home at 1230. All 3 go to different schools varying from 15 to 25 minutes from home and the parents do all of the transportation. Talk about spending the day as a taxi driver! And there are a lot of cars here so traffic does not always move very quickly. All 3 kids are only going to school this week when they have exams. Since we are here and they want to hang, they are getting a little extra vacation.
We set up VBS in the park that we discovered around 345. It was very chilly and windy (even for we Oregonians!) and the turnout was very small. We had about 30 kids brave the weather but the spirits of the entire team remained up and everyone was focused. The doctor returned and did some exams and a group of ladies came and gave haircuts to kids. We wrapped up fairly quickly, drove back to the church and finished dinner by 700. Most of the youth spent the evening socializing, playing soccer and generally hanging out and most of the adults took the opportunity to spend some more time painting, wiring and putting in glass. Very productive for all! Lights out at 1030 and tomorrow we start all over again!
Folks are all healthy, happy and having fun on this adventure that God is giving us! Please keep us in your prayers!
We had a really easy trip down. Weather was great for driving. We stopped every 2 or 2 1-2 hours to stretch, get gas and play. We arrived at Tracy (CA) First United Methodist Church at about 6 pm on Friday night. There were numerous activities going on including a family movie night and a confirmation class dinner. We played outside, had a great dinner (prepped by Rosie and Karen) and a number of us gathered around my laptop to listen to the Ducks basketball game over the internet. (Natually all of the CA radio stations were broadasting the USC game occurring at the same time.)
We left Tracy at 630 this morning (Sat), had lunch at a park in Sant Clarita that we frequent and arrived in Tijuana at about 4 pm. Traffic through San Diego was unpleasantly slow but everyone was very patient.
The church here is comparable in size to Clear Lake if you took down the walls in the Sunday school wing and expanded the fellowship hall. The parsonage is adjacent. Both buildings sit on a hill overlooking part of the city.
A group of 4 teens from the Mexicali church are here for the week to visit an work with us. We will be doing a number of projects that mostly revolve around cosmetic repair and lots of paint a the parsonage and the church. Jim Frisbie and Mark Oldenkamp are tackling some electrical work and Mickey Hatley and Marcos Ruiz are going to do some plumbing and drywall repair.
We had dinner (Some of our favorite tacos from a stand near here!), play time, worship and team meeting and are now down for the night. Tomorrow (Sunday) promises to be very busy. We have a service at 10 am, dinner with the congregation, shopping of paint and construction supplies, Mitchell, Pastor Martin and Martas oldest son, 13, has an American football game at 3 and the at 6 pm, we are driving to Tecate, about 30 mins, for a joint service with 4 area UMC chruches. We will likely not be back here until 10 pm.
Sunday was a day of adventures! Since the church service did not start until 10, Jim, Jane, Marcos, Mickey, Mark and I wanted to start the day by getting all of our supply shopping finished. We had checked out the opening time of the hardware store and arrived right when it was scheduled to open. (We thought!) After waiting about 20 minutes, Marcos flagged down a passerby and asked about the store time. The guy said it opens at 8. By our clocks it was 820. They passerby said it is only 720! Only the US changed to earlier daylights savings time. We wondered why Pastor Martin thought we were eating dinner so early on Sunday eve! We completed most of the shopping on our second trip to the store and made it to the church service only a little late.
Great worship service. Pastor Martin had a lay leader give the message and there was an English interpreter so that we could follow along. We sang 2 songs ' I{m Trading My Sorrows and Yo Tengo Gozo. After the service we listened to the Ducks lose (sad face) and had dinner with the congregation. There are about 35 people in the church, úp from the 10ish that we here when Pastor Martin started. A very young, energetic crowd with lots of kids.
After dinner a group of the women went fabric shopping while most of the rest of us went to Marcos football game. They play on rocky dirt - a very dusty and apparently painful experience! Marcos scored 2 touchdowns and 2 extra points and led his team to their first win of the season! We headed out to Tecate (about 35 minutes drive) for a joint worship service as soon as the game was done. We packed into a tiny chapel, heard a 2nd impassioned sermon calling for people to work together for Gods glory, sang a couple of songs for the congregation and made it home by a little after 9 pm (Tijuana time!). By the time we ate, had a team meeting and devotion (led by Andrew), we were all beat and headed to bed. The roads are not in very good condition or very well marked and the drivers move around pretty quickly seemingly oblivious to everyone else. Driving is a challenge that require full concentration!
Great weather for working on Monday. Mid 70s, not too windy. We had our team meeting and worship at 730 then began tackling the various projects by 800. Laura and Robin led a group of people cleaning and painting the social hall in the church. Jane, Rosie and Karen led groups painting all 4 bedrooms of the parsonage plus the living room, dining room and kitchen. They will do the bathrooms as well if time allows. Marcos and Mickey worked at the parsonage and led a drywall and plumbing repair team and Jim and Mark and assistants tackled electrical projects and supported the drywall repair team. The parsonage is definitely a major focus and the whole team will have a major feeling of accomplishment if we can complete the projects that we have started. Pastor Martin boys, Mitchell and Marcos, and the 4 visiting youth from Mexicali all pitched in and worked with us all day. All of the team members did a great job of staying on task and working together.
After lunch and a brief siesta (Too brief!), Jane organized the VBS teams and assigned the craft duties. After a little practice on the crafts and face painting, we took the 35 minute drive to the colonia. I thought the roads were bad where we were yesterday... The roads today were outrageous! The chapel-clinic at the colonia is a single-wide mobile home on a small fenced lot on a corner of 2 very rutted dirt roads. Fortunately the chapel-clinic has a real bathroom and electricity! We set up inside the fence and did our crafts, puppet shows, songs and skits for a very polite group of around 60 kids from the surrounding neighborhood. Everything ran amazingly smooth - especially since this was the first time around for half of the team. We scoped out a very nice small park about 2 blocks away that we are going to use the rest of the week. This will allow us to play some soccer, have a more level work area and we will likely pick up 40 or 50 more kids just because we are at the park. As we were leaving the after VBS a local doctor who volunteers his time arrived and began examining both kids and adults. It is great to see people reaching out to help each other!
Spirits are up this evening even if folks are a little worn out. After another great meal prepared by Pastor Martins wife, Marta, and a crew of ladies from the church, Jane got a jump on tomorrow and assigned and practiced the VBS crafts before Mark led tonights devotion. Marta and Mariane are sleeping in the church with us tonight because their house is torn apart. Pastor Martin and the boys are sleeping in the house because they are concerned about people getting into their house. They have had 2 cars stolen and their house broken into in the 6 months that they have lived here. It is 1030 and time for lights out!
Tuesday was a much cooler day with a high in the mid 60s and even a pretty good downpour. This afternoon a really strong wind kicked up and made VBS a challenge. The day started with a team meeting and devotional at 730. Everyone was deeply involved in the next stages of their various projects by 800 and kept focused and working until about 100. All of the projects are making great strides although Jim and Mark have been flummoxed by the Mexican electrical system. There is a small apartment in the daylight basement of the parsonage that has not had electricity for some time as there was some sort of incident that left a blackened ceiling and some charred joists. There is also a bathroom attached that we have been using that is without lights. The couple in the apartment, Elena and Christian, are newlyweds and Jim, Mark and Robert have made it a goal to get the electricity flowing again. Brandon and Andrew tackled a couple of leaks in the church roof with a couple of buckets of tar. Not a very pleasant learning experience...
I made our daily hardware-building supply run and 2 trips to a glass store to get various window glass cut (and recut due to my mis-measuring!). Pastor Martin{s vehicle left a huge pool of transmission fluid on the driveway this morning so Jane and I helped with kid transport. We also got in a trip to Costco to replace a couple of flat air mattresses for Art and Brady and to buy a vacuum cleaner for the parsonage. We would like to use it for the church as well but Marta feels that the carpet is so old and filled with dirt that the vacuum would be ruined.
Mitchell, 13, goes to school at 730 and comes home at 1130. Marco, 11, goes to school at 100 and comes home at 500. Mariane, 5, goes to school at 9 and comes home at 1230. All 3 go to different schools varying from 15 to 25 minutes from home and the parents do all of the transportation. Talk about spending the day as a taxi driver! And there are a lot of cars here so traffic does not always move very quickly. All 3 kids are only going to school this week when they have exams. Since we are here and they want to hang, they are getting a little extra vacation.
We set up VBS in the park that we discovered around 345. It was very chilly and windy (even for we Oregonians!) and the turnout was very small. We had about 30 kids brave the weather but the spirits of the entire team remained up and everyone was focused. The doctor returned and did some exams and a group of ladies came and gave haircuts to kids. We wrapped up fairly quickly, drove back to the church and finished dinner by 700. Most of the youth spent the evening socializing, playing soccer and generally hanging out and most of the adults took the opportunity to spend some more time painting, wiring and putting in glass. Very productive for all! Lights out at 1030 and tomorrow we start all over again!
Folks are all healthy, happy and having fun on this adventure that God is giving us! Please keep us in your prayers!
Wednesday dawned a beautiful, clear morning. The temperature got up to around 70 degrees and the wind decreased substantially. The work teams frantically continued their individual projects with the deadline for completion approaching. Although typically Wednesday has been out last work day, since the beach we are going to on Thursday is only about 30 minutes away, we decided we’d give folks the option of working on Thursday morning and head to the beach around noon.
The church painting team finished the social hall walls and ½ of the ceiling, finished the sanctuary walls and painted the two bathrooms. Alicia and Gracie did the reveal of Mariane’s bedroom – much to the delight of Marta and Pastor Martin – and tears of joy from Mariane. Very rewarding! After lunch and siesta, we headed out to the colonia for our final day of VBS. Jessica and Jane were masters of balloon animal tying and taught a few other team members how to help as this was an immensely popular activity. Brandon and the entertainment team inadvertently left behind the crate containing the cd’s that we use for our skit and puppet stories so they creatively had Pastor Martin tell the story of the Good Samaritan as they acted it out. We had somewhere around 110 kids working on crafts, watching the skit and hanging out. We gave away about 140 of the 200 Bibles and it was awesome to see the reactions of the kids and adults as they received their precious gift.
After yet another fabulous meal Wednesday eve, we had our traditional closing worship service with Pastor Martin giving the message and then a time for people to come forward for individual prayer. It was very impactful to hear Pastor Martin talk about what this trip meant to him and his family and a powerful time of healing.
Thursday morning nearly the whole team opted to get up early and finish up their projects. Mickey did the final touches on the church bathrooms with some masterful carpentry work while Laura, Robin and crew finished the edging and tackled the church clean up. Jim and Mark completed the wiring on the apartment below the parsonage. Libby and Audrey finished personalizing Marco’s room by painting his name on the wall and Mitchell’s room with a giant #5 (His football jersey number.), Todd wrapped up work on one of the bathrooms while Jane, Karen and Rosie cleaned up and detailed the living room and dining room. It was really fun to see the excitement on Marta’s face as she reset up all of the rooms, hung clothes etc. The team can have a lot of satisfaction from the amount of work completed and the joy created for the Molina family.
After an early lunch we drove to Rosarito for shopping and play. The water was a little cool for swimming since the temperature was only around 70 but some of us took the time to nap on the sand and walk in the water. Lots of great little shops and a beautiful drive down the coastline from Tijuana. We ate dinner at Rosarito (Jane did not find her traditional pulpo.) and got back to the church around 8:00. After packing all of our suitcases, loading the vehicles and cleaning the church, we had about an hour of free time before lights out. Spirits and energy were high and people socialized and celebrated a fabulous week. Lights out at 11:00 (Tijuana time).
Friday we loaded the vehicles at 5:00 Tijuana time and pulled out to tears of goodbye from the Molina family and the Mexicali kids around 5:40. The border crossing was very smooth. This is the first time they looked at all of our documents but we all passed through easily. We’ve never had an easier drive through LA. We skipped around a major accident backup and learned a new route via the radio traffic report that we’ll have to remember for future trips. We made good road time and arrived at Redding UMC at about 7:40. Dominoes delivered pizza for us, Mickey and Todd led our evening devotional and we had lights out at 11:00 (US time).
Saturday found us on the road by 6:45 and making good time in great driving weather. We bowed to popular demand and stopped for ice cream at Rice Hill. Arrival back in Keizer at 2:15 to a welcoming crowd of friends and family. It’s great to be home!
The church painting team finished the social hall walls and ½ of the ceiling, finished the sanctuary walls and painted the two bathrooms. Alicia and Gracie did the reveal of Mariane’s bedroom – much to the delight of Marta and Pastor Martin – and tears of joy from Mariane. Very rewarding! After lunch and siesta, we headed out to the colonia for our final day of VBS. Jessica and Jane were masters of balloon animal tying and taught a few other team members how to help as this was an immensely popular activity. Brandon and the entertainment team inadvertently left behind the crate containing the cd’s that we use for our skit and puppet stories so they creatively had Pastor Martin tell the story of the Good Samaritan as they acted it out. We had somewhere around 110 kids working on crafts, watching the skit and hanging out. We gave away about 140 of the 200 Bibles and it was awesome to see the reactions of the kids and adults as they received their precious gift.
After yet another fabulous meal Wednesday eve, we had our traditional closing worship service with Pastor Martin giving the message and then a time for people to come forward for individual prayer. It was very impactful to hear Pastor Martin talk about what this trip meant to him and his family and a powerful time of healing.
Thursday morning nearly the whole team opted to get up early and finish up their projects. Mickey did the final touches on the church bathrooms with some masterful carpentry work while Laura, Robin and crew finished the edging and tackled the church clean up. Jim and Mark completed the wiring on the apartment below the parsonage. Libby and Audrey finished personalizing Marco’s room by painting his name on the wall and Mitchell’s room with a giant #5 (His football jersey number.), Todd wrapped up work on one of the bathrooms while Jane, Karen and Rosie cleaned up and detailed the living room and dining room. It was really fun to see the excitement on Marta’s face as she reset up all of the rooms, hung clothes etc. The team can have a lot of satisfaction from the amount of work completed and the joy created for the Molina family.
After an early lunch we drove to Rosarito for shopping and play. The water was a little cool for swimming since the temperature was only around 70 but some of us took the time to nap on the sand and walk in the water. Lots of great little shops and a beautiful drive down the coastline from Tijuana. We ate dinner at Rosarito (Jane did not find her traditional pulpo.) and got back to the church around 8:00. After packing all of our suitcases, loading the vehicles and cleaning the church, we had about an hour of free time before lights out. Spirits and energy were high and people socialized and celebrated a fabulous week. Lights out at 11:00 (Tijuana time).
Friday we loaded the vehicles at 5:00 Tijuana time and pulled out to tears of goodbye from the Molina family and the Mexicali kids around 5:40. The border crossing was very smooth. This is the first time they looked at all of our documents but we all passed through easily. We’ve never had an easier drive through LA. We skipped around a major accident backup and learned a new route via the radio traffic report that we’ll have to remember for future trips. We made good road time and arrived at Redding UMC at about 7:40. Dominoes delivered pizza for us, Mickey and Todd led our evening devotional and we had lights out at 11:00 (US time).
Saturday found us on the road by 6:45 and making good time in great driving weather. We bowed to popular demand and stopped for ice cream at Rice Hill. Arrival back in Keizer at 2:15 to a welcoming crowd of friends and family. It’s great to be home!
Copyright . Kevin Hohnbaum. All rights reserved.
