Juarez Week 1 Pictures

We did some ministry at a compound that houses indigenous Indians called Tarahumarahs that come up from southern Mexico and have difficulty getting jobs and surviving.



We were able to go into a girl's home and play with/pray for the girls that are living there. We actually got to spend a lot of time with these girls over the 3 weeks we were there, and got to develop some good relationships with them.



This was the team from Tampa. They were in Juarez during the first week I was there, and they primarily did women's conferences and evangelism.



This little girl was playing next to her house (the blankets you see behind her made up the walls of her home). Our team was able to build a brand new roof to help protect her and her family from rain and extreme temperatures.



These were some of the kids I connected with during one of the Vacation Bible Schools we facilitated.



On the final day of each team's trip, we take the team on a mountain hike up to this cross. The mountain overlooks the whole city of Juarez - an amazing view and an incredible opportunity to pray over the city before sending the team back to the US.



On top of the mountain, this was the other team that was in Juarez during my first week there. This group is from Knoxville, TN and they primarily did construction projects and children's outreaches.



This is one of the little girls I fell in love with. She lives at the Tarahumarah Indian compound, and is dressed in the authentic attire of her group.





The view from the compound where we stayed. I (unfortunately) got to see several sunrises while I was there. If you know me and know I'm not an early morning person, you'll understand why I say that was unfortunate! :)



Me up on the mountain.



To my left is Tricia, one of the girls I worked with at my last job in Cleveland. She got to come on this first trip with me, which was pretty awesome. The girl on my right is Summer. She is the other Global Infusion intern living up in Knoxville. We'll be living together in Knoxville, and basically spending all our time together... It's a good thing she's so amazing! Haha...



One of the VBS sites - there were over 100 kids that showed up for this VBS. Praise God!



Construction on the little girls house that you saw earlier.


There's a few of the pics from our first week of teams. I'll post pictures from the other two weeks and our trip to Guatemala as well. :)

Cleveland, sweet Cleveland

I am officially back from my first two wanderings overseas. I actually got back on Wednesday, but came down with a cold or something, so I am just now resurfacing... I had an incredible time in Guatemala during our week there. We were able to assist with some disaster relief for an area in the mountains that had experienced some very serious mudslides. There were at least a dozen found dead in La Union, Guatemala and several people were evacuated to shelters in surrounding areas. Our team was able to purchase and hand out food and personal hygiene products to people who were literally starving to death and had no other assistance. We visited two of those shelters and also traveled up the mountain to a small village to hand out more food and minister the love of Jesus to people. I am once again struck by the awesomeness of God as I travel to other parts of the country and witness the beauty of His creative hand in not only the landscape, but also the diversity of His people. I fell in love with our contact's family while in Guatemala. Pastor Oseas, his wife Jane, and lovely children Kevin, Nathan and Amy stole my affection and my heart. We were able to spend several hours hearing the heart of this precious family over meals and on our several 3 hour or so van rides. Their vision to reach the people of the mountain villages of Guatemala who are starving to death with no way of getting food consistently, and also to go into Honduras and El Salvador was very moving. The Lord is doing powerful things in this area of the country. Please continue to pray for this incredible family as they do God's work on their own in this country and neighboring countries. Pray for resources to reach them so they can continue this vital work. Pray for Global Infusion to be able to continue sending teams to assist them in this task. Pray, pray, pray...

Rapido

Hello everyone! I'm in Guatemala right now and have just a quick minute to use the computer. Things are great here - I'll update more when I get back... Please continue to pray for me and the team and our ministry here in Guatemala. We come back on Tuesday.

I tried to post a long blog with many pictures the day I was in the states before leaving for Guatemala, but as soon as I got it all finished and clicked on the "publish blog" button, the computer kicked me off the internet and I lost it all... Sad day... So pictures are coming soon. :) Thanks for the prayers!

Week 3

Tomorrow the Miami group comes in for the final week in Mexico. Be praying for the team, our people who are still here, and the people of Juarez to have their hearts prepared for what is ablut to happen. God is so good!!!

We've been getting some more rain here (I think because of Dolly) but other than that no problems. Everyone's healthy and happy and we're geared up for week 3. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Keep it coming.

Begin praying for Guatemala too. The trip is Aug 5-12th and there are 8 of us going as of now.

So much love for you all!!!! :)

The day we were almost arrested...

So yesterday was a pretty slow-paced day. We stayed at Las Tapias (the compound we are living at) and cleaned in the morning some major deep cleaning. Then we were going to head to the park to meet with another group and do some Bible study and playing with kids. Yesterday the President of Mexico was scheduled to be in town, so right by the border where the park was there was a huge Mexican flag flying. We decided to walk over the the flag and check it out. It was mega large on this gigantic pole. Under the pole were these metal grates and one of them you could see in underground that there was a whole room down there with a bed and all. One of the missionaries who lives at Las Tapias decided to check it out... Probably not the best idea, but there was no sign or lock or anything. About as soon as he hopped into the grate, a gurad came out of nowhere, flipped the grate shut on top of him and stood on it. He started making phone calls in Spanish, but we caught some important words like "Police", "Federal Property" and the descriptions of some of our team members. One of the spanish speakers stepped up and began to talk to him. Apparently the flag area was federal property and so he was calling the police to come out and see what they would do with us. We waited there for close to half an hour with no policia appearing and the guard then told us just to leave - he had been just trying to scare us and not to do it again (we think this was not the truth, but that the police were just not responding). Either way though we were praising Jesus to not be in a Mexican jail. How horrible would that have been to be locked up for doing something as silly as that... If I'm going to jail in a foreign country it better at least be for preaching the Gospel or something much more important than looking in a metal grate next to a flag. The crazy part of it was that as soon as they let us go we saw several cop cars pull up at the flag... and we walked away quickly. So you know, just another ordinary day in Mexico... :)

In other news, it has been raining a bunch here and hurricane Dolly is heading this direction. That shouldn't be a big problem because we are very far inland but we should get more rain, Juarez is a desert and so does not absorb water well - there has been some intensely flooded streets so pray for us as more rain comes.

We are continuing to prepare for the team coming in on Saturday. We've been smuggling food across the border for a feeding ministry they have been doing in Juarez. That's been going well but is a super hot and sweaty job unpacking pallets of food from warehouses and loading them into vans and trailors. God is so good though. He's even been allowing me to use some of my counseling background. One of the girls this ministry works with a lot in Jaurez - she actually lives at the same compound we've been staying at - has tried to kill herself by overdosing on pills. The Lord has given me favor with her and I've been using that relationship to attempt to help her. Pray for her continued safety and for an understanding of God's love for her.

Much love to you all!

Week 2 and update

So it's now been a week that I've been in Mexico and there is just under two weeks left. It's been super busy so far. We've had a few obstacles, but nothing that the Lord hasn't been able to take care of. The first two teams are gone now. The group from Knoxville brought about 40 people, mostly youth and worked on four different construction projects during the mornings while they were here and then ran two separate VBS sights in the afternoon. They were able to get a lot done, and more importantly ministered to several people. I know one day at one of the VBS sights, 25 kids came to know the Lord!!! The other team was a bilingual group of women from Tampa that did mostly evangelism and womens conferences. They saw several people get saved and ministered to during their week here. The Global Infusion staff (including myself) worked diligently to keep up with both teams and coordinate all their outreaches, transportation and basically take care of everything to allow them to do the ministry projects they were involved in. We jumped in whenever we could too to help out. Highlight of the trip so far: I got to go with the ladies team from Tampa a couple times and one night was able to lead a young husband and wife couple to the Lord!

I will do my best to update again, although this has been my first chance to post something or access internet at all. Continue to pray for us. We are working an getting everything set for the next team to come in on Saturday. We are also helping out the contacts here as much as possible. We've also purchased our tickets for Guatemala, which we'll be leaving for two days after returning from Mexico (August 5-12). Pray for wisdom health and safety for our team. Pray for the people of Juarez and for resources for them and the ministries serving them. Pray for divine appointments for the next couple weeks. Continue to pray for Juarez once we leave because there is a great work that needs to continue. Pray pray pray...

And post comments on my blogs if you are reading them. I need encouraging words when I get a chance to check them. I'm out of contact with many of you that I love and care about, so leave me lots of love.

I'll update the next time I can. Until then...

Updates on Mexico trip

I have some updates and more info about my quickly approaching first trip with Global Infusion. So, Friday is my last day at my job and the same day I leave for Knoxville. I'll be up there over the weekend to do some training before the big trip. Monday morning, very early, we leave to drive to Nashville where we will be flying out of. We fly from Nashville to Dallas, and from Dallas to El Paso. We then drive in to Juarez, where we will be staying for the next 3 weeks.

The first week there will be about 60 team members from two different groups arriving. We will run separate itineraries for each of the groups and they will include things like construction work, VBS, women's ministry and of course some evangelism and prayer ministry. After week 1 is over, those two teams will fly out and myself and a few staff members will remain in Juarez assisting the contact and preparing for the next two teams to arrive. The third week will consist of two more teams coming with about 30 people and running a couple more itineraries. I'm not sure yet what those two teams will be doing. They are a youth group and an adult group from the same church. After that we'll fly back to Nashville and drive back to Knoxville.

About two days after that we'll leave for Guatemala for a week. I don't have much info on that trip yet because I've been focused on this first one, but once I know something I'll post it.

It's gonna be great!