The book came back!

On our first flight from Bellingham to Seattle on July 25 Alana left her library book on the plane. She quickly realised what she had done but there was no way for them to get it back to her before our next flight. The flight attendant on our plane to San Diego told her to check with lost and found when we returned. Unfortunately, when we returned to Seattle they said that they only keep items for 24 hours so there was no chance to get it back.

Well...fast forward to Friday, Oct 2 when Alana opened her mailbox. Inside was her library book mailed from Boise, ID. Now she can return it and pay $12 instead of $100+. Praise the Lord!! Alana was pretty excited, to say the least. The lesson here - patience :). And fly Alaska - they really do care, even after two months.

BAC Video on YouTube

Joe Lo did another masterful job of putting together a video for us. Some of you have already seen it at church when we did our presentation two Sundays ago. For those of you who weren't there you can watch it on YouTube. As I don't know how to embed it using Blogger you will have to click through on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9bbWexjNJM

While there you can watch our promo video again as well.

San Quintin Day 8

Saturday, August 1 was another travel day. We were up at 3:00am and on the bus pulling away at 4:00am. We drove to Ensenada where we attempted to buy some sombreros for the missions committee but most of the sellers weren't open yet and the ones that were only had regular hats. No one in the Baja wears sombreros. I suppose they are mostly for tourists. We stopped for breakfast beside a race course at Las Cañadas which seemed fitting. There is a tilde on the "n" so it doesn't really say Canada.
We arrived at the border about midmorning and had no trouble going through. When we arrived in San Diego we stopped at In and Out Burger for lunch. When I went to Tijuana in 1995 we stopped at one as well so it is quite a tradition :). In and Out puts Bible verses on the cups and burger packages so it is quite fitting. Alana hit a grocery store and bought some non-meat products for lunch.
We arrived at the airport in the early afternoon and checked in. The flight to Portland was fine and although we temporarily lost Lemuel at the airport when he decided to leave the secure area we boarded our flight to Seattle with no problems. We arrived back there at about 9:30pm and Joe and Chris picked us up and drove us back to BAC. We arrived here at about 1:00am so it was quite a day!

San Quintin Day 7

Friday was our last day on the job so we needed to finish everything up on the house. Rob Wall came to help us finish as we wanted to be done by lunchtime so that we could have the dedication ceremony while the husband and church people were there. We finished working about 1:00pm and learned that Vicky and some neighbours had prepared a Mexican lunch for us. There was pasta salad and refried beans with hard flat taco shells.

In this picture I am giving the house keys to Vicky. Each team member had a chance to say something about their trip and the experience and then encouraged the family. We gathered together and had a group picture with the family and their neighbours who had joined us for lunch. We are the ones in the Red Stoney Creek t-shirts while Kit has the blue one and the family and friends are the Mexicans ;-). The family were quite happy to receive their house. They had to buy the land themselves so I am sure they had been eagerly waiting for us to come and build a house for them. Fortunately Maria came and translated for us so that we could talk with them and have the dedication ceremony. Thanks Maria!

We also discovered that the husband is an ice cream seller who peddles an ice cream cart around all day. This was a blessing as we were able to buy some icy cream. I had a strawberry popsicle with real strawberries inside! Yummy.

Friday evening we went back to the camp and cleaned up and packed to get ready for our 4:00am departure. It was a great week which flew by soooo quickly.

San Quintin Day 6

On Thursday, July 30 we were back at the house in the morning and worked all day. The roof was completed and Jeff is putting on some tar in this picture. We wanted to make sure that it was well sealed on the edges and seams to ensure that the wind does not get in at a later date and lift the roof off. The wind can blow quite strongly there, and does so on a daily basis.

We also put the windows in on Thursday. This was quite easy because Kit just cut some holes in the walls and then popped the windows in. We had picked them up the day before along with four mattresses to give the families for the bunk beds we would be making. The painting also began on Thursday although we wouldn't finish until Friday. Vicky chose light green as the colour, so that's what we did along with white trim. Some of the painters seem to have gotten as much paint on themselves as on the house and our little amigos also pitched in. I wasn't feeling very well on Wednesday evening, having thrown up on three occasions so I took it easy on Thursday and worked inside installing panelling and building a bunk bed. Here is the finished product. There will be two kids on the bottom on a double mattress and one on the top on a single mattress. This way the three daughters can share one bedroom and the three sons another.

I ate breakfast on Thursday and felt ok but threw up again about 11:00am so I skipped lunch and although we went out for tacos and hotdogs for supper I only had a few bites of my wife's food. All would be well by Friday morning, although the bug would show up again on Saturday at the other end.

On Thursday evening we went to the church again for their praise and prayer evening. There was no translator so we had to muddle our way through. Marianne's Spanish really developed over the week and she was able to help us. The pastor preached a short sermon and then they had a time of prayer. Three folks were anointed with oil and a young boy scheduled for an operation was also prayed for. The highlight of the evening for us was when they called our team to the front and the church folks came up and laid hands on us and prayed for us. Although we couldn't understand most of what they were saying we understood that Holy Spirit was in our midst and we were communing together in Christ. We were all touched by the service and the unity among believers from different countries and languages. Dios les Bendiga!

San Quintin Day 5

This is Elia's house where we went on Wednesday afternoon to pick her up. She is the lady in the yellow shirt in the centre. She began a children's program at her house many years ago and this current house was built by Americans so that her former house could be converted into a children's centre. She is also having another house built on her site for single mothers and will be tearing down her original house to build a larger centre. We spent the morning playing with the children, doing our skit, and colouring with them.

We headed for the build site at noon and ate on the bus. Work continued on the roof and the walls and we knocked off for supper.

San Quintin Day 4

Tuesday, July 28 dawned cloudy with overtures of rain. While we were in the Baja in the afternoons it was very hot but every evening it would cool down and we would wake up to cloudy skies and even a slight drizzle the one morning. The nights were cold so in addition to the two blankets we bought for the missions committee we bought one to keep ourselves warm at night! Tuesday morning found us at the build site putting up roof joists. Alana is showing us how to nail in the centres.

We finished up at lunch time and headed back to the camp to get ready to visit the migrant camp. We needed to change into long pants for the guys and dresses for the ladies in order to fit in with their conservative culture. We picked up Elia, the lady in charge of the migrant ministries. She is a former migrant worker herself and a member of a Mexican tribal group. Many migrants come up from the far south of Mexico to work for four months or so before returning home. They do not speak Spanish but native dialects. The seven of us had prepared a skit about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead so we began by presenting that and Elia translated for us. We then coloured with the children and played with them while the other teams distributed food and clothing to the families.


In the accompanying picture Jesus is calling Lazarus out of the grave.

They also distributed several large blue tarps for the migrants to put over their houses. Otherwise they just use clear plastic wrap for walls and many did not even have roofs. Because it almost never rains they don't see any need for them. In the picture below you can see examples of the large blue covered dwellings were many families would live together and some of the smaller one-family dwellings which just consist of sheeting wrapped around four posts.
You can also see one made of yellow plastic in the centre of the picture. The background should also be quite noticeable to you. Other than the fields of irrigated crops that they are here to harvest there is not a lot of vegetation in this area. The migrant camp is located on a hill of non-arable land surrounded on three sides by hills and desert. There is no running water and most just walk to the edge of the camp to relieve themselves. Unfortunately, these migrants chose to live in these conditions because they retain a sense of community and independence.

We dropped Elia back off at her home and she liked our skit so much that she asked us to come to her house on Wednesday morning to do it again for the children's program that she has there four days per week.

San Quintin Day 3

Monday July 27 started out bright and early with a pile of lumber, some hammers, and a circular saw. We arrived around 9:00 and Vicky, the mother of the family we built the house for, was there to meet us along with a couple of the children. The boy in the picture is Jose and he was very helpful all week pounding nails and helping us build his house.

Things went quite quickly, visually speaking, the first day as we completed the framing and panelling of the outer walls and lifted them into position. The fellow in the blue shirt and cowboy hat on the far right at the back is Kit. He was the Stoney Creek employee who guided us in the building and ensured that all the boards were cut to the right length and put together to form a house and not a wood collage.

After we had the walls nailed up in position we called it a day and dropped by their church on the way home. This is the same church where BAC's 2008 team did ESL. Shaun was able to see the pastor again and show us the church where their team had held the ESL program. We made plans to return on Thursday evening for their praise and prayer night. We learned our first Spanish blessing: Dios les Bendiga which means "God Bless You." When we arrived back at the campground we realised that our harsh farmer's tans were actually just dirt! It is very dusty in the Baja and standing outside all day we became filthy.

San Quintin Day 2

On Sunday, July 26 we woke up refreshed and ready for orientation. Gord warned us about all the dangerous spiders and scorpions as well as filling us in on the events for the week. Mid morning we took a ride to the beach and had a hot dog BBQ lunch. Needless to say our team really enjoyed cooking and eating hotdogs! The water was quite cold and although the sun was quite hot it was windy. Thankfully we brought 60spf sunscreen to prevent any burns. After lunch we headed back to the campground where we were staying in tents. Half the campground is reserved for teams like ours while the other half is run as a campground and swimming pool for locals. The pool looked very inviting but we didn't have time for swimming.

Today's picture is of the church we went to after supper. They normally have headphones for English speakers but someone had stolen them all so they had a translator on stage, which was fortunate for us. After the church service we went to a local ice cream parlour and enjoyed some authentic American ice cream :).

San Quintin Day 1

On Saturday July 25 we started out early, leaving BAC at 3:00am for the drive down to the Bellingham airport. The border was quick and we arrived in Bellingham with plenty of time to spare. We took the short flight to Seattle and then waited about 1/2 an hour for the flight to San Diego. Alaska had overbooked the flight and were offering $200 vouchers for those willing to wait for the 9:00am flight. Not bad for those travelling alone or in pairs and willing to wait two hours. We arrived in San Diego shortly after 9:00 and received our bags quickly. San Diego's airport isn't large and is crowded. The line-up to get through security stretched 100m down the main cooridor of the airport. Brenda arrived after we had lunch and we met the other two groups and loaded up the bus for the ride south. We stopped at Costco to buy supplies and most of us had ice cream and headed to Walmart. We took the Tecate border crossing rather than Tijuana as it is safer and much quieter as well.

It was dark when we arrived in San Quintin because it gets dark quite early there (around 8:00) as it is much closer to the equator. We settled into our tents and were soon sleeping soundly after our looooooooooooooong day. The picture is us at the Bellingham airport. Joe and Andy drove us and we are very thankful for the willingness to wake up so early!

We're Back!!

Sorry we weren't able to provide you with daily updates from Mexico. We had a great trip and are safely back in Canada. It's late so our reflections on the trip will have to wait for a later time. We hope to see you at church in the morning and we can tell you some about it! :)

Connections issue 2

10 Hours to Go!

It's almost time to leave. We are meeting at BAC at 3:00am and driving down to Bellingham for our 5:40am flight to Seattle and then on to San Diego. How many of you will be here to see us off? LOL. Here's a list of things we are doing over the next week so you can pray for us. We will also be distributing a newsletter at church on Sunday.

July 25 — Travel to San Quintín, Mexico.
July 26 — Orientation and attend Church service.
July 27 — Begin building house and VBS program.
July 28 — Shop for house family; Continue with building and VBS program.
July 29 — Continue with building and VBS program; Church in the evening.
July 30 — Continue; Migrant camp visit and VBS program.
July 31 — Finish building and Celebration party.
Aug 1 — Return to Burnaby.

Four days and counting!

It was a busy week and weekend with another BBQ, buying supplies for the children in Mexico, and getting ready to go.

On Sunday the team was called up on the platform and prayed over by Pastor Tim and the English elders. The church has really blessed us and we are so happy to see God work in people's hearts as they get excited about being a part of the Mexico STM without even leaving Burnaby!

Tonight at prayer meeting we will be emphasising the trip and handing out the first copies of the second issue of our newsletter. Be sure to come out and pick one up! I will post it here in a couple of days.

Dinner a Great Success

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who attended our dinner and the many who helped us put it all together and allowed it to run smoothly. There were about 70 people there and everyone seemed to enjoy the food and the fun with piñatas. We told everyone about ourselves, why we are part of the Mexico team, and what we are hoping God will accomplish through this trip.

Clarence and Nate were amazing and their assistant Maria ensured that everything came together. You guys rock!

Short Team Mission

Please look carefully at the title again! Although no one has yet asked me why the Mexico trip is being called a short team mission instead of a short term mission I hope some noticed. It's not just because we're a Chinese church. We're actually quite a tall team, except my wife ;-))

We want to emphasise that this trip isn't about a short one week term in Mexico but it is about a team engaged in mission. There are seven of us on the team and as we were commenting on Monday evening at our prayer meeting if it wasn't for this trip most of us wouldn't be hanging out together. Jesus chose 12 disciples to train for three years so that they could carry his message to the ends of the earth after he departed. We haven't spent three years together but it has been a process of growing and it is essential that we learn about one another and learn to work together. Our first "big" event was the hot dog BBQ a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow evening we are putting on our biggest event to date, which is the dinner and presentation. Both those events pale in comparison to travelling down to San Quintin and beginning to work together in building the house and doing VBS for the children. We are building a double sized house which is ambitious for a team of seven but we are confident that we can get it done well. We also want to give our hearts and attention to the children we are doing VBS with.

Many of you have offered to join our team and support us in prayer. Thank you to all our team members both going and staying! We will post a list of prayer requests for you to lift up for us while we are away. Blessings always!

Dinner tomorrow night

Many of you are joining us tomorrow night for a Mexico STM dinner and faith raiser. We are calling it a faith raiser because although we hope to raise enough funds for the house before we leave we also want to make sure everyone knows why we are going to Mexico and what we hope to accomplish there. Some have the opinion that a short term mission is nothing more than a sanctified vacation. Others think that a short term mission can change the world in only a week or two. Both of those are extremes and we hope that you will know what we expect to accomplish and who it is we intend to help.

Blessings and see you tomorrow at 6:30pm in the MPR.

Hot dogs, get your hot dogs here!

We are planning on selling hot dogs again this coming Sunday in the empty lot beside the church. Come on out and get your red hots!

$2 hotdog
$1 drink (pop or water)
50 cents for a bag of chips

Hotdog BBQ a success

We would like to thank everyone who enjoyed our hot dogs on Sunday. Our BBQ was a great success as it was a beautiful day and we raised $442.68! We have some drinks and a few bags of chips left over which we will be selling off at a future date so you can look forward to that!

Thanks everyone!!

H1N1 cases in the USA pass 1 million

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimate that over one million people in the USA have been infected with H1N1 and of those 127 have died. That would make the infection death rate 0.000127%, so obviously most of those cases have been mild. Confirmed cases around the world continue to rise but it seems that this pandemic is far reaching but not that serious. The NY Times is suggesting that 500,000 in that city alone could have been infected based on flu cases in the public school system.

Are we concerned about H1N1 in Mexico - NO. Are we concerned about the poverty of the migrant workers we are going to visit and the lack of general health care that they have - YES.

Code of Best Practice in Short-term Mission, 2nd ed

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has released the second edition of its Code of Best Practice in Short-Term Mission. The code can be downloaded for free but if you want the accompanying resource listing and bibliography it will cost $10.

As good stewards we want to ensure that our preparation, our time in Mexico, and our return to Canada honours God and his Church so we will be taking careful consideration of the items covered in this guide.

Newsletter Issue 1 online

I have uploaded the first issue of our newsletter in png format. Feel free to download it and read about our upcoming plans!

Hotdog fundraiser next Sunday

Howdy All,

Next Sunday, June 28, we are going to be having a lunchtime hotdog BBQ at the empty lot beside the Annex. Come one and all and enjoy some dogs and fun!

Preparations

Preparations are well under way for this year's trip to San Quintin, Mexico. Seven of us will be going from July 25 through August 1. The members of the team are Marianne, Shaun, Alana, Sally, Lemuel, Jeff and Tom. We will be leaving from Bellingham on Saturday and returning to Seattle on the following Saturday. Joe has volunteered to pick us up in Seattle at Sea-Tac. Thanks Joe!

Keep checking back for more updates!