A Sad Send Off

VBS went well- we again had 200 children attend today. At least 50% of the children accepted Jesus into their hearts, but this is a total guess. It´s hard to say who really knew exactly how Jesus can change their life, but over half of the children said the prayer.
After VBS we had our fiesta and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. It got a little chaotic near the end, but everyone had fun. It was hard to say goodbye to the children. We lined up and handed out Bible verse cards from the week and gave countless hugs. Many of the kids asked when we are coming back.

After VBS we went shopping at the mercado and the mall where most of us spent our remaining pesos. It was a fun experience to see the mercado and traditional keepsakes from Durango.

For dinner we went to Pastor Monrique´s house where we had tear-filled goodbye dinner. Many of the people from the church came along and we shared our experiences/memories and feelings about what we have accomplished here. Many tears were shared by all, and we can truly say that we have equally impacted each others´ lives. We celebrated Jamie´s 16th birthday there, where we sang and ate cake. It was a lot of fun, and a good way to end our trip. They sang a marathon goodbye song, thanking each of us individually, as well as gave us all gifts.

Saying goodbye was incredibly hard, but we know that God has great plans in store for the church of Durango and all of its members. We will continue to pray for the church, the children, and God´s will for Durango.

Please pray for a safe journey home on the Spine of Satan. Also pray that everything goes smoothly coming back into the country so that we can make our connecting flight and get home on time.

Thanks for all the prayers and updates on life at home. We are so blessed to have such supportive families to come back to. Thank you, and see you all at 8:30 (hopefully).

200

So we are thinking the weather did play a role in the lower numbers for Wednesday as we had nearly 200 children show up for yesterday´s VBS. Today marks the final day of VBS and all of us are a little sad to see it come to an end. It´s going to be pretty hard to say goodbye to all the kids. It´s remarkable to see what an impact we´ve had on these children´s lives. As the last day of VBS, today we are going to give the children an opportunity to accept Jesus as their personal savior. Pray that these children´s hearts will be open and pray that they understand the decision that they might possibly make today.

Last night´s street evangelism was quite touching for many. The neighborhood we went to was only about ten minutes away, and many of the kids that showed up were kids that have been attending VBS. As we drove up the children mobbed the van and as we got out of the van, they began to sing ¨Sapo,¨ the most popular VBS song. At this point, I think a lot of us realized the impact that we have on these children. They all ran to hug us and followed us around while we went around the neighborhood inviting people to the service. The service had a great turnout- probably the most we´ve had so far. We set up games after the service, and it got a little crazy. We were in a pretty small area with so many people, and the games were quite popular. The toothbrushes and toothpaste were quite the hit! They were the first things gone from the prize bucket!

As I said earlier, we have our last day of VBS today. We will have our fiesta at the end where children can play games. After lunch, we have free time so many of us are planning to go shopping and use up the rest of our pesos.

Dinner is at Monrique´s tonight, and then all that is left is the trip home! I plan on updating before we hit the road.

A Day at the Fair

Sorry it has been so long since the last update. We have been running like crazy.

Picking up from where we left off, Tuesday night we went to another town where we did street evangelism. Not as many kids showed up, but it was still a good crowd. We passed out 11 Bibles to the people there.

For Wednesday´s VBS we had about 130 kids. We think the number may have been lower due to the weather- it rained all morning. Many people shared their testimonies.

After lunch we rode on a trolley for a tour of Durango. We saw historical buildings all over the city and ended up at paintball. Many welts came to being as a result of this, but it was a fun experience over all. Many of girls played for their first time and it was quite entertaining.

After dinner we went to Durango´s state fair of sorts. We saw a lot of street acts and shops. Luckily nobody got lost.

Today we are doing our last street evangelistic service. Pray that all goes well tonight, especially that it doesn´t rain because it always seems to rain around that time.

Even More

Today was day 2 of VBS, and to our surprise we had even more kids. Forty additional kids showed up today, for a total of 170 kids. The additional kids added a little more chaos because we don´t have all that much space in the church. We don´t have enough chairs for everybody which proves to be a nuisance, but we still managed. The kids really seem to be drawn to us, which is truly a blessing. So far the weather has been really mild. It hasn´t been over about 85 degrees and we´ve had rain at some point every day. So much for our tans!

After VBS we went out to lunch with Pastor Monrique and his family. They have been so great to us. We really enjoy spending time with them and their hospitality is uncanny.

We are off to our evangalistic service again tonight, except to a different town.

Hopefully we will update later tonight.

Prayer Request

Hola Padres! We have a prayer request for all of you. Jenna has come down with nasty symptoms of a sinus infection. She wasn´t feeling yesterday and tonight it has become worse. Luckily one of the ladies of the church we are working with is married to a doctor, so he took a look at her. He prescribed her for an antibiotic to hopefully relieve her of her illness. Please pray that she will be healed quickly and feel better as soon as possible. Also pray that the sickness does not spread to the rest of the team.

On a brighter note, our great day continued after VBS when returned to eat a fabulous tradition Mexican meal. We had carne asada con legumbres y camarones which is roasted meats (steak and chicken), vegetables and shrimp. It was by far the best meal we´ve had down here, and possibly in (some of) our lives. After lunch, we traveled to Cazatlan where we held a fiesta of sorts, in the main plaza of the town. Many people showed up to play games, listen to our music, watch us perform our dramas and listen to Pastor Monrique preach. We thought the fiesta might become a disaster when rain clouds began approaching about a fourth of the way into it, but God prevailed. The rain held off until the exact minute that we ended. Praise God! In the end, two older people accepted the Lord. Praise God again!

Please pray that our work will continue to impact the people of Mexico and things will continue to run smoothly.

Bigger Than We Thought

Well today marked the beginning of our VBS and it was quite the hit. Us white folk really seem to draw a crowd. We had planned for about 50 kids to attend VBS, but we were suprised to find 130 unloading from packed minivans and U-Hauls. Things went well athough we had to improvise a little due to the unexpected crowd.

Tonight we are going to Cazatlan to do our first evangelistic worship service. Pray for us that all goes well.

Our Journey To Mexico

Well, where do we begin? The journey here was quite the adventure. Everything started off well until we reached Phoenix, AZ. We had a little "technical difficulty" with our plane there which caused us an hour delay. Apparently our plane didn´t meet the Mexican standards for a part of our plane that planes do not use in America. This gave us a great deal of time to fill out our immigration forms and play many games to pass the time. We arrived in Mazatlan at about 3 and got through customs pretty quickly, only about 10 minutes. We loaded up into three different vehicles. We then left for lunch and ended up losing one of the cars so we drove around trying to find them for about an hour. We got lunch at a Burger King, and ended up meeting the lost car at a gas station so we were all together again. From there, we left for Durango and had our encounter with the "Spine of Satan," which is what they call the road through the mountains that we traveled on. What made it even more interesting was the rain, fog, semi trucks and the darkness. Many people were scared for their lives, except for the drivers. We FINALLY arrived at our hotel at midnight where we slept on rock hard beds and woke up to a delicious breakfast of fruit (and toast). All is fun and well, we are about to go off to church. Til the next post... Adios!

Trip Information

ITINERARY

Saturday, July 5

Depart: 7:45 a.m. Minneapolis, MN. US Airways Flight 324

Arrive: 12:18 p.m. Mazatlan, Mexico

(One stop in Phoenix; no deplaning)

Pastor Manrique and others will meet the team at the airport and drive them in vans to Durango.

Expected arrival in Durango: 10:00 p.m.

Saturday, July 12

Depart Durango: 4:30 a.m.

Pastor Manrique and others will drive the team in vans to the Mazatlan airport.

Expected arrival time in Mazatlan: 11:00 a.m.

Depart: 12:57 p.m. Mazatlan, Mexico. US Airways Flight 425

Arrive: 2:06 p.m. Phoenix, AZ

Depart: 3:05 p.m. Phoenix, AZ. US Airways Flight 353

Arrive: 8:14 p.m. Minneapolis, MN

*All times listed above are local times.

Minneapolis/St. Paul and Durango are on Central Daylight Time

Mazatlan is on Mountain Daylight Time, 1 hour earlier than Minnesota and Durango

Phoenix is on Mountain Standard Time, 2 hours earlier than Minnesota and Durango

EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS

TO REACH NORTH HAVEN CHURCH TEAM IN DURANGO

All Mexican numbers include international code (011), country code (52), area code (618), local number (7 digits).

HOTEL SANTA CRUZ (Our hotel in Durango)

The person that answers the phone may not speak English. If not, ask "Esta (a person's name)?" which means "Is (name) there?"

Phone number: 011-52-618-818-7766

Website: http://www.hotelsantacruz.com.mx

PASTOR MANRIQUE (Pastor of Horeb Baptist Church in Durango)

He doesn't speak English, but will be with our team members much of the day or at least know where they are.

Home phone: 011-52-618-185-0234

MARK WEST (American Missionary in Durango)

Speaks English and Spanish and may be able to find us. He may not know where we are every minute but could aid you in getting in touch with us.

Cell phone: 011-52-618-144-1632