Of the Dead and Dying

How's that for a seriously morbid title? I thought it might be a good way to catch your attention. But this post is not about people, just blogs and their links.

You see, once upon a time, a long time ago - back in 2005 - a bunch of my friends started blogging. We had lots of fun welcoming each other into the "blogosphere" and exchanging comments and posting sometimes witty, sometimes moving, sometimes dramatic news on these, our own websites. Then came MySpace, but it was ugly and spammy and so we used it rather judiciously. But then Facebook opened up to everyone, not just preppy undergrads, and it has proven deadly for the older version of blogging. I have hardly kept up this site at all until, every few months or so, I randomly hear that someone still checks it. So I make go at it, and find it's still fun, and I've decided "leaves..." isn't going away anytime soon. But of the links listed to the right of my posts, many haven't seen a new post in over a year. On the one hand, I feel bad just removing my friends' old blogs from my list, in case said friends actually resurrect their creations. On the other hand, I love organization and making sure my own little part of the web, be it very, very small, is updated and current. So I decided to write this post in order to both reminisce and to list a few of my friends' blogs that I'll most likely be be taking off the template in the near future. This way, their names and links will endure as long as blogger itself remains. In memory of all the good times...

el blogo de la falda
freelance poedry
ich bin ein londoner
jamey orange
ohiodawa
whence flies the knat

But perhaps the cycle of Blogger life will continue? Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome the Ocean Skater to the blogosphere.

Mexico '08 Missions Trip

the Missoula team: Sara, Sylvia, Emily, Megan

Just a few stories and a few more pictures. For more of the latter, go to my flickr site.

So these four ladies, three UM students and myself, left Missoula at 9:30 pm on Thursday March 20. This was the first leg of our journey on a missions trip with two organizations, Youth for Christ and Get Away, Give Away. We arrived in Twin Falls Idaho around 4:30 Friday morning. This is where we met up with 13 folks who had driven down from LaGrande, OR. Megan and I had stayed awake and split the driving from Missoula, so when we got to Twin Falls and found out everyone else would be up at 6 we just stayed up. We played 3-way "War" with Megan's friend Smitty. We were quite tired and silly. It was fun.
About 7:30 am all 17 of us, from here on out known as "the LaGrande Group," piled into two Suburbans and a pickup truck. We drove all day and reached Las Vegas in the evening where we spent the night in a church. (This was known as the location of "the last shower." Showers at our campsite in Mexico were a bit more primitive.) On Saturday, after 20+ hours of driving, we finally arrived in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. Here we met up with the main group of folks, most of whom were from Eugene, Oregon, as so were known as "the Eugene Group." In the next 5 days "in country" the forty or so folks on our team of two groups built three houses. Those of us from Missoula also led a Vacation Bible School for neighborhood children and those at the house sites where we were building.


"Tent City" (aka "camp"): This was our home for the week.
It got pretty windy!

Highlights of the week:
1) Wednesday, the last day of VBS
This was our largest group of VBS kids and Megan kept saying her Spanish brain was going to explode. We shared the story of the Jesus' death and resurrection with the kids. I held up the picture book and Megan read the translation into Spanish. I helped the kids put "brillantes" (glitter) on the paper crosses they were making, and a few of them copied "Gracias Jesus" onto crosses made out of popsicle sticks. I loved that we were planting seeds in little hearts and minds and watering these seeds with love and songs and fun games like "pato, pato, ganso" (duck, duck, goose.)


Singing at VBS. Note the the camp showers in the background.

2) Anna and Abel and their 8 kids
Megan has had a few chances to share about the trip and each time she talked about this family and she cried. Anna and Abel have 8 children and recently moved to the border town of San Luis from Chiapas, the southern part of Mexico. We had the pleasure of building them a new house. Our first day at the plot of land Anna and her husband own she said over and over again how great God was to provide for her and her family. She brought most of her kids to VBS each day and she was very involved answering questions and making crafts. Later, Megan was working on Anna's new house and overheard her singing the VBS songs to her children. At the end of the week, the whole team visited each of the new houses and prayed over them and the families that would be living there. As we surrounded Anna, Abel and their children, Anna cried while clutching a calendar that the folks from LaGrande had given her. It was clear that we were seeing God move in her heart and our work there not only blessed her materially but also brought her closer to God.


Anna and her youngest, Luis de Jesus

3) Thursday morning, last day of work
This was the rush to get our houses to a finishing place. We needed to be done and leaving Mexico by about noon, but the houses weren't done. In past years, the team had consisted of 60-80 people. This year we were a small and mighty 40-something. In addition, the owners of 2 of the original 4 building sites found themselves in property disputes while we were there, so we were not able to build in those sites. We were able to start a another house, but two days late, and the church we planned to build most likely be built next year. The other family, who had thought themselves owners of the original "Site 1" plot, we could only pray for, that they would be able to settle this dispute and maybe get a house next year.

Policia. At least this one didn't come at 3:30 am like a few of the others...

That said, Thursday was a bit of a scramble at each of the houses. The new "Site 1" house was built for Bernardo and his wife and children. They have been great friends to the Get Away, Give Away teams in years past. They owned a plot of land but not been able to afford to build while still struggling to pay rent in another location. It was wonderful to bless this family and exciting to see their plans for this house as a place of blessing not only for their family but for the neighborhood. :) With this house we decided we just needed to get second floor walls, roof and insulation for those up since these are the parts most needing a team of people. A roof was also important since Bernardo needed to sleep there in order to guard the new house. He was confident that he could finish the rest himself. Thursday morning I had the chance to work on this house with him and a handful of the Eugene group folks from about 20 minutes before sunrise until around 11:00 am. It was intense and fun and very rewarding to reach our goal.


Prayer at Bernardo
and family's new house.
Note the unpainted
second floor wall
and the corner of a roof!


So in summary, it was hot. It was sandy. It was very dry. It was tiring and challenging. But God showed up and directed our steps in amazing ways. It was an amazing week.

ich mag Google '08

Here it is again. I've decided this must be my own personal Valentine's Day for Google or something. Anyway, in case you somehow missed it, here is a link to this year's April Fool's joke. I have a feeling the folks at Google look forward to this day all year long.
:)