So yeah, we're back (Pictures and Video from Day 11)

As you all know, we are home!
When we came out of the airport, a large crowd of family and friends engulfed us and welcomed us home, which is always nice. (If you were in that horde, thanks, by the way.)

The border crossings and flights went really well, as planned, and we were even early enough to wait in McAllen and Houston for several minutes! I guess that's just one more advantage to having such a small team...

There will probably be a couple more posts on the blog in the next week or so, I think Beth wanted to say something. Oh, and Becky has some videos I'll probably put up.

And without (much) further ado, the final pictures!

















As always, but for the last time, there are more pictures, on the Photobucket.

Like I said before, there will probably be a couple more posts, so keep watching for a while.

Adios for now,
-Ian

Pictures from Day 10 (Saturday)

So I'm not sure how many people will remember from last year, but on Saturday of last year's trip, we were divided among families that go to Iglesia Bautista Gilgal de Monterrey to go to their house and eat dinner with them.

Well, we did it again this year, and it was really fun. I was with Becky, Steve, and Stephanie Uno (Bleikamp), and we went to Miros' sister's house. (Miros is Ramone's wife, in case you don't know.) Well, it turns out that it was someone's tenth birthday, and what we went to was kind of her party. A whole bunch of family was there, including the couple that I ate in the house of last year.

We ate tamales con carne o frijoles (beans or meat) and had some cheesecake. It was super fun to visit with almost an entire family (16 grandchildren of a grandpa there, if that gives you an idea) and practice my spanish. After it had been honed throughout the week with all the stumbling and hearing translations, I understood about 65% of what I heard, which I was extremely excited about. Especially when the lady from last year asked me "Tu fuistes a mi casa el ano pasado?" and I understood it completely without having to hear it twice!

Well, that's my small, incomplete overview of tonight. It's 12:36, and we need to leave at 7:30 tomorrow, so goodbye. There were three other houses, so ask the rest of the stories from the team when you see them.
We'll be at the airport at 5:30.

...If nothing really Mexican happens, anyway.

-Ian

Video and Pictures from Mountain Day (Day Nine)

Tejacote

Greetings, faithful readers of The Blog. This is Stephanie, or Stephanie Uno, as I'm called here. So yesterday we got up at 6:30 in order to eat and leave the church at 8:00. Nope, I don't think many of us were entirely awake. We hopped in the van and drove to Cercado, where we changed vehicles - most of us spent the next 2 hours standing in the back of pickup trucks. But don't feel sorry for us, because we enjoyed one of the most scenic drives I've ever seen. It was a bit bumpy, and we all have the bruises to prove it, but it was definitely worth it. There's no way the pictures can do it justice. When we got to Tejacote we climbed into another truck and drove around delivering bags of groceries to the locals and praying for them. Becky and I even got to ride a burro (donkey) at one of the houses. (I'm pretty sure Ian got a video of that.)

On a more serious note, some of the prayers requests we were given were very sobering. One lady said she was sick with tuberculosis; another lady had a mysterious pain in her knee, and no medicine for it. (We gave Pastor David some Advil for her.) We visited one family that had an infant with a cleft pallet. The mother told us he was only 50 days old - he was so tiny! His parents seemed very comforted by our prayer for them and Pat's story of a child she knew with the same condition. Please keep him in your prayers too; Pat, who is a nurse and knows these things, told us that he'll have to go through at least two surgeries in the next year or so.

We had a bit of a scary moment on the way back down the mountain... we met a huge bus while going around bend in the road. With much careful maneuvering, we made it safely past... but for a few minutes we were close enough for Al to shake a passenger's hand. He (Al) said that was the biggest vehicle he'd seen that far up the mountain. And Becky got a video of the whole thing.

Well, that's all for now! We're leaving in a few minutes to go to the outdoor market... so adios!

~Stephanie

Pictures from Day Eight

This was the last day of work at the church (Thursday) so we were just finishing up a lot of the projects you've already seen. None of the other pictures are extremely exiting, don't worry. There are a few more on the Photobucket, should you still wish to see.

The next day, we went to the mountains, which was absolutely spectacular. I will try to post pictures as soon as I can. But I took 204 pictures, and I have no idea how many Becky and Steve took, so it will take a little while to sort through.

But I'm hurrying, never fear.

Today for breakfast, a few Mexican ladies are making us pancakes for breakfast, which should be awesome. Adios for now.

-Ian

Video and Pictures from Bosques (Day Seven)

Again, there are more pictures on the Photobucket, if you would take a look.

Pictures from Day Seven