A couple of weeks ago we headed down to Mexico for the day. It was the most amazing trip yet! We loaded up in 3 cars: Pastor Gabriel's van, Rene's truck, and my car. We headed down to the border and as usual, we stopped at McDonald's right before going across :) Then we began to pray as we crossed over the border. You see, we can be fined or turned around if we get caught bringing the stuff that we bring over the border. So every time as we go through, we just pray that God gets us through. This time was no different. Gabriel's van made it through... my car made it through... but Rene's truck (which was carrying most of our stuff) was stopped. They wouldn't accept money from them (which is just unheard of there!) and they turned them around and sent them home. So now we were left with only 2 vehicles and without most of the toys and clothes. We had to change our plan of attack. So we headed to a different place than we'd initially planned. When we got there, we had to decide what to do. Should we hand out what we had even though we didn't have enough for everyone? After much discussion, that's exactly what we decided to do. So we gathered everyone around and Gabriel and Javier talked to them about God. We had 3 people that accepted Jesus! Then we began handing out the toys, blankets and clothes that we had. And they just kept coming... we'd finish giving out all that we had, and close the van doors, and then we'd open the van and it was like God multiplied what we'd had because there would be more! At the end of the day, we had enough! It was so cool to see God so plainly do a miracle! It reminded me of when Jesus fed 5000 with only a loaf of bread and fish.

Just wanted to share that story and some pictures... so here are some of my favorites from the trip.

Waiting at the border for Rene (little did we know...) Javier decided to take a nap.
When we got there, the people all rushed around us.
Javier and Gabriel telling people about God.
Javier praying for the people that accepted Jesus
Me and Crystal
Me and Karla (one of the girls we see every time we go.)
Me and Mango (with a soccer ball on his head). He's another one we see each time.
Handing things out and hanging out with the people there.
Javier talking to the guys that accepted Jesus.
Me, the teens that went and a couple of our new friends.
Me and Mango again (he loves me) :)
This man had this super cool bike he'd made... and he was kind enough to let us ride it! It was pretty fun!

One of our Mexico traditions is going to eat tacos before we go home...
Javier even got a little daring and tried a pepper... I don't think he'll be doing that again anytime soon...
Here are a few more of my favorites from the trip...

Saturday we went to Mexico.

I've posted about these trips before, even though it isn't TECHNICALLY stories about the teens... the trips have made such an impact on me, and so I want to remember them and share them.

The trip went well and pretty smoothly other than getting stopped at the border going in. See we have several car loads of stuff and technically you aren't supposed to do what we're doing. So they stopped us at the border (which has never happened before). I didn't really know what was going on, because they were speaking in Spanish.

Luckily, Sam translated: We're going to jail.

The good news is he was joking (of course I didn't know that, and I panicked just a little bit). The bad news is we had to pay a small fine. But then we went through the border and continued on our way.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took:


Pastor Orlando and a little girl that we have gotten to know from repeated trips, Carla. (more of her from another trip here)
David, Sam, Pastor Orlando, Me and Javier
Patty (one of my teens) and me
Sam and some of the kids in the background... and me laughing at him trying to take the picture of himself.
Me and Carla and another little girl.
Helping the kids with backpacks... that was the main thing we took this time... school supplies.
Waiting in line.
Mango and me... you may remember him from a previous post
Mango and me again...
One of Pastor Moises' twins and me.
We raffled a bike that was donated and here are all the little boys with the winner (he's the one in the middle smiling)
Me and Javier handing out backpacks.
Me and David (he's one of our Spanish pastors, and my friend)
George and Mango in the car on the way to the next stop.

It was a successful trip. It's so much fun to see the kids' faces... They woke up thinking it was going to be like any other day, and then suddenly we show up with all these things for them. There's something so cool about that. And yet, when we leave, it always feels like we haven't done enough. It's hard for me to understand why I have a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear, a car to drive, and a job to go to, when these people have almost nothing.... and it's just because of where I was born. I was born here and they were born there. So I continue to pray for them, and love them and do what I can... I don't know if I will ever understand why... but I am so blessed every time I go... I think sometimes more than we bless them, THEY bless US!

So we're gearing up for another Mexico trip. I realized that I never shared pictures from the last trip. So here are some pictures from our last Mexico trip. It was pretty cool to realize that we have actually formed relationships. Like we recognize the people and they know us too... it was fun to just get to hang out with them and share life while sharing Jesus' love. We BBQ'd hot dogs and chicken and ate with them and played with them and just hung out. We also brought some clothes and toys and things as usual.

I'll be sure to post more and maybe even some stories from the next trip :)


This is what happens when you eat licorice without your hands and Javier has the camera...
Me and Ameroni
Two of the kids there
Our team heading into the town square
Me and a cute little kid
A couple of the girls...
Olga and Gabriel
Pastor Gabriel, a couple of kids and the spider (its in the hole)...
Javi and Ameroni
Me and Ameroni
Ameroni trying to figure out what was on Javier's necklace (its Cuba)
Talking to the kids
Me and some of the boys
Javier and Pastor Gabriel with the kids
This kid was so good with that yo-yo thing... It was pretty cool to watch!
My favorite!
Some of the kids with Javier
This kid kind of got attached to me... but I kind of got attached to him too :)
Me trying to BBQ... mostly it was just for the picture because right after this it burned me and I didn't want to do it anymore :)
loved this kid!!!
Pastor Gabriel and me hanging out with some of the kids
Chivas #1!!! (that's a soccer team I'm pretty sure...)
This little boy was so cute...