A day for clean up and carnival

Saturday was a morning of doing odd jobs around town. We had different teams completing many tasks from construction clean up at the church site, washing vehicles, repairing cots, gardening, and we even sent one team out to an Indian village up in the mountains to finish up a concrete project that another mission team never finished.

In place of our normal outreach we decided to hold a carnival here in Cofradia. We had all kinds of games designed for children to come play and win candy and tuns of other prizes. The idea was to provide something fun for the Children and teens while being able to talk about Jesus and invite people to church tomorrow. The entire carnival was a hit!! We had music, puppets, face painting, balloon animals, water balloons, squirt guns, and tuns of FUN carnival games the biggest hit was bowling for gringo's. We are all in good health and very sad to leave but excited to see our loved ones again. We will be leaving very early in the morning to go to PV and get to our hotel by 1pm. Because of the unknown internet access or time to write this may be the last post for the trip. Don't forget to pray for safety as we travel. In case I can't log in later see you Monday night.

Friday: Last day of construction and outreach

Friday was our last day of construction and outreach here are some pictures from the outreach and also one picture of our mark in a portion of the foundation for the new children's classrooms at the new church. The outreach was a great success. This particular town had not had a visit since we where here two years ago. I had the privilege of praying with the same man as I had prayed with last time we were here. It was a great outreach and the rains held off until just after we left. Praise God. Everyone is healthy and well no new prayer requests.

Beach Day

A quick recap yesterday night we had an awesome group time. We are memorizing and studying Romans 12 as a group. So we spent about 2 hours last night identifying gifts that we have seen in everyone here on the trip. The night was full of emotion and encouragement for all. This group has done a phenomenal job coming together to serve one purpose. To glorify God with our lives.


Today was beach day. We got to take a break for the day and enjoy it at the beach. We traveled about 2 hours south and west to the beach where we played in the waves, drank coke, swam, and of course body surfed(I took a wave for you Pastor Jeff). After lunch we headed got to go on a jungle cruse to a natural spring. We loaded up on boats and zipped through a mangrove swamp. Along the way saw fish, turtles, various birds, and 2 alligators (crikey). Then we swam in the spring fed pool and jumped off of the rope swing there. All together a very fun and relaxing day.

Please pray for Krystin she got sick today but is feeling somewhat better now.

Extra photos from Cofradia outreach

Wednesday a full day in Cofradia

The team is doing great! We are working very hard both at construction and at our outreaches. We have been able to witness God working in so many areas while we are down here. Here are a few pictures of today's outreach in Cofradia and also some of the construction we have been doing at the new church here in Cofradia.

Here are some construction highlights for the day: We leveled and pored the cement pad on the far right of the picture that room will be a Sunday school classroom. We cleared the area in the back corner and dug out 1-2ft of dirt it that area which will become a playground. And we leveled and installed plumbing to the room you see on the bottom of this picture. That room will become the nursery. All together another productive day serving God in the sweltering heat of Cofradia.

Prayer updates: Christy is feeling 100% better so thanks for praying for her. (oh and by the way she got a job teaching for Issaquah school district!!! Huge Praise!!!!)

Keep praying for our outreaches that God would soften hearts to hear and recieve the gospel message.

Tuesday

First I apologize for not updating the blog last night. We had awesome thunder storms and the power went out so the Internet connection was not working. Allow me to recap the day. Awesome construction! The rains held off until evening which allowed us to pour foundations that otherwise would have filled in with erosion and would have caused a lot more work. HUGE PRAISE! We got so much done today these students are phenomenal workers! Even Dave (base director) said, he hasn't seen a group of people work so hard down here in a long long time

We also ate lunch in homes of local people. We split up into groups of 4 with an interpreter and took off for some REAL Mexican food and fellowship. Lunch was amazing and for many a highlight of the trip. There is something about being served a meal in someones home and getting to know them that is really special.

Last night we took off to the town of Santa Fe (not New Mexico). There we worked with children and did our outreach.

The children loved the crafts and cross necklaces that we made with them. It was also a great time of ministry after pastor Goyo shared we went out and prayed with people. Some received Christ and others needed more explanation and some just wanted us to pray for them. It was a great day!

About halfway through the outreach thunder started to appear in the distance and small drops of rain started to come down. Soon after the outreach ended we packed up and just barely beat the storm back to base where the students played in the rain and the girls all shaved their legs in the rain (tradition). What a great day serving God in Mexico.

Outreach in Rosa Morada

Tonight we went out on outreach in Rosa Morada a neighboring town. We traveled in the trucks down the road for about 40 min and set up in the middle of town. While we were there we had the opportunity to do our songs, puppets, give testimony's, preach, and pray for people. The team did a great job at the whole outreach. It was great to see students reaching out and praying for and with young and older people at our outreach. Here are a few pictures of the outreach the parachute was a hit with the kids.

A few prayer requests. Pray for Christy AKA "Mama Boas" she hasn't been feeling well since we got here but has been persevering through being sick and not feeling the 100%. Please also pray for our construction tomorrow we are hoping to finish the foundations before the rains come. We are already so far ahead of where they thought we would get. Also pray for students and leaders who are sharing their testimony's.

BB

Monday Construction

Today was our first day of construction! We are working on pouring foundation for the children's side of the new church here in Cofradia. We had five different groups working on different projects. One group was down at the river gathering large rocks and sand to use for mixing concrete. We use the big rocks to fill in and add strength to the foundation. Plus rocks are free and cement costs money.

The second group was working on cement mixing and pouring foundation.

Another group was working on drain pipe for a bathroom in the new nursery area.

The fourth group was building steel caging for the cement and posts. The steel caging adds lots of support and is vital to the stability of the structure.

The last group was running wires for electricity at the church.

The group is doing great. We had a few blisters and one cut today during construction but everyone is in good spirits and eager for tonight's outreach. Please continue to pray for health and energy for the group.

BB

Recap of Sunday!

After church today we went to Tepic a town about 1hr away and drove up to the highest point in the area so that we could see the countryside and also look at and pray for the people that we will be sharing Christ with over the next week.

We also went to a worship service designed specifically for us in the neighboring town of Arrianas (sp?). While we where there students got to worship not just through typical worship but were encouraged to draw pictures, mold clay, paint, pray, ask for forgiveness of sins, and lift up issues that they thought may be interfering with their spiritual walk and may take their focus off why we are here.

Derrik enjoying the breeze from the back of the truck on the way to Tepic.
Heather and Amber at the look out in Tepic.