An Amazing Experience!

Yeah! We made it back, safe & sound. Our entire family agrees that this has been the best trip we have ever taken! It was hot, we were sweaty from working, at times it didn't smell so good, we were exhausted & sore, but by far, it was such a blessing to be able to change a family's life for the better. I hope you can all get just a tiny feel of what we experienced over the last week through these pictures:

This was a the first morning before we started building. If you notice all the tiny shacks behind the building site, those go on for as far as the eye can see. They are made of pallets, cardboard, tires, basically whatever families can salvage.


The girls got busy painting. The building behind Chloe & Alicia is where the family was living.


We were quite the neighborhood attraction! I brought a giant tub of licorice & tootsie pops, so it didn't take long for a group of local kids to show up. They were actually a pretty big help. They loved painting!


They also loved Chloe! You can't really see her, but there was this little tree and we would go there to rest and cool off. I looked out the window and she was sitting in the tree and there was this line of boys saying "We love you Chloe" in their best english. Too funny!


While the girls were painting, the guys were framing and building trusses. Here is the first wall going up.


This was the youngest child in the family. Her name is Paolla (pretty sure I'm not spelling that right) There were three girls and they were all very quiet and polite. Paolla packed this little dog everywhere. (There were lots and lots of neighborhood dogs!)


On the second day of building, Margarita (the mother) fixed us this wonderful meal. I can't remember what was called but it was very delicious!


This is Daniel & Oscar. There were in charge of the whole project. They are both from the Baja area and live on the YWAM base. One thing I learned on the trip is that YWAM does not pay any of these workers. They all have to raise their own support through family & friends. So as you can imagine it can be a huge struggle for people from this area to raise the support, since it is such a poor area. Daniel is actually leaving in a couple of weeks and headed to South Africa to do some more training and missionary work. Oscar is only working with YWAM temporarily and plans to attend the local christian university and be a teacher.


This is Egla, she is from Tijuana. She is in charge of hospitality on the base. We were very fortunate that she was able to come along with us and help with the house. She was great with the kids and very sweet. She only started learning english a couple of months ago, but did very well communicating with us. We were very sad to leave her behind!


I just had to include this picture of little miss Faith. She wins the prize for getting the dirtiest and having the most paint in her hair, on her face, and on her clothes!


We finished after just two days of building. We all stood in a cirlce outside the house and passed the keys around the circle. As each person held the keys, we said something to the family. We also presented them with a bible and a framed picture of all of us in front of the house. Daniel had a printer in his van, so he was able to print the picture immediately and we surprised the family with it. There were lots of tears (of happiness of course).


We were able to raise enough funds to purchase a furniture package, so we assembled these bunk beds, and completed them with bedding. We also brought some toys and clothes from home to share with the family.


The furniture package also included a dining table & chairs, a small propane stove, and a big rubbermaid container with things like curtains, silverware, a clock, dishes, etc. We made up baskets for the girls before we left with things like nail polish, hair stuff, color books, crayons, and candy.


This was the Juan & Margarita as we were leaving. The building behind them to the left is their outhouse and the building to their right is the neighbors' house.


The week before we left, a very generous, anonymous person donated $500.00! So we took the family to Wal-Mart the morning after the house was completed and filled two shopping carts full of food! We were so thankful we were able to do that. I was surprised that things were actually more expensive there!


After we took the family home and said our goodbyes, we loaded up and went south of Ensenada to an orphanage. We spent a couple of hours with the kids playing soccer, frisby, catch and coloring. This was an extremely nice place that is funded 100% by American donations. A lady from Southern California lives just above the orpanage and helps run it. Prostitution is legal in Mexico and many of the women continue to get pregnant and can't take care of their children so they will abandon them. Many of us wanted to take the kids home with us, however, the government only allows the children to be adopted by Mexican families.



The last stop of the day was a really cool place called La Bufadora. It is an open air market and at the top of the hill you can look down on the ocean and there is a "blow-hole". Every few seconds, the water comes crashing up into a huge geyser. Chloe got some braids, we did just a tiny bit of shopping and had some fish tacos.



Okay, so it wasn't all work! Every evening we tried to get down to the beach to let the kids have fun.


Sorry that was so long. I took over 500 pictures so it was hard to narrow it down and try to sum it up in a few paragraphs. This is something we will definetely do again. I really encourage everyone to spend your next family vacation doing something like this. It will absolutely change you as well as the family you are helping.

Oh, and I have lots of sessions coming up in the next week so check back often ;o)