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parksidehighschool

When & Where

Warehouse Thurs., 7 p.m.

Parkside Sun., 9:45 a.m.

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June 25
9

Mexico: Day 5

Hello people who are reading this.

So since Kyle wrote about Tuesday, I’ll write about yesterday (Wednesday).  I didn’t really read what Kyle wrote completely, so some of this might sound kind of repetitive…but I’m just going to write about everything that happened yesterday.  So yesterday we woke up pretty early in the morning.  The boys slept in a cabin up at the top of this mountain in the village, and the girls slept in a smaller cabin a little bit higher in the mountain.  It was so dark at night in the cabin that when I held my hand in front of my face I couldn’t see it.  I didn’t have a watch or anything with me, so I would wake up several times in the night and think “Wow! It’s got to be at least 7:30 by now”  but it wasn’t.  Up in America we are so dependent on time so it was both a strange yet incredible feeling of having absolutely no idea what time it was.  When I woke up, I went outside to brush my teeth and I soon realized that we were in the middle of a big cloud.  It kind of seemed just like a really think fog, but it was moving extremely fast.  There would be times when the entire side of the mountain and the village below would just disappear, and then they would reappear later.  It was pretty neat.  So while Hiram and I were brushing our teeth we saw a donkey tied to the side of the mountain.  It was making donkey noises (whatever they’re called) and Hiram was able to make a sound that sounded exactly like the donkey.  It was really funny.

So after all the guys got dressed and stuff, the girls came down to the cabin and we had breakfast.  Before that though Pedro (who I’m pretty sure Kyle talked about) brought us up to a cabin to watch a chicken get slaughtered.  He did it really fast and took all the stuff out and all, and then he let Hiram do a second one.  Hiram was not really good at it, but it was funny.  Then we went down and ate breakfast.  A native family who lived in the cabin next to the girl’s cabin made all of our meals.  They were delicious. (the meals)

After breakfast, we went down to the village to continue working  on the church.  This time we painted the inside of the church though.  This was a little bit more difficult, because we were not suppoced to spill paint on the ground at all.  outside it didn’t really matter, but inside was different.  We also continued to help with the benches, and we also helped rebuild the pulpit.  Probably the most fun for me, was when Hiram and I helped tear down a doorway.  The entire building was built pretty much out of just dry mud so we used hammers to tear the doorway down.

We brought toys for the kids from the village to have, and throughout  the day we would give the toys out.  The kids would just come up to where we were working and just kind of stare at us.  Then we would smile and they would smile back and we’d give out the toys.  Those in the group who could speak spanish were able to hold little conversations with the children, but the children’s main language is Misteko (a native indian language that I spelled completly wrong)

We took a short break for lunch (which was the chickens from the morning) then we went back to work for a little while.  Later in the afternoon, there was an actual church service in the church.  Dan Southam preached.  A guy named Amos translated from English so the people could understand.  Before Dan’s sermon, we all went around and introduced ourselves and said a brief little thing to the people about who we were and how we were glad to be there and so on.  Amos translated that as well.  Then Pedro stood up and said some more things in the native language. It’s incredible to think that while we couldn’t understand anything they were saying, they were worshiping the same God we worship up in the states.  After the service, we gave out the rest of the toys.  The kids faces’s lit up when we gave out the toys.

Soon after the service ended it started to rain.  Most of the people went back to there homes, but a couple stayed to help us put up the rest of the door frame.  After we put the door up, we soon realized that it was not just raining, but that we were in the middle of a thunderstorm cloud.  We decided that we were done for the day and that we needed to get back up to the top.  Amos and I decided to race to the top, but the others wanted to stay in the church until the storm passed.  Amos and I got to the top in about 2 min, while the rest waited in the church for about 20.  It was nice getting to know Amos a little bit better, and we talked about life as a missionary.  When the others finally made it up the mountain, we had dinner.  It was late by this time so pretty much right after dinner we went to bed.

Today was another great day, but thats for another person to discuss…

Thanks for all your prayers!!!!

img_0127-chase

June 25
5

Mexico: Day 4

Hey everyone! We got back from Amoltepec around 2 hours ago. Everyone is doing great. Because we didn’t have any way to blog while we were there,  I’ll be writing about our travel from Oaxaca to Amoltepec by plane and our drive from Amoltepec to Mamey on Tuesday.

When we went to bed Monday night we were all wondering whether or not we would be able to fly. Upon waking up Tuesday morning rather early, we were greatly encouraged to see a blue sky and little clouds! We ate some breakfast, while Hiram led a devotional and then we were off to the airport. Mike organized the flights once we got there, while the rest of us hung out around the MAF building. I ended up flying on the 3rd and final flight with Hiram and Mike, while Juan Carlos manned the plane. (I forget who flew with who on the first 2 flights.) We took off without a hitch and headed to a village on the way to Amoltepec to pick up some paint for the church we painted. Once we loaded the paint, we were off to Amoltepec. The view from the plane was amazing. Although the mountains take your breath away on the ground, it’s taken away even more when you’re in the air. The entire flight went by really quick, except for out pit-stop. We landed in Amoltepec, unloaded our gear and headed up this steep path to where the rest of  the team was waiting. I know that our support letters said that we were going to be in Amoltepec, but we actually stayed in Mamey, which is a little village about a 30 minute truck ride away. Upon meeting up with the rest of the team, we waited a short time for the truck to get there, loaded up the gear and we were off to Mamey.

Just a little information on the truck and our drive to Mamey. The truck was basically a smaller size pick-up truck with high walls around the edges. Our gear was stuffed as far to the front as possible and then we all jumped into the remaining space. I really wish that I had a picture, so those of you who are reading might better understand. Essentially, the truck was over-loaded. I wasn’t sure that we could move, let alone drive through the mountains. But low and behold, the little truck started up and we were on our way. The path, or road, (if you can call it that), was quite thin. It was basically a small road, sometimes barely wide enough for our little truck to get through, cut into the side of the mountians. It was an awesome drive. Sometimes we would get so close to the edge or go so fast around a turn that I thought we would tip and tumble down the mountain. The view of the landscape around is was just as great, if not better, than our view in the plane. I know we all got a bunch of pictures. On our drive back today, Hiram said something like this, “The beauty of God’s creation is inconcievable.” I really think that sumarizes what we saw rather well.  I think we all enjoyed the ride, I know it was one of my favorite parts of the trip thus far.

When we got to Mamey, Pedro, our host who lives in the village and pastor of the church that we painted, greeted us in Spanish (he didn’t speak English) and led us to the 2 houses that we’d be staying in. The bigger of the 2, is actually the house of a German couple that works with Wycliffe Bible Translators, who were away for a few months. The guys stayed in this house, while the girls stayed in a smaller house just a short walk up the mountain. We also met in the bigger house and eat all our meals there.

Once we got settled, we headed down the mountain to the church that we planned on painting. The church itself was made of packed adobe mud bricks, that were held together with more adobe mud. It had 3 windows, 2 of which were closeable and a front door made of wood. It’s roof was made of thin sheet metal with large wooden support beams throughout. We got to work painting the outside walls of the church, as “eggshell blue”, as Jeff Mills would say. We also started renforcing the wooden pews within the church. Dan made quick work of it with a sprayer as others went around and touched up all the missed spots and edges. Because we painted the outside so quick, we scheduled to replace the front door tomorrow. This was great because we weren’t sure how much we would be able to do within our short time there, especially since we couldn’t fly on Monday. During our painting and construction session, I experienced my first case of elevation “sickness”. I say “sickness” because, I wasn’t really sick, my nose just starting pouring blood for no reason. So to stop the bleeding Chase ripped the bottom of my shirt to plug my nose. I also laid down on one of the pews to slow the bleeding. We worked until it got dark and then headed up the mountain back to our houses to sleep for the night.

That’s basically all we did that day, I’m sorry that this post is so brief, it’s hard for me to remember what we all did 2 and a half days ago. Here’s a short summary: Wake. Flight to Amoltepec. Drive to Mamey. Work on church. Sleep.

I hope those of you who read this got something out of my short summary. We are all well and very, very happy to get to take a shower with soap when we got back today. Now, we’re off to do some site-seeing and shopping! Later!

img_0126-Kyle

June 25
1

Mexico 2009: Thursday, June 25

Pray for our flight back from Amoltepec and for our night together with the Ross family in Oaxaca. (Rom. 1:11-12).

Pray for Olivia Lin & Dan Southam.

June 23
2

Mexico 2009: Tuesday, June 23

Pray for evangelistic opportunities for the team and the local pastors as we work. Pray that people would ask questions of why we are there.
(Matt. 5:14-16)

Pray for team member Kyle Johannes.

June 22
0

Mexico 2009: Monday, June 22

Pray for our flight into Amoltepec, and for the beginning of our work in the villages. Pray that the believers there might be encouraged.
(2 Cor. 9:12 - 15)

Pray for team member Hiram Foster.

June 21
0

Mexico 2009: Sunday, June 21

Pray for a sense of God’s majesty, glory, and worldwide Kingship, as we worship together with Mexican believers at a local church. (Rev. 7:9-10)

Pray for team member Jon Cameron.

June 20
0

Mexico 2009: Saturday, June 20

Pray that the Lord would prepare our hearts for the work He has planned for us. Pray that we would trust Him, whether travel plans go smoothly or not.
(Psalm 121:7-8)

Pray for Team Member Abby Butts.

June 17
0
June 16
0

OAX: Mexico 2009

As many of you know, in a few short days, a team of 6 of our high schoolers and 3 leaders will be heading to Oaxaca, Mexico on a mission trip.  We’ll be working with a few different local churches in the area, helping to both refurbish some church buildings and serve at a Vacation Bible School.  Our hope in going is that we can encourage some of the believers there, and also have our eyes opened to see something of God’s majesty, as we interact with other people from a different country and a different culture who still worship the same Jesus.

Because we believe that God himself hears and listens to the cries of his children, we’d really appreciate you joining us on this trip by praying for us.  Towards this end, we made up a prayer calendar that follows the schedule of our trip, with a different request for each day.  Please download it and pray for us!   And then check back to this site next week, as each day, someone from our team will be blogging about what went down, and what we’re looking forward to!  oaxweb

June 16
0

SI on the Road

Join us this Thursday (6/18) at Solon Park for a cookout!  Bring $5 for food and a friend!student-impact-cookout