A Hopefully Informative and Possibly Unneccessarily Detailed Itinerary of the First Ten Days in Tepic

So many of you have asked for this, so here it is with lots of details, but definitely not all of the details or you would spend hours reading this. As it is, this is very long, so sorry for my long-windedness, but you know me, i talk a lot. good luck reading it all.

Day One, August 1: tuesday, travel. julie and i left #q302 at 3:30am for my 6am flight to san francisco. i then flew to puerta vallarta and on that flight coincidentally met a few people who were on a team from salem that were also traveling to la fuente. customs was pretty quick and i didnt think it was that big of a deal, but on the way back its supposed to be a little more time consuming and it will probably be more intense especially with the recent terrorist issues again. josh (an intern from chicago who will do the discipleship school called vanguard this fall at la fuente and has been here for a couple months) and saul (an intern, i think, and mexican, he has traveled to england for YWAM and been to the US, he and i are going to talk mexican politics at some point and we talked about immigration issues also) picked me and the puyallup team up. we waited for an hour for the team and then hopped in the church van with masses of luggage and cruised almost three hours to tepic. i think all we did that night was eat dinner at the church (where almost all meals were while i worked with the team) and rest

Day Two, August 2: we had a debriefing after breakfast on culture, what we would be doing while the team was around and on vacation bible school (VBS). tony took us to walmart to get some stuff for vbs and ourselves and we exchanged money. i dont remember what we did after that, but i went to the wednesday night service without the team and was immediately excited. most of the songs they had for worship, i knew. they do a lot of hillsongs, passion, chris tomlin, dave crowder, delirious, and some songs they write. if i know the song already, then i have the melody and the meaning down and so i can just learn new words in spanish based upon what i know. it's pretty awesome to worship with a bunch of mexican people in spanish and just blend in with the crowd.

Day Three, August 3: thursday, after breakfast pastor paulo (a total trickster and he is the youth pastor so it makes sense) took us to a near by park and half of us from the puyallup team shined shoes with these cute little kits of soap and polish and the other half went and washed windshields at stoplights. this was such a great experience for me. i wrote about it in an earlier blog if you want the details. after lunch, siesta, and some showers, we came to the church for the first night of vacation bible school. the theme was treasure island (worked well sense pirates of the caribbean was just in theaters) and so us and all the leaders dressed as pirates and they decorated the stage with a big pirate ship and all sorts of beach/ocean things. the puyallup team brought awesome costumes and i had no idea that vbs was treasure island themed so they loaned me an eye patch and bandana. when the kids walked into the church we said, "bienvenidos, pirata!" (welcome, pirate!) through vbs i learned a lot of random words like octopus and pirate, so that's where they came from. during vbs there was music and worship with lots of clapping and hand motion for the kids. they did a drama and some games and gave the kids a snack. the whole point of vbs was that the kids were searching for the ultimate treasure of jesus which was pretty cool.

Day Four, August 4: friday, we started the morning out with vbs at the church and similar activities to the night before. then we took the kids in shifts by age group (2-5, 6-9, 10-12, i think) to a park within walking distance and did all sorts of relays and games. the best, which we played at many different outreaches, was "pato, pato, gonzo." (duck, duck, goose) the kids were great and that the was the first day that the sun was really hot and that we were in it. later that night tony took us out to puga (one of the church plants about 40 minutes from puga, a few thousand people live there and it seems pretty poor) where we played with the kids until service started at 7pm. we had worship and tony spoke. it was super cool cause i understood a lot of the words he said even though i still rarely understand the meaning.

Day Five, August 5: saturday, we drove a few hours northwest, i believe, up to a beautiful park called la noria. we took a short hike and enjoyed the view of the ocean from where we were and then all of the vbs kids arrived in vans. the puyallup team did dramas and then we played games and did crafts. the kids ate and then began to hike up the hills to find the "treasure chest" (really, candy), but it starting pouring. so all the kids ran back and the puyallup team and i frantically pumped up balloons and twisted them into crazy looking animals for the kids. we left and drove back to shower and just take it easy. i decided to go to youth group that night, which was really good. it reminded me how much i want to work with youth whether in a youth group at my church or for young life of something. we basically did worship for two hours cause that's what the pastor decided to go with. some of the kids from the salem team (which was about 45 people and almost entirely teenagers cause it was a mission trip for their youth group) gave testimonies and there are some intense things going on in that youth group. i prayed for a girl named whitney who is going to be a freshman in highschool and it was rad. rachel and i made frappuchinos after youth service for the kids to raise money for the la fuente youth group's mission trip to argentina in november.

Day Six, August 6: sunday, i thought we would have gone to a sunday morning service at la fuente, but instead tony took us to the huichol indian village in puga. that was amazing. those people are so poor and they live in little huts and hardly have anything but it's kinda their way of life. it was raining a lot and so the red clay turned to staining orange mud, but it was totally worth it. we set up shop in some little shack and passed out mostly kids clothes, candy, and stuffed animals. the kids were adorable and i took a lot of great pictures. some of the people were receiving their only pair of shoes when we gave them the donations. it was amazing to see such a way of life right in front of my eyes. after siesta and lunch, we attended the sunday night service, which is one of the biggest services. it was great cause pastor bruce (the leader of the salem team who used to work with la fuente) preached while pastor keith (one of the pastors down here) translated. tony took us to a taqueria for some carne asada, one of our meals outside of the church and we enjoyed lots of yummy food.

Day Seven, August 7: monday, we drove to the juvenile detention center in tepic and played soccer for an hour and a half with the youth (probably about ages 10-17, all boys cause they have no girls right now). scott, who was on the puyallup team, spoke while javier (the guy who took us there) translated to the kids and we prayed for them and gave them chips and pop. i was inimidated going into the facility, but all of the kids were harmless there. they have committed a range of crimes from stealing to assault to murder. one kid was 15 and just brought in that day, he was mexican american and had shot someone and would be spending the next 5 years in the facility. that was my favorite day because we were just practically loving the kids and entertaining them. i feel like building relationships by being buddies with kids, and really anyone, is so effective. i get excited thinking about playing soccer cause i really do want to counsel athletes also and so playing sports with spanish-speaking people rocked my world. while the puyallup team shopped downtown, i relaxed, read, slept, and showered. that night i babysat andrea, tony and azucena's daughter, while the puyallup team went out to dinner. she is adorable and 22 months, so a lot of fun. i really like her and am hoping to hang out with her a little more.

Day Eight, August 8: tuesday, the puyallup team and i went to la valle de nayarit, another church plant about 20 minuets away, and made mickey mouse pancakes for the kids. they were awesome kids. we joked around with them, played more games with the kids like musical chairs and pato, pato, gonzo. we went to puga again that night. our job was to keep the kids entertained while the women shared recipes and had a bible study. we did chalk art, face painted, hit around beach balls, the puyallup team did dramas, we gave out stuffed animals and candy, and i held a baby named emmanuel. his mom, carmen, was saved from the brothels in puga just this last year and has several beautiful children and they come to the church in puga now. after dinner that night we threw a little surprise birthday party for lyndi (the puyallup team leader). we had mexican style birthday cake, which is a delicious cake with cream poured all over it so it is incredibly moist and deliciously fattening, i am sure. we smacked a pinata for a bit also.

Day Nine, August 9: wednesday, this was the no ministry and just play day for the team and so i was lucky enough to join them. we took a jungle tour several hours from tepic. we hopped a boat and it took us through the jungle (la jungla) which seemed more marsh-like to me. it had lots of crocodiles and turtles, birds etc. the coolest part was that me and lyndi got pooped on by some massive creature on the boat ride back, seriously massive. we drove to the beach at san blas and played among the waves (las olas) for a few hours. a man from the church donated a yummy sea food dinner that night and then the team and i played an intense game of uno for a few hours.

Day Ten, August 10: thursday, i said goodbye to the team and prayed for them trying to not cry. i am just hanging out today, emailing, updating the blog, meeting with tony to go over my schedule for the next few weeks, and going to walmart with him and his wife to get food. yay, cause i am hungry. and tired. these groups just go, go, go all day and then i helped out with breakfast several mornings and had to wake up between 5 and 6am to get it ready on time. i am glad to sleep a little more and have a semi-consistent schedule the next few weeks, but i will miss the team. ok, i am so done with this and you probably are too, so hasta luego (see you later).