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Buenos Dias!
Day 2 of Mexico Outreach 2005
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
by senor Bushey

A beautiful, star-filled sky and very vocal birds in the palm trees
greeted the three intrepid locos - senor Lanning, senor Frontera (Amanda's
dad), and senor Bushey, as we met in the quad area waiting for our
possible fourth partner, senorita Gainey (Amanda B.'s sidekick for the
outreach) at 5:30am. By 5:38am, we realized either the alarm didn't work
or something else happened, so we departed through the new,
stately-looking wooden door exiting the YWAM compound.

The three crazy Californians ran up the dirt road, hit the main road at
the OXXO market, turned left and ran past the ever fragrant fish factory
across the creek and hung a left at the main road that winds along the
Port of Ensenada. We ran past the cement factory, the Navy base, several
car dealers, restaurants, hotels, and small shops, and then turned left
just over the bridge crossing the estruary from the bay. We followed the
stone-paved walkway along the water and ran all the way to the gigantic
Mexican flag denoting downtown Ensenada, not stopping until we touch the
flag pole. After we could breath normal again, we read the wording on the
telescoping pole supporting the flag -- it's 50 meters long x 28.6 meters
high -- about 150 feet x 84 feet tall!! The breeze was blowing and it was
waving beautifully in the clear blue sky.

After we tried to do 20 of senor Frontera's upside down pushups, we headed
back the same way. When we got to the military base, I approached the two
M-16 laden, black uniformed guards and asked in Spanish if we could take a
picture with them to show our families back in California. I think the
guard would have done it as he hesitated in answering, then looked over
his shoulder towards the commander's office and then looked back and said,
"Lo siento, pero, no" (sorry, but no). I thanked him and we continued our
run. The other guys were laughing and saying they could just see the
headlines, "California Man Killed By Mexican Guards as He Approached To
Take Picture." The rest of the run, though tiring, was uneventful but
totally worth the effort -- beautiful day, friends to run with, and
scenery and smells to remember a lifetime!

Breakfast came a bit earlier than the scheduled 7:45am, and was a
scrumptious eggs, biscuits, gravy, sausage, fresh fruit, cereal, yogurt,
milk, and juice. We found out that our possible fourth runner had a bad
stomach ache, and promised to run with us in the morning. We teased her
and said we'll see.

Around 8:30am, everyone found a quiet spot to do their devotions --
reading through the YWAM "Bought" Journal, their Bibles, and praying. It
was a sweet time with the Lord, something most of us just don't do on a
regular basis (and WE SHOULD!). My encouragement to everyone reading this
... take 15-30 minutes of each day, at the start of each day, and spend it
with the Lord in His Word, in prayer, and in silence, listening for His
soft, still voice.

Worship at 9:00am in the new outdoor worship area was great! A short
devotion from one of the YWAMers and a send off prayer rounded out a
perfect way to start our day.

The sixth grade group got started a bit late. We wanted to be out of here
by 9:30am, but didn't leave until about 9:45am (we won't mention any names
of those people who didn't have all their things ready ... you know who
you are! hee, hee). We arrived at the Christian School and split the team
into two groups -- one did the entire program for the younger students
(grades 1-6), while the other group played soccer with the older students
(grades 7-8).

It was amazing on the soccer field as Neighborhood won all three games!!!
This is the first year that we won against the Mexican students in the six
years we've been doing this. Way to go Neighborhood!!!

The program was also very special and our students have the Campion
(Champion) drama down perfectly, even though the entire thing is in
Spanish!! They have the timing down even though they don't understand all
the Spanish words. It is totally a blessing to me to see all the hard work
Mrs. Trueblood, Mr. Suderow, and the students have put in really paying
off for the Lord in a big way. All were blessed ... their students and
staff and our students, staff, and parents.

We provided the very upperclass, academy-style, Christian school with two
soccer balls. The director of the school was very grateful and encouraged
us to visit them again next March. We had a great time!!

We drove from the school's location in the northern part of Ensenada south
to Maneadero and Pastor Nino's church to eat lunch. After a tour of the
church, the group came into two of the classrooms and ate either turkey
and cheese sandwiches on torta bread (or regular sliced bread if they
wanted) or PB&J on the torta or sliced bread --- I encouraged everyone to
eat the torta bread --- it is so yummy!! We had a great time of
fellowship, breaking bread, and just getting to know each other better (or
for the first time!).

After lunch, we visited the migrant camp, called Benito Juarez, located
just below Pastor Nino's church. We played with, sang to, shared Jesus
with, gave candy to, created animal and figure balloons for, presented
soccer balls to, gave hugs to, smiled with, and simply had a great deal of
fun and ministry with about 60 children and many adults (mostly ladies as
the men were working in the fields). It was a great time.

Around 2:30pm or so, we left Benito Juarez and headed south on the highway
just a bit and then turned left and headed up the very steep hill (some of
the moms were a bit scared!) and made it to the top of a beautiful, rocky,
flowered covered, cactus laden, hill overlooking Maneadero with a great
view of the bay leading out to the point, around which you find La
Bufadora. Once the comments about how scary the hill climb was subsided,
everyone noticed the immense turkeys walking freely next to the small
homes located adjacent to the property for which we made our intrepid
climb.

Pastor Nino's vision of developing a Christian school for the poor people
of the Maneadero area is coming to fruition. The property at the top of
this hill is now owned by the association formed by Pastor Nino and many
other wonderful Christian pastors and leaders. He has named this project,
"Fuente de Vida" -- "Fountain of Life" and it truly will be a ministry
which will flow with the love of Jesus in abundance! Our group was able to
walk the entire perimeter of the 50 meter x 100 meter square property,
praying for the entire project, for funding to come in abundance, for
workers to be there to do all that is needed, and for all aspects of this
school project. For more information on this project, email senor Bushey.

With time running short, we made our way back to the base. Everyone had
enough time to get cleaned up to get ready for another tasty dinner.

The Junior High group also got a late start but were blessed in arriving
to the house site with the materials already at the site, and stacked nice
and neat, ready for the fun to begin. With some very experienced parents
and great leadership from YWAM Staff House-building Brian, the team
measured and sawed and painted and hammered and raised not only walls, but
an awesome spiritual and physical blessing for the beautiful Sandoval
family. Though the team started late, the worked fantastically together
and were already ahead of the game, right on schedule.

Both teams came back to the base and enjoyed a great spaghetti dinner,
with biscuits, spaghetti sauce, salad, and drinks.

At 6:45pm, we had a team meeting, enjoying the great comments from
students, staff, and parents about a wonderful day of ministry. We went
over some reminders about drinking enough water, keeping on the sunscreen
and chapstick, and continuing to do a great work for the Lord.

7:30pm saw the entire base in the worship area for another evening of
pumped-up, spirit-led songs and ministry from the YWAMers. Focusing on the
mind-boggling gift that Jesus gave us, His life and dying on the cross for
our sins, the message touched all hearts with the hope of eternal life
that only the blood of Jesus Christ could purchase. We were given small
pieces of paper on which to write one or more sins or areas of our lives
that we'd like to lay at the foot of the cross and have Jesus forgive and
cleanse us. These papers were gathered into a white bag and the string was
drawn and the bag was laid on the stage. As we were contemplating all we
had heard and the process of just giving our burdens to Jesus, the silence
was broken by Caiaphas, the high priest verbally attacking Jesus being
held between two Roman soldiers.

The play was frozen as Jesus bent down, out of the grip of the Roman
soldiers, picked up the bag of our sins and placed it around His neck as
He looked caringly and lovingly and sadly at each one of us. Back in the
arms of the soldiers, Caiaphas rant and raved and the stunned audience was
ordered out to come to the trial. We all filed quietly out to the area
between the worship stage and the main base complex and in the dark,
illuminated only by the lit torches, we heard the whipping of our Lord
Jesus.

Our eyes, adjusted to the dark, found Jesus wearily carrying the heavy,
wooden cross coming past our crowd. He stumbled once, and then again, and
then fell onto the rocky road, dropping the cross. The Romans ordered a
bystander to pick up the cross, and the processing continued to the area
lit by two torches. The Romans stripped the torn clothes off Jesus's back
and laid him on the ground on top of the cross. We could hear the hammer
pounding the nails into his hands and feet, the wailing of the ladies who
had followed the processing, weeping and mourning for the pain our Lord
had to suffer.

The soldiers raised the cross with the Christ held in place and shortly He
stated, "It is finished!" and He died. The high priest checked that he was
dead and then ordered the body to be removed. As the procession of
soldiers and wailing women departed the scene, our eyes fell back on the
cross. The broken body of our Lord was gone, and the reason for this cruel
act became apparent. Our bag of sins was left hanging on the cross, our
visual reminder of why Jesus willingly died for you and for me -- to give
us the only way to eternal life with God.

Words cannot describe the intensity with which this Passion Play hit our
hearts and minds. Lord, may You use this play to change the lives of each
and every student, parent, staff member, and YWAMer there! Amen? Amen!

What more could we ad to an already excellent day? We hit our beds with
solemn, yet hopeful hearts, for we know the eternal gift we all have
available to us.



Mexico Outreach 2005
Day 3, Wed Mar 16
by senor Bushey

Running 5:30-6:30am
Cruise Ship came in to Port of Ensenada right around 6:30-7:00am
Breakfast
Devotion
Worship
To Ministry Work at 9:45am

Jr. High -- cranked all day long -- didn't get back till after 6:00pm
(dinner had already started) -- but they got the house almost completely
built! There is only about two hours more to do. They'll go shopping in
the morning to purchase a stove and many other things for the family's
house. We'll be doing the dedication on Friday morning.

6th Grade -- Las Flores camp where Pastor Nino has another church and has
been doing Bible studies for years. We played around with the kids and
talked with the adults for about an hour to wait for the younger kids to
get out of school (there was a public school right there). Then we did the
entire program and handed out Bible books, candies, balloons, and soccer
balls.

We ate lunch in the downtown park in Maneadero and played a pick-up game
of futbol (soccer) with some students who just got out of school (they go
from 8:30am - 1:00pm). Students and adults played with the teenagers from
Maneadero on the grass area between the trees. After lunch, we went to a
real poor camp called Colonial Durango. There were not many kids around,
but this was very special as one lady told our translator Ximena
(hee-MAY-na) that her husband's appendix had burst about a month ago. He
already had two surgeries and the family has been struggling to have
enough money. They have been taken care of by relatives (two different
families), but this has been tough on those families, as the men work in
the fields and make only about $8 US per day.

Mr. Frontera heard the story and quietly told the adults in our group and
just asked them to pray about what God might do in their hearts to help
this lady and her family. God touched hearts and $125 was gathered (on the
spur of the moment -- what people had in their pockets). He was able to go
to the lady and with Ximena translating, was able to tell her about this
gift from Jesus. She was crying and thanking the Lord. THIS IS WHAT THIS
TRIP IS ALL ABOUT!! AMEN?? AMEN!!

After this camp, we traveled back into the downtown area for a little fun
time near the gigantic flag, doing some souvenir shopping, eating some
great helado (ice cream), and walking through the fish market
(peee---eeew!) -- but saw some cool squid (check out the picture of me
eating the squid!!! -- to come on the web site later). We'd spent about
1.5 hours there and had to head back to the base for dinner. We drove back
and got to the base just after 5:30pm --- right on schedule (it's my fun
challenge every time I do this to see if I can get a huge group to a
different place when I planned --- thank YOU Lord!).

We ate a fantastic dinner of barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, barbecue
sauce to pour on the potatoes, fresh fruit, salad, and rice milk and
juice. Yummmyyyy!!

Free time until 7:30pm included shopping at the base store, playing in the
game room, taking showers (especially for those ladies with the tricky
schedule of dealing with only three rooms, only three restrooms, only
three showers), and just hanging out with each other.

This evening's service is probably my favorite as it really impacts my
heart each and every year. Tonight is the night that YWAM puts on the
Commitment Service. A wonderful message from our very dear friend Jared
about committing what you have, your life, your heart, your resources,
your time, your energy and more to Jesus and His plan for your life
perfectly prepared our hearts for the remainder of the service. Cards were
handed out that explained about His love for us, His sacrifice for us, and
that He has a plan for each and every one of us. The card prompted each
reader to make a commitment to serve Jesus Christ in some way -- by
praying, by getting involved, by getting more educated about mission, by
attending another short-term missions trip, and much more. Each person was
on a one-to-one connection with our Lord and the soft Christian music, the
dim lights, and the awesome-looking cross, highlighted on the stage to
give us one focal point, brought us all into the throne room of God. Wow!

At our own timing, we were invited to come up to the stage and pick up a
gift of a necklace to help us remember our commitment as we go back home
to our "regular" lives, to our hustle and bustle of everyday living. Lord,
my prayer is that we are all changed in a way that we'll consider Your
plans more important than our plans, that we'll practically work in ways
and do things in a manner that would be in line with Your will. Lord, do a
wonderful work in each live here at YWAM Ensenada -- right now, right
here, and may it be life-changing for all of us!!

Well, it's almost 11:00pm. I gotta get up and run again early, so I'll
sign off and will check in again in the near future. We'll be so busy the
rest of the short week, that I may not be able to send another journal
entry before we get back. Please check the web site in the future for all
the daily info, pictures, and more about Neighborhood's Mexico Outreach
2005!! Dios te bendiga!!

senor Bushey

Mexico Outreach 2005
Day 4 Thu., Mar. 17
by señor Bushéy

2:03 a.m. brought some very unique sounds of air going in and out of certain nostrils and windpipes with a very curious grating sound, one of which emanated from the far bunk against the windows overlooking the volleyball court, beach, and beautiful rolling waves. There was a general whooshing of air sound and then a high pitched, almost grinding, almost squealing noise, which peaked at some high decibal level, then dropped to silence for a moment, and then repeated this wonderful rhythm. I was just about ready to get up and make an adjustment to the body of the perpetrator, when Tim Liedstrand, one of the dads on the trip and one sleeping closer to this noise creator, got up and shook a leg. This interrupted the process for a few moments, and then it started again. Tim gave up and went back to sleep. I got up and grabbed the video camera and used the microphone to hopefully capture the music for archival (and blackmail) purposes. Though I was leaning over the music box with the video camera right next to the offending orafice, the young, oblivious creature never even budged. I haven't listened to the tape yet, but I hope it recorded the sound so I can put it on the DVD!

By 4:30am, I was already wide awake and ready to start the day. I got up without disturbing anyone else, got my running clothes on went through my devotions for the day. A bit after 5:00am, I woke up my partner in crime, Tom Lanning, and around 5:30am we meandered down the steps two floors to the quad area, where we found a wide-awake and ready-to-go Ralph Frontera. He had been whining about his legs hurting from the previous two days' worth of running, but after seeing him do those upside down pushups, I realized he was like Buddy's brother in the old Dick Van Dyke TV Show, a regular shark just playin' us wimpy old men.

The first run, on Tuesday morning, found us going what I call the "normal" route to the big flag and back - on the main streets. Wednesday's morning run found us staying on the sand on the beach just above the water line going south for 19 minutes and turning around (it's MUCH tougher running in the sand, so the 38 minutes translated into a few more minutes if we had run on the roads -- I'd say a bit over four fairly tough miles). The weather for each of those days was just like this morning, clear and beautiful -- starting out with bright stars and ending with a beautiful sunrise coming up over the hills east of the base.

The course for today's run was decided on Tuesday morning as we found a new edition to the landscape -- the government had put in a bridge over the water inlet towards the north side of the beach fronting the base, so we could, for the first time, run all the way on the beach until we hit the main road just south of the cement factory (right next to the Navy military base). As we ran along in the twilight before sunrise, we spotted a dead seal on the shore with the tide lapping up against the scarred body. At quick glance, it didn't appeared to have died from any kind of animal attack, it look intact. I tried taking a picture of it (I carry the snapshot digital camera with us on our runs for things just like this), but it was still too dark to get a good natural-light picture (the flash would have been okay, but you wouldn't have been able to see the beach or scenery behind the seal), so I waited until our return trip to snap a shot.

Winding up the little hill next to the bridge at the end of the beach brought us to a short barbed wire fence and some small houses and animal stables. We gingerly hopped over the barbed wire ("Careful now!") and jogged through the small clump of houses, smelling the goats and horses as we passed their humble stables. It would have made some great photos but the battery on the camera was already low and I wanted to get the shot of the dead seal (boys will be boys!). We crossed the brand new cement bridge (stop light poles had just been installed the day before) and hit the main drag straight on to the flag pole. Once again we had to touch the flag pole, but this time, instead of our standard 25 push ups (regular, military style - "men" pushups), good 'ol Ralph (who invited him?) had to have us try push ups with our feet up on the benches elevating us sort of upside down. Of course I had to act as though they weren't any tougher, but when I got home to Dixon it took me a day or two to figure out that my chest was very sore from those ding-dong pushups of Ralphs!! To add insult to injury, he had Tom hold his feet as he did pushups upside down against the big flag pole. The dude is a stud!! Oh well, Tom and I just watched and then, "Oh, look at the time, we better get running -- no time for more pushups, too bad!"

On the way back, we stopped to take some pix of the dead seal (the sun was up by now and the scenery around the seal could be seen clearly). Getting closer to our departure point to head up from the beach to the base, we spotted a dead stingray. Tom snapped a couple of pix of me trying to eat the cute bugger. We had a great run! I let Tom get in to take a shower first, and being held up by a few management type things to handle and talking with a few more people, I didn't get in until around 7:00am to the shower and had some fun!

I turned on just the hot water to ensure at least a warm cleaning, and the water barely trickled out. I thougth, oh well, it'll get a bit better as someone else will turn off one or more of the other showers and the pressure will come back. I got wet enough to put on shampoo and then the water completely stopped coming out, yet both valves were wide open! I'm trying to think, at this point, how I was going to remedy this situation. I guess I could yell and hope someone was still in the room and I could get my small water bottle full of cold water and just squirt off the bubbles of shampoo now dripping down my face and all over. Just then, a few more drops started to come out and I slowly let those drips clean off the soap until it got a bit stronger, and eventually I was able to get a complete shower. Ah, the cultural thrills of a foreign country!

Breakfast again was scrumpdillyicious. Stan, Kim, Tom, and I reminded everyone to do their devotions quickly and be ready before worship this time as we had to be in the vans and ready to roll by 9:25am, immediately after worship was over. Pastor Nino was taking us to a new public school called, "Colegio Tecalli" -- a cement structure, three stories high, with a small basketball court/play area with a very small public futbol (soccer) field directly across the street, located near the Christian school in Ensenada proper which we had visited earlier this week. Alex and band did another bang-up job at worship, bringing us to the throne room of God, preparing our spirits for the days' battles!

It was so cool, at 9;28am we were all in the vans and radioed Pastor Nino, "Estamos listas!!" (we're ready) -- and we were off. Some 15-20 minutes later we pulled up to the public school, set up the gear, met the Director of the school (who "just happened" to be a Christian man who attended Pastor Nino's church!), and waited until the tons of school children piled out of the rooms and into the bleachers surrounding the playground area on three sides. Our students did another great job sharing the love of Jesus through the songs and skits, and then we had a great time of playing basketball, drinking some punch, and then playing futbol on the tiny field across the street. I met a very effective entrepreneur named Carlos, only 10 years old but already in 5th Grade, who was hawking homemade bead necklaces and bracelets -- right at school!! He even had two other younger students working for him! I had to admire his salesmanship, displaying the necklaces on his arm and speaking perfect English (his mom and dad had lived in the states before), so I handed over two dollar bills for two of the beautiful creations (this provided me with a quick way to ensure at least one gift for each of my daughters back home). After wrapping up the basketball and soccer fun, we provided two soccer balls to Juan, the director, and said our goodbyes (oops, "Adios!").

We jumped in the vans, peformed our now routine ritual of cleaning our hands with the Purell jel, evaporating, antiseptic hand cleaner, and followed Pastor Nino in a totally convoluted, roundabout way, seeing many vistas of Ensenada never before encountered, to finally arrive at the Pastor's house for a totally, mouth-watering meal prepared by his wife Ada. This was a total surprise to the Junior High Team (we made sure not to tell the students or parents) as the original plan was only to have the 6th Grade Team there, but Ada insisted on cooking for the entire group of 61 from Neighborhood plus another dozen or so YWAMers, We arrived about 15 minutes before the Junior High group and, after getting a tour of the property, we blessed the meal and then proceeded to enlarge our wastelines by at least an inch or two with tortillas, chicken, tacquitos, beans, rice, soup, and much more! The bright, sunny, warm day found many of use sitting agains the side of the house, hiding in the shade. Others sat on the chairs and used the tables, or they sat on the ground next to the trailer and broken-down Jeep.

Most of us took the time to walk behind the house and see the smashed-in roof, windshield, and side panels of the Cherokee that Giese had rolled a couple of days before. Praise God, Giese was only hurt a bit in his neck and his friends were completely free from injury, but the Cherokee needed about $800-$1000 worth of repairs. Hmmm, Stan and I prayed about it (and unknown to us, Ralph and others had prayed with Pastor Nino and Ada about a solution to the situation), and the $20 a head we had saved at the border (less a bit spent already on other things for the family and the base) provided, oh, just about $1000!!! So, I had Rich Rutledge yell to gather everyone around (my voice was gone for most of the week from too much yelling the first two days), and with Rich as my megaphone, we told everyone about the gift God had provided to fix the Cherokee -- $1000! We prayed for the Nino's and after many tears of joy and amazement at God's precious love for all of us, we loaded up and headed out (the Junior High Team back to their house area to prayer walk the neighborhood and the 6th Grade Team to a very poor camp just south of El Reino de Los Ninos (Kid's Kingdom) Casa/Hogar called Rancho Olmos.

At Rancho Olmos, where one of our translator's -- Ximena's mom lives -- just at the top of the hill in one of the nicer small homes, we walked around the entire small village inviting all the children and adults to come to the dramas, songs, and gift giveaway time. Though there weren't many people there, this migrant camp became one of the most precious in our memories as one family had been hard hit by the husband's burst appendix and the resulting two surgeries and one month hospital stay. The lady told us that the family was having a very tough time making it as the husband only made about $8 a day usually, but hadn't been able to work for the past month. The neighbors and relatives were helping out, but feeding their own families and then this lady's also was taxing them as well. After hearing the story, Ralph went around and asked our group to pray for this family and consider helping them out financially. Totally unprepared and without notice, we were able to pool $125 to give to this family!! What a tremendous blessing -- she was crying with joy and we know we got more blessing out of it than she and her family did. We grabbed all the food we had left in the van and gave it to the family and neighbors to share. Wow! What a blessed time. Some of the special children there also tugged on our heart strings with many hugs, smiles, and those beautiful dirt-covered faces. Lord, please bless them!

Tonight's special thing to do is usually Prayer Mountain, a hill overlooking the entire city of Ensenada where we have gone in the past to pray for the major areas of this (and any culture) -- political/government, education, media, churches/spiritual, business, families, and more. This is also the night we have "Taco Night" -- where YWAM pays for the meal and we go to a local Mexican cafe for authentic food. Bryan, the YWAM staff leader for our building team suggested that we might all go together, so I said, "Sure! We'll have a great time!" So, seven vans loaded up with our entire team and a group of YWAMers headed to "El Zarpazo" near the Horizonte (Calvary Chapel of Ensenada) ministry on Riverol between 8th and 9th Streets.

Earlier in the day, I had stopped by to tell Jorge that we'd be coming by around 6:00pm. We lined up and Ximena took orders and translated to Jorge while Pat Suderow (Stan Suderow's wife) helped me hand out sodas and pop off the lids for our team. About two hours later, we were all fat and happy, Ximena and Tammy had counted out the meals and sodas and settled our account with Jorge, and I told him we'd see him next year! By the time we got back to the base, it was too late to do a short time of worship and then head up to Prayer Mountain (I should have had the Jr. High group go to a different location like we did last year -- my mistake!). After a short time of worship, a short message, and instructions to get warm jackets and our flashlights, we all headed down to the beach for a time of prayer.

We split up into groups to pray for the different aspects of the culture and after a sweet time of prayer, we sang some songs to the Lord, and then shouted, "JESUS IS LORD OVER ENSENADA!" -- claiming this city for His glory!! Though it wasn't the same as Prayer Mountain, it was warmer and closer, and I think our tired parents appreciated the shortened evening. We hit the sack and there was LOTS of snoring from the tuckered-out team members.

Mexico Outreach 2005
Day 5 Fri., Mar. 18
by señor Bushéy

Ever since I first brought a Neighborhood group to the YWAM base in Ensenada and later met one of my favorite buds at YWAM -- Nathan -- I've wanted to try surfin' with Nathan. So this year, I snagged Nathan early on in the week and we agreed to get out early on Friday morning to go for it. I talked my running mates Tom and Ralph into going with us and taking video of my feeble attempts in the surf. Jared was kind enough to loan me a wet suit and we departed at 5:30am for a 20 minute drive up the coast to clean water and a good break. After checking out the sets coming in, Nathan decided it was a good spot for us. We put on the wet suits, grabbed the surf board and the body (boogy) board, the fins, towels, the video camera, and the four of us walked down to the rocky beach.

The chilly and breezy morning air was solidifying my hidden thoughts that I was going to freeze off my feet and hands by entering the water just to try out surfing in Mexico. Nathan entered the water first and gave me directions on how to enter the water climbing over the rocks while protecting his surfboard from getting banged up with the incoming waves and the rocks just below the surface. As I carefully waded in, I found out the water was warmer than the air! It actually felt good to get in the water, warming my feet, hands and face. Once I was in water deep enough to support my weight on the surfboard without the surfboard's fins touching the rocks below, I positioned my body on the board and paddled out to the water beyond the waves.

Nathan provided additional instructions on how to catch the wave and then stand up. In my younger days in Southern California, I had body-surfed quite a bit, so I understood how to catch waves, just had never done it on a surfboard. After about 30-40 minutes of waiting for a good set and then three failed attempts at trying to catch a wave, Natahan and I swtiched boards and while he caught a couple of waves on the surfboard, I managed to catch a short one and then the water temp finally caught up with me and it started getting really chilly. It was getting close to 7:00am anyway, so I told him we'd have to catch one last wave and call it a day. God was good and gave us a great final wave which both of us caught and with the body board I was able to ride the wave all the way onto the rocks. Nathan followed shortly after, carrying the surfboard to protect it from the rocks. It was a great way to start our final full day in Mexico.

We got back to the base shortly after 7:00am and I hit the showers. I was blessed to turn on the hot water and get a very solid stream of very warm water! Praise the Lord!

Breakfast and devotions, then worship got us ready to head out for the house dedication, a migrant camp, and then shopping at La Bufadora (we reminded everyone to bring along their spending money!). Eight vans plus Pastor Nino's car made it to the house site.

The house was beautiful -- the Jr. High Team did a great job! The property around the house was pretty tight, so I had some help and we lifted up the speaker and CD player onto the next door neighbor's house so all could hear the speaker. When Kim Trueblood gave the signal, we began the Jr. High's presentation of dramas and songs. They did a great job in every aspect. We gathered the family and the Jr. High Team and took pictures of the group and then handed the family the keys to their brand new home! What a blessing!!

Ever trying to keep on schedule, after all had an opportunity to take a tour of the house and speak with the family, I rounded up the team, loaded up the vans, and we headed towards La Bufadora and one final migrant camp called Los Olivos. They had a bunch of outhouses, all locked with each family's lock, with one communal outhouse which was, how should we say, less than tidy. There was also a central clothes-washing area, with cement wash boards. The small, row-style houses provided shelter to quite a few families.

Our 6th Grade Team did a great job with the skits and songs, and everyone had a blessed time handing out Bible story books, soccer balls, and many hugs and smiles. We shared the love of Jesus in song, in word, and in deed. Pastor Nino continues to educate many people in camps like this with Bible studies and has even established a church in the Las Flores village.

We left very close to the time I had planned, and journeyed down the road toward La Bufadora. Arriving at La Bufadora, we ate lunch, broke into small groups, and then had a great time eating churros, seeing the water shoot up from the sea at the blow hole, and getting all of those gifts for our loved ones back home. Everyone had a fun time bartering, getting the best deals we could on all sorts of items. Heading back to the parking lot around 4:45pm, we loaded up and started the drive back to the base.

Armed with the video camera and one of the walkie talkies, I began to record (for all to hear in the vans) our walkie talkie testimonies. Once all the people in the van in the front of the convoy had said what was the one thing that really touched their hearts this week on the outreach, we stopped the convoy, I jumped out and ran to the second van and repeated this process for each van, going to all seven vans. As we pulled into the base and shut the engines off, we finished up with the last person. You can check out all the testimonies in the DVD.

After a quick change and few minutes of rest, we ate our final meal --- tons of pizza and salad, and then enjoyed one final worship time and a wrap up where the Jr. High and Sixth Grade Team leaders were presented with placques commemorating our outreach -- including great pictures of our teams. It was great to say our "Thanks" to Kody, Jared, and all the YWAM staff and especially to recount the great adventures of the Mexican police investigation into usage of the walkie talkies (ask one Jr. High young man about this -- hee, hee).

Mexico Outreach 2005
Day 6 Sat., Mar. 19
by señor Bushéy

With dozens of last minute "to-do's" floating in my brain before I went to sleep last night, it was no wonder that my brain was wide awake around 4:30 a.m. this morning. I waited until almost 5:00 a.m. to get up, got dressed, and then quietly carried my suitcase and belongings out of our third floor room to the corridor just outside and placed everything down next to the water cooler. Three or four trips were enough to get all of my incidentals out of the room, and I began to sort, fold, and pack everything. Though we came down with five or six boxes full of stuff, we were going home with only two or three, as we had given away all the soccer balls, Bible books (or so I thought), and candy, and now needed to bring back only the balloon pumps and clown outfit.

By 5:45 a.m., I was finished packing my belongings and began the involved task of making sure we had order to the departing chaos. Many others were awake and even already packed by 6:00 a.m., so we started bringing down the luggage and lining it up against the west side of the sidewalk in the quad area. At 6:00 a.m., the base loudspeaker came to life and announced the wake-up call for everyone. The rush came and I enlisted several dads to make sure all "SAN" (San Diego) airline tags were off all luggage and that all had a pink ribbon on to identify them in Sacramento. We then volunteered all available men and boys to help the ladies carry down their luggage. Once the luggage was all down, everyone chipped in to clean the rooms from top to bottom.

By a bit after 7:00 a.m., all the rooms were clean and everyone was waiting downstairs to eat our last meal (donuts, cereal, milk, juice, and fruit). We filled our bellies and shared our final stories with each other and the YWAMers. I handed out everyone's passport so all would have them available for the U.S. Border Agents if requested. Everyone safely stowed them in their pockets.

We were blessed to have Ben bring his shofar (ram's horn) and we had Alex, our favorite worship leader this year, try to blow it, but his small frame just couldn't provide the punch needed to blast that shofar. Ben had just had eye surgery and couldn't apply the pressure on his facial muscles, so he couldn't do his usual sounding. Mr. Suderow stepped in like a champ and turned that shofar into a trumpet! It was great!

Ben followed with his trademark send off -- you'll have to see the DVD to appreciate the flavor of his message -- which filled our hearts as we looked towards home and our continuing service for the Lord. With our last goodbye's to all YWAMers not driving going with us to the San Diego Airport, we loaded into all the vans and one final head count of the students allowed us to begin our journey home.

The drive up was our last opportunity to see the landscape, unique architecture, and all levels and styles of houses and buildings. We stopped half way at one of the toll booths to hit the AM/PM's restrooms (nicest ones around). Some of our team took the opportunity to pick up some Mexican Easter eggs and other candy, but I told everyone NOT to drink in the vans as we wouldn't be able to stop again for the restroom until we got to the airport, which could be two to three hours or longer.

We arrived at the airport and everyone gave hugs and goodbyes to the YWAM drivers and then checked in with Southwest Airlines. We made our way to McDonalds and ate a great lunch, and then got to the gate in plenty of time for the flight. Lots of pix, laughs, stories, and even some sleeping throughout the flight made our journey from San Diego to Sacramento fly by very fast. Upon arrival in Sacramento, we were greeted by all the families, signs, smiles, hugs, and kisses at the bottom of the escalator near the baggage claim area. Within an hour, everyone had their luggage and we all were heading home.

As I sat in the back seat, sandwiched between and hugging my two girls with my wife driving our 4-Runner, my heart was grateful to our Lord for a safe, rewarding, and fulfilled outreach. My mind was coming down off the constant adrenaline rush, and my girls brought me back to Northern California and the time to praise the Lord for the blessings we have in our families, our cars, our houses, our clothes, just all that we take for granted so many times. I know I speak for everyone when I say that we had a fantastic time but are also very glad to be home to be with our families.

Mrs. Trueblood and Mr. Lanning will be posting their thoughts from the Jr. High Team's perspective sometime in the near future. Stay tuned for that.

Enjoy all the pix and we'll be having a DVD party real soon to relive many of these fond memories. Until then, Dios les bendiga a ustedes!!

In His service,

señor Bushéy