| 2009 DAILY LOGS
DAY 1 -
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Mex09 Daily Log - Saturday, March 14
Buenos Dias! Good day to you! I’ll be writing these logs as time allows during our
10th Annual Mexico Outreach at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base in Ensenada, Mexico.I
will post them to the school web site as soon as possible. These logs will be from my
perspective, so they will be somewhat limited in scope but will at least give you a flavor
of the outreach. I hope you enjoy this personal insight from Mexico!! Having a blast
serving our Lord Jesus in Ensenada! -- senor Bushey, Outreach Director.
Woke up this morning around 4:00am and couldn’t really get back to sleep, so I got up
and loaded up the car with my luggage and some boxes full of ministry gear. I fresh-ground
some java for my lovely wife to coax her awake so she’d give me a ride to the
Sacramento airport some 30 minutes or so from Dixon. Maria was a real trooper and we left
right on time at 6:15am. It was still dark when w e got to the airport, but I checked my
luggage and was ready for the staff as they arrived before 7:00am. Soon after, the
students and parents began arriving, and all went real smoothly.
Mrs. Hill handed out the goody bags to all of the team members and assigned the groups,
writing their group numbers on their hands with a dry erase marker. We have five groups
for travel times and it works very well to ensure we don’t leave anyone anywhere.
After a short briefing on travel to Ensenada (don’t say anything about
“bombs” going through security, don’t lose your boarding pass, etc.), we
made our way through security to Gate A11, ready more than one hour before our scheduled
9:55am departure on Southwest Flight 2755.
We had our first real blessing of this outreach when the gate crew member asked if I
wanted to preboard our group. Are you kidding? Yes!! We all lined up and occupied 51 seats
at the back of the 737.
The crew announced our team to the entire plane and we had a very relaxing, yet exciting
one hour and fifteen minute flight to San Diego. Yawning and chewing gum to clear our
ears, we descended into San Diego right on time and made our way out of the gate to the
restrooms for a potty break and to fill up one of our water bottles for the two hour
journey to Ensenada. Blessings continued as all of our luggage arrived with us and YWAM
was not only waiting for us, but Martina and Brian actually arrived much earlier as they
thought we were coming in on a Jet Blue flight at 10:30am. Martina was wise enough to have
a message announced, “Could a leader from the Neighborhood group please come to
Terminal 2?” (we were in Terminal 1, and contacted the information desk person and
within a few minutes Martina walked up and said, “Hello!”).
Some 20-30 minutes later, we were loaded on one big tour bus and one fifteen passenger
van, heading to In-N-Out for a scrumptious lunch! Juan, our tour bus driver, did a great
job in parking that hug vehicle and we all pigged out on either our own sandwiches or the
always tasty In-N-Out fare.
Once back in the bus with full tummies, the tour bus headed straight for the border while
the van made a side trip to the National City YWAM office to drop off Ema who had walked
over to In-N-Out to hand-deliver our Visas -- what a servant!! Arriving at the border, we
had our first little wrinkle as the bord er agent decid ed our bus was the one to check.
Everyone had to get off the bus and remove EVERY PIECE of luggage, not an easy chore with
one suitcase and one sleeping bag for 51 team members! We then had to stand in line and
one at a time push a metal button on a yellow pole to see if the green light said,
“PASE” (we can pass without a search of our luggage), or the red light said,
“REVISION” (search time). Of course, I told everyone not to worry about which
piece of luggage they had, just grab one. We couldn’t figure out why we were doing
this activity as only three people out of the 51 had the red light. We figured this was
similar to any Cal Trans activity where six people are standing around watching the one
guy dig the hole. Apparently the three inspections justified the border agents’
positions and pay, and after moving our clothes around and poking here and looking there,
we received the word to load it all back up and get on our way.
Have you ever dug a hole and then tried to put the dirt back in? Or opened a box with an
imitation Christmas tree, or Christmas tree lights and after New Years tried to put it all
back in the box? Well, it was close to that in trying to get our luggage back under the
bus. Our intreped missionaries managed to squeeze and shove those suitcases and sleeping
bags just enough to slam the final door shut on the storage compartments and we were on
our way.
Winding through Tijuana (TJ as it is known to locals), we noted the older and newer
sections of the border fence on the right side of the highway as we traveled south, with
the wall and “no man land” separati ng our two countries. Looking to our left
(east) we could see the town of TJ, with the baseball fields and apartment buildings, many
in sad conditions, and then rising up over some of the hills coming upon very modern and
very nice looking tract homes, condos, and villas. There was definitely a very visual
display of the very poor and very rich aspects of Tijuana.
Making a final right hand turn onto the “Cuota” toll highway to Ensenada, we
continued our site seeing. Using the microphone and speaker system on the bus, I provided
some insight into our two hour trip south. Please take a look at all the snapshots from
the beautiful coastal drive.
We arrived before 3:00pm local time (Mexico didn’t go with the U.S. change on
“springing ahead” for daylight savings, so we are one hour behind California),
and we got registered and put on our YWAM badges. I announced room assignments and
everyone got settled in. Ten minutes later we were headed to the beach, just across the
roadway at the back of the YWAM base.
We found lots of sand dollars, some cool shells, saw a number of horses and
“vacqueros” (cowboys) wanting to rent those saddles to us, several vendors
hawking their wares, and many locals enjoying the totally beautiful, sunshiny spring
afternoon. From 4:30pm to 5:00pm, the team members trickled back t o the base to get ready
for our first YWAM meal. We had a giant bowl of tortilla chips and another giant bowl of
salsa available to keep us tied over until the main meal. I snuck into the kitchen to
videotape several YWAMers preparing fresh fruit and homemade cookies!
Another blessing that few will enjoy, we have wireless access in the rooms, so I am able
to type up these daily logs and post them on the web site! Yahoooooo! This is going to be
a great outreach!
Well, gotta run right now and get ready for dinner in just a few minutes. I’ll write
more later tonight!
Pastor Roberto Nino and his wife Ada (really she did most of the work, hee, hee), cooked
all day long to prepare an amazing meal that fed not only our team, but the entire base,
around eighty people! We had flour and corn tortillas, beef, beans, rice, guacamole,
salsa, salad, juice, water, and rice milk. Later, we had a choice of four different kinds
of very tasty cookies (they provided the cookies at our team meeting, noted below).
After dinner, we had some free time, and then the introduction program, worship, a short
message from a very energetic and passionate youth pastor from Alabama named Alan, a list
of dos and don’ts, and then all received YWAM shoulder bags, t-shirts, devotional
book, Go-Manual, buttons, and stickers. We all wrote our names on these so they
wouldn’t get lost, and then the students and parents went out for free time again
while the staff met with the YWAM leaders.
At the leader meeting, we had an opportunity to catch up with Sheril and Malcolm, and to
meet Alan and Mary, and then we went over the schedule for the week.
At 9pm, we had our first team meeting, covering some basics (pick up trash, no running, be
ready in the morning with our chapstick, sunscreen, hat, and light jacket, etc.), looking
over the schedule for the week, prayed, and then had about 30 minutes of free time before
10pm. At 10pm, we had to be in the room with lights out at 10:30pm.
Our first day of adventure on this outreach was FANTASTIC! From my perspective as the
chief of this crazy bunch of missionaries, it was one of the smoothest first days in 10
years of doing this. Many thanks go to the students, parents, staff, YWAMers, and most
importantly, our Lord Jesus for His protection, guidance, and love for us.
May our God use us mightily this week as we seek to serve Him by serving these precious
people of Mexico! Amen? Amen!
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DAY 2 -
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Mex09 Daily Log - Sunday, Mar ch 15
The snoring from more than one, a few trips to the restroom (with lights, flushes, and
door noises) in the middle of the night from several roommates, the sound of the waves
crashing on the beach, the cars driving by on the highway, and then a new 20 degree-rated
sleeping bag that kept me too warm were not enough to prevent me from getting some rest
and ready to run with Mr. Lanning at 5:30am Sunday morning (no other team members were
crazy enough to get up that early!).
We had a great run, with no rain or wind (bummer, cuz the giant flag downtown was straight
down), and saw a great sunrise. We ran down to the central part of Ensenada (two miles
each direction) on the new ornate sidewalk which runs between the highway and the beach.
On the way back, we turned right as soon as we could to run on the beach and found the
lowest tide I’ve ever seen in Ensenada (have something to do with the new moon a day
ago???). The low tide provided for packed sand which made it easy running for these two
old men!
As we neared the base, we could see several team members walking and others running along
the beach in either direction. Done with our four mile, 34 minute run, we got back to the
base and readied for a scrumptious breakfast.
Our first breakfast on this sunny Sunday morning in Ensenada consisted of muffins, hard b
oiled eggs, fresh fruit, several kinds of cereal, milk, juice, coffee, tea, and great
fellowship! After, we had a quiet devotion time where we could read our great devotion
books we received from YWAM and just thank God for yesterday and what He will be doing in
our lives this week.
By 9:15am, our entire team grabbed their backpacks, light jackets, chapstick, sunscreen,
water bottles, and began to squeeze into six vans as we made our way to Pastor Nino’s
church for Sunday service and lunch. Arriving at the church on a hill in Maneadero (a city
just south of Ensenada), a bit after 10:00am (we didn’t leave the base until a little
after 9:30am), we were welcomed with hugs and kisses by Pastor Roberto, his wife Ada, and
the entire church family.
With Indra and Sarvia (the Nino’s two daughters) doing an amazing job of translating
for Pastor Nino, the church family, our team, and the YWAMers, we had a totally
spirit-filled time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Maneadero. The worship
time began with some heavenly piano playing from a YWAMer and continued with the
church’s all-girl worship team singing many familiar contemporary Christian songs
translated into Spanish (most of us knew the tunes and could sing in English as the church
family sang in Spanish). We forgot our drama kits, but as we are always prepared to do on
these o utreaches, we went with the flow and Mr. Suderow grabbed his guitar and stepped up
to the plate to lead four on-stage volunteer Neighborhood students and the multi-cultural
audience in singing some very energetic Spanish songs. After the worship time, the pastor
gave us a great message about trusting God and not allowing fear to keep us from reaching
the lost for Christ -- a timely and spirit-inspired message especially for our team.
The service ended and we prepared for a tremendous lunch of barbecued chicken in a red
sauce, shredded beef in a read sauce, beef stew, flame broiled chicken (ala El Pollo
Loco), menudo (for those of us gutsy enough to try it), lazagna, salad, french bread,
tortillas, salsa, and several flavors of soda. With our bellies full, the junior high team
headed to the base and then to a special afternoon of reaching out to the youth of
Ensenada at a YWAM-sponsored skateboard outreach. They put on a small carnival, with
booths and prizes. All reports were that they had a great time and many local teens were
blessed.
The sixth grade team left the church and headed towards the big flag at the harbor in
central Ensenada. We had to make a pit stop at Walmart for some needed supplies, and then
arrived at the tourist area.
The wind was up a little so the flag was showing off in big fashion, whipping and twirling
some 103 met ers (about a football field high above our heads), with a height of 28 meters
(around 84 feet) and a length of 50 meters (around 150 feet -- half a football field). We
took some pictures and then walked along the harbor, winding our way through hundreds of
local siteseers, government security personnel (walking up and down the shopping areas to
ensure everyone’s safety), and other tourists enjoying the sunny Sunday afternoon,
the vendors hawking their trinkets, the seagulls squaking overhead, with the huge sea
lions barking on and near the docks.
My fun was in bringing the group through the fish market area, the reaction to the smell
alone worth all the effort, but the team members also were either totally excited about
the myriad types of sea life on display (some still alive and moving) or completely
disgusted with the sites and smells. All of this quickly faded, though, as the students,
parents, and staff began investigating and bartering with the many vendors and their very
colorful wares.
After some triple scoop helado (ice cream), peanut butter cream filled churros (long,
tasty donut-type treats), many pictures, and a few successfully bartered and acquired
souvenirs, our team loaded into the three vans and made our way back to the base with
about 15 minutes to spare before our Sunday night dinner.
Pizza, salad, juice and coffee awaited our taste buds for the evening meal. What a great
day we’re having and some of the best is yet to come!
The evening program combined a time of reflection, communicating our concerns and prayers
to God, witnessing a shortened but very powerful Passion Play, and then entering into a
time of reaction and action, commitment and intercession.
In the rooms by 10:00pm with lights out at 10:30pm, we had a “full” day to say
the least. There will be many sawmills in action tonight and many tired young heads
tomorrow morning. I gotta end this so I can catch some shut eye and get up for day two of
our morning running ritual to the big flag (will take a different route this time to make
it interesting!).
We have been truly blessed and as our guest speaker Alan was saying tonight, we’ve
seen God act and some of our team members REACT (our theme for this year). We pray that
we’ll have 100% REACTion from all of our team members during the rest of this week.
House building and migrant camp evangelism begins full steam tomorrow --- stay tuned!
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DAY 3 -
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Mex09 Daily Log - Monday, March 16
< br> Alarms on both my watch and cell phone told me to get up and get ready to run
again. I met Mr. Lanning (the only two wackos willing to get up this early to run) and we
had another great run. This time, we went up the hill to the old main boulevard and headed
towards the big flag on our original running route.
We had a great time while we ran. We made it to the big flag in around 19 minutes,
stretched, did 25 pushups, and headed back to the base. Enroute, we dropped down to the
beach and finished the last half in about 18 minutes. Not bad for twoo old timers!
After another scrumptious breakfast, I joined the sixth grade group and we headed out with
Pastor Nino to one of two migrant camps. On the way, Pastor Nino and I realized that we
needed to switch the order of the camps as I knew how to get to one but not the other (the
Pastor had to leave after the first camp as he had to teach a class all day today.
We checked out one migrant camp we had visited several years ago, but no one was there.
The weather has been bad and the crops are off, so many of the local workers have headed
south to seek work in the fields. I asked the Pastor if he remembered this one camp near a
field against a small hill. We had not been there for several years. After a moment or two
he said he remembered where the camp was and some 20 minutes later we were parki ng the
three vans full of sixth grade students, parents, staff, and YWAMers next to some very
small shacks.
The homes, if you can call them that, were made of pieces of wood, tarps, and tie-downs
with dirt floors and 2x2 pieces of wood holding up the tarp roofs. There were only 13
children there from five or six families, with no adults (the parents were all away
working in the fields). The children were left alone all day with the oldest most likely
around 11 or 12 years old. I asked the children their ages and none of them knew how old
they were. They never celebrate their birthdays, so they don’t have any idea of how
old they are. It is totally amazing every time I speak to a young child and they say they
have never celebrated their birthday. Wow.
We played a little soccer with the kids and then sang songs and did the dramas. Right
about then, an ice cream man pushing his cart and ringing his bell came walking up and one
of the parents paid for an ice cream cone for each of the 13 students. The sugar cones
were filled with a combination scoop of strawberry and vanilla ice cream. It was a
terrific treat for these very poor children.
We said our goodbyes and headed into the city of Maneadero and had lunch at the main park
in the middle of the city. Before we ate, however, our team members served the community
of Maneadero by walking around the park and picking up any trash we could see. We then
visited a small vendor’s cart and a few of us purchased a torta ham and cheese
sandwich ($1.25 each), a good size Snickers Candy Bar ($0.50), and some other candies for
next to nothing.
We then ate our YWAM provided lunch of turkey or PB&J, apples, oranges, Prangles,
Oreos, Chips-Ahoy, and water. The students played on the big met al slide and swin gs. We
finished with a group picture on the stage area.
We loaded up the gear and vans and headed over to Colonial Juarez, just north of Pastor
Ninos church and about 10 minutes away from the park. We had a great time of playing
soccer with around 30 children, doing the dramas, and handing out balloons and candy.
We had some time before we needed to return to the base, so we traveled to downtown
Ensenada so I could talk with Jaime, the owner of El Zaraposo, a small cafe where we want
to take the sixth grade team for dinner on Wednesday evening. When we got there, Jeff (one
of the dads) and I ran across the street while everyone else waited in the vans.
Jaime wasn’t there, but we talked with the three workers who were there and had them
call Jaime to see if he could accommodate our group. I lost track of the days and thought
it was already Tuesday, so I asked if we could come “tomorrow” ; evening around
6:30pm to eat dinner. They were normally closed, but because we had come back every year,
and they were going to make some good money in a short time by serving some 35-40 people
(our sixth grade team members and YWAMers), they said they would open just for us.
Cool!
We headed back to the base for some free time and to get ready for dinner. When I got back
to the base, several people noted that I had said to the people at the cafe that we were
going to come over for dinner “tomorrow” -- but it was really supposed to be
Wednesday -- TWO days away! Yikes!
I got one of the van keys and drove back downtown quickly. Arriving at the cafe, I
apologized for the mixup and told them we’d be stopping by on
“MIERCOLES” (Wednesday), NOT Tuesday. No problem! was the response. Great news
in looking forward to a great dinner on Wednesday evening.
We munched on pizza, salad, and drinks, had some free time, began worship, had an evening
of focusing on prayer, and hit the sack around 10:00pm.
The junior high team had a great day as well, building almost half way through the house
project. They got back late, right before dinner and had to rush to get some food.
I’ll be with the junior high team tomorrow, so I can fill you in on how they are
doing wit h some specifics for tomorrow.
Until then, may our Lord bless you , and keep you, and make His face to shine upon you!
Hasta manana!!
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DAY 4 -
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Mex09 Daily Log - Tuesday, March 17
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! Well, I called off running for this morning as my knee
started hurting from an old injury and I have a squash tournament the evening we get back
from the Outreach, so I told Mr. Lanning that I better take off for a couple of days. He
went out with Mr. Suderow for a run on the beach instead.
Another great breakfast, a time of devotion, worship, and then we headed out of the base
to continue to build on the home and to the migrant camps to share Jesus through dramas,
soccer balls, and lots of hugs and play. I went with the sixth grade group yesterday, so I
went with the building team today.
After YWAMer Building Team Leader Neil gave instructions for the day, the junior high team
unloaded the house (they stored everything inside and nailed it shut to keep it safe) and
then work began in earnest. Like a swarm of busy bees, everyone was doing something ...
painting, nailing, lifting wood, putting up drywall, installing the wiring, and on and on.
A few of the students were waiting for something to do so I put them to work making a
shelter for my “photo studio.”
Using “MacGyver” techniques, we utilized materials found in our surroundings, a
little elbow grease, and ended up with a shade structure, table, and chair to house my
computer, printer, and digital camera. We now just needed subjects to shoot.
The boys from the family for which we are building the house were my first guinea pigs.
Miguel (age 18), Elias (15), and Gustavo (12) posed for shots and then I downloaded the
pix to the computer and printed out their photos after placing them on a form page I
designed that said, “Jesus Te Ama” (Jesus Loves You), with some cool designs on
the page and Neighborhood’s address and web site so they can keep in touch with us.
As soon as the neighbor children heard about it, they came over and we had a great time
taking some standard portrait shots and printing them out, and also doing some crazy Photo
Booth shots (I have a program that can skew the images in different ways, sort of like at
the fun house mirrors at a carnival). We had a blast making different crazy faces. Check
‘em all out in the pix section of this web site.
The boys told Crecencio (the father) and Maria (the mother) and we took some pics of the
entire family as well. It was a fun time of giving these people probably the first photos
they’ve ever had of themselves.
I spent the day taking photos and video of everyone and everything, including a dead dog
the boys found and thought it was very cool. I also talked a lot with the family and had a
great time just sharing with them and getting to know them.
The entire crew worked very hard all day and they really made progress on the house.
Meanwhile, as we departed for the house building, the 6th Grade Team headed down the
highway to Maneadero Valley and to a colonial called, “Campo Los Olivos.” This
is a camp where they have quite a lot of people living in very close quarters. The
“houses” are connected by adjoining walls with the entire unit about 10 feet by
10 feet, usually wooden structure, dirt floors, curtain for the front door, but a solid
wood or metal roof to keep out the rain.
They have a centralized area of outhouses with locks on the doors so only the family
members use the specific outhouse (the holes under the outhouses aren’t big enough to
handle the use by a lot of people, so they need to limit access).
There is also a central clothes-washing area with a bunch of cement washboards. It is
amazing how clean they can get their clothes washing them by hand!
The team played with the kids, talked with the parents, performed dramas, sang songs,
handed out balloons, soccer balls, and candy, and had a great time of fellowship with the
people at Los Olivos.
After lunch, the 6th Grade Team headed to a fairly poor camp called, “Campo
Durango,” located farther south on Highway 1 pass the La Bufadora turn off. Though
the camp had fewer people, they still had an awesome time of sharing Jesus with the kids
and adults. Through the songs (some in Spanish and some in English) and dramas (both with
and without Spanish words), our team was able to communicate the Gospel of Jesus and His
love for these people. After the dramas and worship time, our team was able to play with
the kids and hand out lots of animal balloons, candy, and soccer balls.
Into the late afternoon by now, the team headed back to the YWAM base to join the Junior
High Team for dinner and the evening events. Everyone had some time to wash up, enjoy
another fantastic meal, and then get over to the worship hall for the evening program.
After a sweet time of worship with YWAM Worship Leader Steve and the other members of the
band, Sheril, the YWAM Mission Adventures Manager, introduced the four stations
representing four ministries in which four of the YWAM staffers have had personal
experience. Our entire outreach team split into four groups and rotated th rough the
presentations, including online web sites, PowerPoint slide shows, pictures, and short
videos.
After the presentations, we gathered together and shared about those that really touched
our hearts and then prayed for all of these ministries and the workers in the field. We
also provided YWAM with some names of organizations local to Northern California and they
added that information to theirs and then provided that list to all of our outreach
members. It was another great end to another great day for the Lord!
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DAY 5 -
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Mex09 Daily Log - Wednesday, March 18
Running was still out for me, but Mr. Lanning headed out each day anyway for runs on the
beach with other adults willing to start out early. I used the time to catch up on the
picture uploads to the web site and planning for the next few days.
I did get out early enough to see a beautiful cruise ship come in out of the fog, with
fog-horn blowing, turn and make its way into Ensenada Harbor. We had several come and go
during our stay.
We took advantage of Skype and the wireless connection at the YWAM Base and contacted
Neighborhood’s office. Janet brought in several students (siblings of students on the
outreadh) so they could talk to their parents and their siblings who went to Mexico. It
was a great way to stay in touch, being able to see and talk with family members.
Brandon once again asked the students questions about their daily devotions with rewards
for those providing correct answers. It was a great encouragement for our students to
really dig into the devotions and remember what they read. Steve led worship again and
brought all of us to the throne of Jesus through the music and words, preparing our hearts
for the day’s work ahead.
We had a special time of fun during the morning worship as we surprised Isreal, one of the
dads, with a “Happy Birthday” skit (designed by his daughter Lisa) and a Skype
connect from his wife still in Dixon. He was totally surprised, embarrassed, and very
appreciative of the entire event. It was great fun!
While the Junior High Team finished up the house project, putting on the final touches,
finishing the roof, painting where needed on both inside and outside walls, installing the
door lock, etc., the 6th Grade Team went to the public school just over the hill from
Pastor Nino’s house.
As this was a public school, we weren’t allowed to perform the dramas or sing the
Christian songs. Instead, we played soccer, talked one-on-one with the students and
teachers, and then visited several classrooms. In the classrooms, I had the Mexican
students compete against each other in math contests on the dry erase board (had them work
on a list of numbers, suc h as 5 +5+25+100-85x2=. (We found that the students were
about a year behind our students in math skills.) We then had their students speak to our
students, asking questions in Spanish while our students asked their students questions in
English. It was great fun and we look forward to doing this again next year.
After the public school, the 6th Grade Team went to Pastor Nino’s for a fantastic
lunch of tamales, picadillo, beans, barbecue beef, taquitos, tortillas, salad, guacamole,
rice, and ... well, I think that was it, I don’t really remember as my belly got too
full! Ada and Roberto were, as always, gracious hosts.
Even though we hated to leave, we had to get over to the house building location to join
the rest of our team in the house dedication. We arrived on time, but the Junior High Team
wasn’t ready yet, so we took the 6th Grade Team down to the lake to eat up about 45
minutes as the house was being completed.
Less than a quarter mile from the house was a beautiful lake (actually a big reservoir),
so most of the 6th Grade Team walked down the hill and the students quickly found some old
tires and began a tire-rolling contest off of these big rocks. It was great fun. After
some more sight-seeing around the lake, we headed back and joined the house-building team.
Mr. Suderow and Kaitlyn (one of our YWAM translators/worship team members) started off the
dedication with some jammin’ music (electric and acoustic guitars in sync), playing
two of our favorites -- Eres Todo Poderoso and La Montana. Cynthia Hill, our 7th Grade
Teacher, prayed for the family followed by a prayer from Tom Lanning, our 8th Grade
Teacher. Neil, the YWAM Lead Builder then gave a message to our team about the impact and
blessing their hard labor will have on this family and this community for years to come.
He then handed the keys and a new Bible to the family.
Crecencio, the dad, Maria, the mom, and the three boys Miguel (18), Elias (15), and
Gustavo (12) entered the house first and right away Maria began to tear up and cry over
the beauty of her new home. There were gifts on the floor, purchased earlier on Tuesday
with funds provided by Neighborhood’s team (much of those donations came from our 5th
Graders’ Bake Sale held a month earlier -- THANKS 5TH GRADE!).
The Junior High Team members came through one-by-one and hugged the family members and
said their goodbyes. It was a teary-eyed, wonderful end to three days of a labor of love
from our Junior High Team. Make sure to check out all the pictures of the dedication time.
We all headed back to the base, cleaned up, got some warm jackets on, and headed out for
“Taco Night Out” --- one of the highlights of this outreach. It’s the
special blessing of the 6th Grade Team to be able to go to El Zarapoza, a small sidewalk
cafe downtown (on Riverol, just past 9th Street on the left). Every year, I stop by a day
or two early and tell Jaime, the owner, that our large group will be coming by for Taco
Night Out so he can stock up on meat, sodas, and supplies. This year, I had stopped by on
Monday night and told them of our 30-40 member group (counting our 6th Grade students,
parents, staff, and YWAMers joining us). (The Junior High Team and their YWAM helpers went
out to a great restaurant and had a very nice time. I’ll relate the 6th Grade
Team’s experience below.)
When the 6th Grade Team and YWAMers arrived around 6:45pm, the cafe was already packed
with a handful of locals and a visiting mission team from Canada (usually our group
members are the only non-local customers for this small cafe). The ten seats were all
occupied, with some 20-30 people standing around and then we added our 30-40 customers!! I
told the cooks that we’d have one person, Kaitlyn (our YWAM translator) providing the
orders directly to the cook and I would stand by the refrigerator handing out sodas and
that we’d tally up the orders at the end and pay for the entire group when we were
done. This was the way it’s been working out well for the past number of years, so
they agreed and we began.
Standing next to the soda refrigerator, I was in direct line to receive most of the smoke
from the open-grilled barbecue where they were quickly cooking thin slices of steak and
long, green onions. Every so often, the cook would put in chunks of wood charcoal and stir
up the fire to keep the flames and heat going strong.
When the meat was ready, the head chef (if a small cafe like this can have a
“chef”) used his meat cleaver and round wood slab to chop the steak very quickly
into small pieces. Once he had the right size of pieces cut, he grabbed the small
tortillas and began to very rapidly produce tacos and then once in a while he’d grab
a slice of toasted torta bread and create a scrumptious torta (I had one of those with a
couple of tacos).
While the one cook was barbecuing the meat, the head chef was chopping meat and creating
the entrees, another employee was rapidly making tortillas using balls of dough and a
“planchera” or tortilla press. It was quite impressive to see how rapidly she
could make a perfectly round tortilla out of a clump of dough. The fourth employee was
taking the empty plastic plates, washing them, and getting them back into the stack ready
for new customers and helping me out with the sodas. So, there were four employees, a
large flat cooking stove area, a rectangular barbecue area, a small refrigerator, a small
sink, and a one-person restroom all in a 15’ long x 10’ wide sidewalk cafe ---
very impressive. It’s an experience that everyone enjoyed (and I have enjoyed each
year for the past 10 years --- well, nine years, as last year they happened to be closed
when we came --- the owner was on vacation).
After the students had gulped down their delicious meals, some of the parents escorted
them across the busy Riverol Avenue to purchase some ice cream desserts from the small
market directly across from the cafe. After two hours of this memorable and immensely
pleasurable experience to all of our senses, we headed back to the vans and made our way
to the base.
The Junior High Team had arrived at the base before we did. At around 8:00pm, I announced
that we’d be making our bonfire at the back of the base (in the volleyball court
area) in around 15 minutes. Several students helped carry the pile of scrap lumber to the
fire pit area and then we ripped up some more old YWAM devotion books as fire starter and
made a small, but very nice bonfire.
I had previously stopped by the Smart & Final store just up the road from the base and
purchased about 10 large Hershey Milk Chocolate bars, a few boxes of Galletas (large
cracker/cookie things -- sort of like round Graham Crackers), and a few bags of the
largest marshmallows you’ve ever seen (I also got some regular size marshmallows for
those of us not into indulgence). They YWAM staff scrounged some metal hangers, and we
were all set for smores and a nice time of fireside fellowship.
We had a small crowd for the bonfire as we had some 10 or some students and parents in
their rooms resting who had been extremely sick (throwing up and diarrhea for two days),
and others totally wiped out from the five days and four nights of little sleep and
constant go-go-go. This was our night to just relax and enjoy. (On a side note, we’re
pretty sure the ones who got sick picked up some virus or bacterial thing as we all at the
same food and only a handful of our group got sick. In addition, Mr. Suderow and I came
down with really bad flu-like symptoms beginning Wednesday. As of Friday, when we landed
in Sacramento, I ended up with a fever for five days in a row with real bad chest and head
cold flu symptoms.)
Around 9:45pm or so, we grabbed a few water buckets and put out the fire and headed off to
bed. Tomorrow was going to be a fun day --- last day of ministry and our time to
shop-till-we-drop at La Bufador.
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DAY 6 -
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Mex09 Daily Log - Thursday, March 19
Thursday morning began with excitement and relief for many as even those who were sick for
the past couple of days were up and ready to go for our final ministry day.
Breakfast and worship time was full of high energy and anticipation. During the worship
time, I had YWAMer Brandon come up and we did a “bartering” impromptu skit to
show the students and adults how to barter with the vendors at La Bufadora. “Welcome
my friend!” opened the skit and Brandon “purchased” a hat from me after
talking me down from $20 to $10. It was a lot of fun and very useful for our bargain
hunters!
We loaded into six vans with Pastor Nino’s silver Suzuki Samurai leading the way. We
left the base around 9:45am, a little later than I wanted, but within reason.
We headed down the highway to Pastor Nino’s Fountain of Life Project. We arrived and
ran into a bit of an obstacle -- Pastor Nino had forgotten the keys to the locked gate.
Several of our dads put their heads and backs together and physically lifted the long gate
and moved it out enough so our team members could squeeze through the gap and into the
fenced-in area of the project.
Climbing up onto the cement slab, we formed a large circle and listened as Pastor Nino and
his wife Ada told us about the history of the project and the vision for the future.
Kaitlyn and Daniell translated for us and then we prayed for the project.
As the time was now around 11:30am, I told the group we had to try to find the old-timer
Trinidad and then get to La Bufadora (we wouldn’t be able to stop by another migrant
camp and do the dramas as planned, as we just didn’t have enough hours in the day).
We loaded into the vans and made our way down the backside of the hill on bumpy, dirt
roads through the colonial Las Flores, stopping by the church Pastor Nino has there
to drop off the remainder of our balloons, candies, and other gifts we had left so Pastor
Nino could hand them out at a later time.
We headed out the south side of Las Flores to the main highway, headed a bit north and
turned left onto a dirt road leading to Trinidad’s house. About a hundred feet
before his house we found Trinidad sitting on the side of the dirt road, resting. He had
begun his walking trip to his nephew’s tire shop about two to three miles away! With
his severely arthritic legs (he uses a cane to walk), and his 99 years of age, it would
have taken him all day to walk those two to three miles!
It was great to see him still alive and fairly healthy. He was smoking a cigarette and Ada
chastised him about that. We helped him up, took a few pictures, and then asked him if he
wanted a ride to the tire shop. He agreed, so one of the dads and I lifted him into one of
the vans. We had many from the team stop by to shake his hand and say hello before we took
him to the tire shop.
Trinidad Silva, born, we believe, on May 11, 1910, was really taken by eighth grader
Emily’s hair (she has blondish hair and died her pony tail a bright pink).
Trinidad had her turn around so he could touch her pink hair. A few students later, Kyle
(also an eighth grader), piqued Trinidad’s attention as he had red-blonde hair.
Trinidad shook his hand but didn’t let go, pulled Kyle close to him and touched his
hair and then patted his shoulder --- as if Kyle had died his hair that color! It was a
precious time to watch the interaction.
While the rest of the team waited on that dirt road, the one van transported Trinidad back
to the highway and down a block or two to his nephew’s tire shop. We bid him
farewell, hooked back up with the rest of the gang, and headed to La Bufadora, some 35-40
minutes drive away.
Upon our arrival, we noticed the place almost deserted of shoppers. There were probably
only about 30-40 other visitors that we could see when usually there are thousands! We
asked several of the shop owners why the place was empty and they noted the bad economy
and the increase in crime noted on the news. People didn’t have money or were too
scared to visit Mexico. Even the local tourists, though, were not there. We usually see a
number of Mexican tourists coming down from Tijuana and other cities. They were absent and
we noticed about a third of the shops at La Bufadora were closed. It was a very sad
feeling for those of us who had been there before and have seen the large crowds bartering
for the best prices.
We had our standard lunch right away of turkey, ham, cheese, and/or peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches, apples, oranges, chips, cookies, and water. After lunch, one of the 7th
Grade “King of Hearts” drama teams and the 8th Grade “You’re
Everything” drama team performed their dramas on the edge of the cliff overlooking
the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful backdrop for the dramas. We videotaped these in full
and placed them on the 2nd Long Clips DVD. (About two weeks after our return, every
student received one DVD of a 1 hr. 41 min. movie of the outreach and one DVD of the Long
Clips of the dramas and other events that happened during the outreach that couldn’t
be added to the main movie due to time constraints.)
After the dramas, we loaded up the gear, locked the vans, put our valuables into our
backpacks on our backs, and then headed up the small hill to spend almost three hours
shopping and site seeing. During that time, we ate some tasty churros, fish tacos, and
candied nuts, took lots of pictures, and did some fancing bartering for those special
souvenirs and gifts to bring back home. Mr. Suderow had a classic time dealing with one
“come in my friend, I have a special price for you” vendor. He ended up buying a
hat for $12 (original “good price my friend, special for you today of $20”) and
hopes it was actual leather and not imitation material. I sort of forced him into the
purchase as I wanted to get a good “bartering” video and really just wanted him
to play the part. It was great fun!
Around 4:45pm, we had everyone in the vans ready to head back to the base. I began with
the first van and started our annual “Walkie-Talkie Testimonies.” This is where
I have the video camera in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other hand. One-by-one,
each team member (if they want), tells a short 30-second or so account of one special
thing that really touched his/her heart during the past week. While they are talking, I am
recording their voice with the camera and allowing the other members in the other vans to
hear their testimony over the walkie-talkies. Once every one in the first van has had a
turn to say their story, we stopped the caravan and I jumped into the next van and so on
until we were all done. Those testimonies made it onto the “Long Clips DVD.”
Back at the base around 5:30, we had time to rest a bit and change if needed for dinner.
We had a final dinner of pizza and salad and then a wrap-up program night with the
YWAMers. The other 7th Grade “King of Hearts” drama team performed their drama
and we had several students and staff share about the week. It was a very nice end to a
successful week of ministry.
I ended the evening with instructions to pack and get ready for a 6:00am wake-up, room
cleanup, and 8:00am departure tomorrow morning.
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DAY 7 -
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Mex09 Daily Log - Friday, March 20
I had packed my suitcase and one equipment box last night, so was ready to rock and roll
early this morning. I got up at 5:00am, dressed and went over my notes, ensuring all was
in order for our trip home.
At 6:00am, I banged on all six room doors and shouted to wake everyone up (most already
had their lights on). By 7:15am or so, the rooms were clean and empty and all the luggage
was piled in the center of the quad area. Everyone said their goodbyes to the YWAMers,
getting final notes, emails, and autographs, and enjoying the time of fellowship.
We had a breakfast of donuts, milk, juice, and coffee, and the tour bus arrived around
7:30am or so. We loaded up the luggage and left close to our scheduled time of 8:00am.
Due to the number of our team members and YWAMers making their way north, we had to have
some adults travel earlier and wait for us at the San Diego Airport. The tour bus with the
majority of our team arrived at the airport around 11:30am California time (we were one
hour ahead of Mexico time) and after we checked our luggage and got our boarding passes,
we all headed to McDonalds for lunch.
This year we tried to be smart and benefit Neighborhood by using McDonalds scrip (the
McDonalds packets of five $1 coupons). Neighborhood purchased these in advance and we made
10% to help the school. The bummer that we didn’t know is that the cashier at the
counter had to enter each coupon in a special way, so that it took two or three times as
long to process our 51 transactions as it would have with cash. Next year we’ll bring
cash again as we’ve done in the past.
I think I was the only one really stressed out during lunch (and my fever and flu symptoms
didn’t help the situation), so I think the group enjoyed their lunch. We then headed
up in our travel groups to the gate to wait for the plane.
The gate crew didn’t want to preboard our group this time (each gate crew is
different), so we had to get on per our boarding pass (either A, B, or C) and we ended up
sitting all over the plane. It didn’t matter as much on the way home as many just
relaxed and a few of us even fell asleep for the flight. The conversations were still very
animated about the week behind us and family and friends waiting for us in Sacramento.
The flight was short and routine, and as we headed down the escalators toward the baggage
claim area we were greeted by many family and friends waiting for us. Lots of hugs and
kisses and excited explanations of the trip filled the area. Within a short time our
pink-ribboned bags began to appear on the belt and we all claimed our own and then headed
home.
For me, arriving home began two weeks of DVD movie creation time. I spent about 80-90
hours making the 1 hr. 41 min. DVD movie and a second “Long Clips DVD” (using
over 10 hours of video and over 2000 snapshots).
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DVD PARTY April 4 -
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Mex09 Daily Log - DVD Party - Saturday, Aprll 4
Preparation for the DVD Party really began weeks before we got back from the Outreach. I
began to create the Mexico Outreach 2009 Movie DVD and the second Long Clips DVD the day
after we got back and it took around 80-90 hours to complete these DVDs. But some two
weeks before the outreach, I contacted the UC Davis Meat Lab and ordered a 110-120 lb.
cleaned roaster hog.
When Mr. Vidmar and I picked up the pig on Friday, April 3, it was actually a 120-130
pounder (the guy was great and only charged us for the weight I ordered). We loaded the
very heavy porker into Mr. Vidmar’s van, stopped by Walmart for ice and charcoal, and
then delivered the pig to my home and the plastic-lined bathtup waiting for its guest.
We layed some bags of ice down first into the bathtub and then layed the pig on top of the
ice. Later that day, Mrs. Bushey prepared a Cuban-style marinade and we coated the pig in
the marinade, folded up the plastic, and placed the ice bags all around the pig.
Friday afternoon, I headed over to the LeFever’s house. The LeFever’s have
hosted all but one of our DVD Parties and they have a great location, just down the road
from my house in Dixon. They have a beautiful home, built around 1910, with lots of area
to entertain a gathering such as ours of between 50-100 people.
Just to the south of their property, late in the afternoon, I dug a 3 feet wide x 2 feet
deep x 8 feet long pit (it was fairlly easy as I dug it in exactly the same location as
last year). I grabbed 12 cement blocks from the storage area at the back of the property
and set them up on the edge of the pit, three stacks of two blocks on each long side of
the pit. I then grabbed the metal grate to lay at the bottom of the pit to support the
charcoals, and grabbed the longer and wider metal grate and three metal support bars and
layed the cooking grate across the top of the pit supported by the bars and the six stacks
of blocks. The pit was now ready for the pig in the morning.
6:00am Saturday morning, Mr. Lanning arrived with his van at my house and we loaded up the
pig and the rest of the materials and equipment needed, and headed to the LeFever’s
house. Mr. Lanning had some chicken wire with him and when we had carried the pig from the
van to the barbecue pit (using a carrying pole - actually a long expandable paint handle),
we laid the chicken wire open on the cooking grate, layed the pig on top of the chicken
wire, wrapped the pig up in the chicken wire, wiring it closed to be able to flip it
later, and then covered the pig in aluminum foil to make a “tent” to capture the
heat from the coals.
I started a few handfuls of coals with some newspaper and my coal starter can (this way I
don’t have to use lighter fluid so there is no fluid smell on the charcoals). When
the coals were red hot, I poured those out in the center of the grate at the bottom of the
pit and covered the grate with additional coals. Within 30 minutes or so (this time around
7:15am), all the coals were nice and toasty and the pig began to sizzle and drip juice
down onto the coals.
I thanked Mr. Lanning for his help with everything and he left. I set up my expandable
camping chair, got out my Isaac Asimov science fiction book that I was reading, and began
an eleven and one half hour barbecue day. Every 20 minutes or so, I’d add some new
coals, stir up the coals, and clean out the ash under the coals.
At around 12:00pm, Mr. LeFever helped me flip the pig from the skin side to the opened
flesh side, and the skin side was golden brown and sizzling --- looking just right. Around
5:30pm, my wife Maria looked at the skin and said it needed some more cooking, so we
flipped the pig one more time, added some additional coals, and turned that brown skin
into delicious chicharones (crunchy, tasty skin). At 6:30pm, six of the men carried the
pig (one on each end of the metal support poles), looking like we were carrying a casket,
over to the serving tables on the other side of the house.
After a prayer from Mr. Jordan, the 50 or so people at the party loaded up their plates
with the barbecued pork and with dishes brought by everyone (it was a potluck-style lunch
-- everyone brought vegetables, salads, desserts, and drinks to share). We had a great
time of “piggin’ out” and fellowship, play time, and then around 7:30pm we
started the DVD movie.
I set up my laptop connected to a video projector, and we showed the Mexico Outreach 2009
movie in an open-air theater fashion. For those of us who went to Mexico, we had a great
time remembering the trip. For family and friends who weren’t able to go with us,
they enjoyed seeing their loved ones serving Jesus by serving the people of Mexico. From
many comments it seems that everyone had a very nice time at the DVD Party.
Many thanks to Tim and Amy LeFever for their continual generosity in allowing us to have
the party at their place year after year.
Well, until next year, may the Lord bless you and may the Holy Spirit encourage each of
you to reach out beyond your homes, your churches, and your communities to those who may
not know Jesus in your Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!!
Hasta luego!! ---- senor Bushey
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