We are so excited! It is finally time for our mission trip to Mexico!! The bags are packed and we are raring to go. A BIG thank you to everyone who donated school supplies for the children. I have 2 suitcases full of stuff to take along. How much fun is that!!

We will be at the orphanage for 3 days, where we will be teaching the kids, playing games with them and just spending time together. In the evening we will be at 2 different churches. We are going with friends or ours, Brad and Josie and their kids, their children's pastor and a film crew.

Please pray for us:

· Pray for us to truly show the love of Jesus to these kids.
· Pray for God to transform their hearts and ours too.
· Pray for divine appointments.
· Pray for us to persevere and not get discouraged in the midst of heat and challenges.
· Pray for grace to adjust to a different culture.
· Pray for protection against any attacks from the enemy.

Tenting

We went tenting this week! You see, it wasn't really camping because we were in the yard right behind the house. So I could hardly call that camping. But we had the tent set up and we had a fire. So we will call it tenting! We all slept out one night and the kids attempted to sleep out there one their own the next night. Kailyn kept coming back into the house every few minutes, then they finally settled down. Then at 1:30 I heard her banging around and trying to get in the house again. So she had to go to the bathroom and it was so dark that she got scared and didn't want to go back out. Javin was quite disappointed that she didn't stay. He would have gladly helped her in and out with a light if she would have woke him. He says next time he is going to lock her in the tent so she has to wake him up. That is his way of saying that he wanted to help her. It was cute.

We also set up the swimming pool this week. That was just what we needed on this hot week. They played and played in it. We had friends over one day and that filled up the pool. They soon headed off to the slide for some water sliding action. Kailyn is still working on her swimming and getting better and better. She can swim a little ways on her own. With some practice she will be on her way!

Heaven Sent

Well we returned from our trip this weekend. It went pretty good. As good as can be expected from kids with short attention spans. :)

We headed south on Thursday afternoon loaded down in Marlin and Paula's van. The kids did great on the long 5 hour drive. When we arrived we got settled into our rooms. We were staying at an old school building. So the Pecks had a whole classroom to ourselves. And to our surprise we got the tricycle room! Wheee! The school used to house a head start preschool program which left behind some stuff.

Friday we descended upon a retired pastor's house, which the youth had been working on all week. Our job was to finish scrapping the old paint off and put 2 coats of paint on it. The kids worked for about an hour or so before the heat was too much and the novelty of painting wore off. Arielle and crew to the rescue. They took charge all the kids - 9, I think, while the parents kept on working.

After lunch we switched gears and went to the food packaging office. We assembled food packets that are distributed to disaster victims, orphanages, and poor across the world. Each kid had a job either measuring out food, weighing or sorting bags. We kept at it and packaged up 20 boxes of food. Way to go guys!

On to the next adventure - downtown ministry. We set up at a downtown park and began handing out hot dog dinners and making friends. We were able to feed quite a few people and encourage them as well.

On the way home I noticed the Kailyn was hot with fever so that began a bit of a "detour" for us. She ran a fever for a few hours that night and then slept really late. The next morning was painting again so Javin headed off with the crew and I stayed home with Kailyn. After her afternoon nap she seemed to be better.


In the afternoon we helped with a kid's outreach. A local church brought in a van load of kids and we played games and held a mini carnival for them. At the end we did a little program with them and fed them. Javin and I got to teach the kids dance. It all went good.

That evening we were scheduled to have group time at the school but that got rearranged as little Ben had an accident on the merry-go-round and broke his leg. He went to the hospital and had surgery to have it set that night. (They just got home today and are doing as good as can be expected.)

Sunday morning we packed everything up and headed in to town for church, then hit the road for the return trip. I must say, the trip was trying at times. Keeping track of both kids and dealing with their meltdowns and excitement was challenging. But overall they did okay and had a good experience.

Outreach Weekend coming up

Pray for us this weekend as we heading out for an outreach in WV. The kids are both going along. I am praying for a memorable experience for them in serving others. It should be pretty interesting! :) I hear we get to sleep in an old school. We will be doing some work projects and an outreach. Check back next week to see how it went!


On another note, look me up on facebook. I have finally joined the club! What fun connecting with friends from way, way back.

A Star Wars Birthday

I find it hard to believe but Javin turned 8 yesterday at exactly 11:45 pm. He enjoyed correcting everyone, informing them that he wasn't officially 8 until then. We had his birthday party the day before. And what a fun party it was! Star Wars was the fascination this year. I found a hint on a party web site about making light sabers out of pool noodles. You cut one in half and then use black duct tape to wrap the bottom to make it look like a handle. They were a big hit. If you get hit, it doesn't really hurt. So the younglings were invited to the Jedi Academy to complete their Light Saber Training before they unleashed their fury on each other. (In other words, we had some games to play with the light sabers before the fighting began.)

Biking was the focus this year it seems. He got a ramp and some trick spokes for his little bike. So watch out now, the scary stuff begins. Jumps and fancy feet and who knows what. He also got his first gear bike. So now he can keep up with mom on the trail. Or I should say that now he an leave me in the dust. You know, you have to realize that I still have a 35 lb, 4 year old on the back of my bike as well. Excuses, excuses. I have a lot of them. We went for ride today on the roads near our house. There is nothing flat about where I live! Have I ever told you how much I love the rails to trails? IT IS FLAT! Perfect for riding a bike. Me and hills just don't mix.

So that's the birthday bash in a nut shell.