LAST ENTRY!!! 100% POSITIVE!!

Hi you guys!! Jason here. We have been taking pictures like crazy but we've learned that we were missing some of our (and your) kids!! We wanted to show Morgan in her peak mischief. We also wanted to show you all a great shot we got of Sarah and Mehvish hanging out on the way home. I apologize that it took us a while to get these to you, but it can be hard to find time to update this blog. I hope that it's been a blessing for you.
I strongly encourage parents to ask your kids what they did in Montana and how they served God this past week. They will be able to give more specific information that our blogging might not have done. We miss all of you!! 7 more hours till home!!!!!

God Bless!!
Jason ><>

Final Day!!!!

Well here we are! we have finally made it! We wanted to show you guys some pictures on the activity most of us did for a couple of days. This is called, "Kids Club". We spend time with some of the local youth (ages 5-15) and play games, sing songs, do arts and crafts, etc. These kids were a handful! sometimes a good handful and sometimes not so good. These kids will do nearly anything to get attention. Most of the time we spent with them was pretty intense. But the good vastly out-weighed the bad.
As you know with our youth, when there's a lot of work, there's a lot of play. It started with one marker.......then two........then three. Before you know it there was a Crayola explosion!! It was entertaining to watch them battle. Our youth have great and unique qualities that other youth groups have been drawn into. It's pretty cool to see.
We begin the journey home Friday morning. We have a 4.5 hour trip to Thermopolis where we will be staying in an RV park and Flying down a river on tubes!! We're stoked!!

This is the last blog entry you'll probably read before we all get home. We have all missed you very much and are excited to see you again. Please pray for safe travels and we will see you soon!! God Bless!!

2nd and 3rd Day

Mehvish and Karen pose for Shay at a lovely house they are painting. A good time was had by most... Mike and Forrest,too. We five are in what we call Crew Two.






This is Shay with two fine men ! Jesse and Jon from Michigan. (Great painters!)

Some, however, took some time out to play. After working very hard of course. Forrest and Mike were happy to have a break from the constant chaos at Kids Club on Tuesday.






Today (Wednesday) we took a trip to the Little Bighorn Battlefield monument. There was a beautiful view and it was nice to get a break from the reservation.


Some of the groups have time to do some extra curricular activities before their daily ministry begins. For example, We had a chance to participate in a prayer walk with a local pastor around some of the neighborhoods of Lame Deer. This was AMAZING!! people would approach us asking for prayer. Some people would even let us into their homes for prayer. God is showing us His love everywhere. We went into the prayer walk with some hesitancy because we don't see these "normal" results happen Salt Lake so easily.
Other extra curricular activities included spending time with people in retirement homes, reading to children at the local boys and girls clubs, etc. I heard that all these activities were a blast!



After a long day of work, it's nice to have some free time. All the groups get done with their projects usually around 3:30. When we arrive back at the high school, we have a couple of hours of free time to shower and clean up. When 6:00 rolls around, we have dinner and usually a night activity (like Little Bighorn). Every night after the activity, we have "Club Time". This is where all the youth groups gather in one room and debrief cool things we saw God doing, sing worship songs, and have some prayer. After "Club Time", we break into our specific church groups. We have had some really good conversation and awesome prayer time with our group. We're learning that God's call can be hard but so rewarding and filled with blessings!

First Day in Lame Deer

We got here safely around 6:00 yesterday (Sunday) and got our rooms set up for the week.












This is Mehvish, Aruj, Shay, and Amber in one of the girls' rooms.











Today (Monday) we all headed out to our first ministry sites. This is Andy and Amber painting in a retirement center.











This is Jeff and Boaz working in another room in the retirement center.


As we arrive here the first day, They let us know what work groups we will be assigned with. The other youth groups are from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Washington. Each work group will be assigned to Kid's Club for two days and Work Projects for the other two days. Kids Club is very similar to Vacation Bible School. We meet with kids and have lunch with at a local elementary school cafeteria and then walk with them to an outdoor play area where we play games and just have fun with them for a few hours. Work Projects involve a group going to a house, school, or building and either painting it or repairing anything that needs it.

Destination: Montana!!!!

Hey Everyone!!!
Jason here!

The journey has been filled with memories!! Freezing cold memories!! half our kids were convinced that they had hypothermia when they woke up this morning. We took all day today touring Yellowstone. What a blast!! It's amazing to see what God has created as a banner of his love for us. Chris had some digestion issues at Old Faithful (illustrated left). We are all still getting to know each so sometimes there can be some awkwardness but God is doing some cool stuff. We ask that you guys continue to pray for us and send your love!!!
We will Keep you updated!!! GOD BLESS!!!
Jason ><>

Saying Goodbye

Well tonight we said goodbye. The kids here at Casa Hogar put on a small but powerful dance. It was a person who started off knowing God but then strayed by using drugs and alcohol then escalated by then doing self mutilation by cutting herself and almost shooting herself but then looked to her right side and saw that God was still there waiting for her to come back. It was very powerful and brought out emotions in everyone. After the dance two of the kids stood up and gave testimonies of their own lives and it was just one more thing to add to the emotional part of tonight. Then some of our own adult leaders stood up and gave words of praise to the kids and to our youth for a magical week. Then Fernando, the leader of Casa Hogar, asked all of our kids to stand up and get on stage then all the kids came and circled around us and then Fernando prayed for us and our well being. Then all of us said goodbye and, wow, what amazing emotions came out when everyone started crying and hugging. It was amazing. Words cannot describe the emotions, the feelings or the love that was passing between their kids and our kids. Goodbye Casa Hogar we will always love you.












We will leave at 8 in the morning and no later, pray for safe travel




P.S. There has been or will be mass flooding and all the residents have been evacuated to safety zones and Casa Hogar is one of those places. Residents have been coming to the school since around 6 this evening. Don't worry, the roads will hopefully be open for travel back to Monterrey. They tell us that road is rarely closed.

P.P.S. Also...please no rain dances.

Jim

BIRTHDAY TIME

Well it just so happen to be Josie's birthday today and of course we had to have a Birthday cake. After the kids got done eating their lunch we had everyone gather in the mess hall and the kids sang Happy Birthday in Spanish, then we sang it in English. Barb said she has never seen Josie smile so much. We all had a birthday card everyone in our group signed and gave to Josie at breakfast. It was also another girl's birthday down here, a girl from the United States who is staying down here for a few weeks. We all hope that Josie's birthday was wonderful and eventful. We will do more for her like give her her 17 birthday pinches (hee hee.) HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSIE!

Jim

Group Photo

Well don´t you worry when it rains we can still have fun. We just gave all the kids tee shirts just like the ones we have to wear home as a token of friendship forever. The phrase on the back says Friends Forever in spanish I do believe that the kids love them and will keep them for a very long time!

Jim

Rained Out

Well the trip to the beach was cancelled because of rain. But here is a group photo.

FINISHING THE SIDEWALK & BBQ

Eric Hutchinson describes the last of work and our evening activity.


We finished the sidewalk today with the help of tarps keeping the drizzle off of our heads. All in all we did about 60 yards of concrete in our rain shortened week.

Since the kids here don't normally get to eat hamburgers we decided to have a barbeque and buy everyone hamburgers for dinner. Chris and I were the master chefs and were complimented on their deliciousness. We made french fries by cutting the potatoes and then attempted to cook the french fries both by frying and grilling them. Both worked to some extent but it was diffucult to get them browned just right. They tasted great anyways. While cleaning we got many "mucho thank you"s. Tomorrow we will be taking the older kids to the beach despite weather forcasts predicting bad weather. So pray for good weather because we are hoping God has different plans than the weather man.



-Eric Hutchinson

Worship Service

This morning we went to a church service in Mante. When we got there the youth praise band was playing (their rock music). They had all the words on the wall so that we could sing along too. Near the end of the worship service people were invited to go up to the front of the church to be prayed for by a visiting pastor. As one man was being prayed for by the pastor he started having convulsions. The man fainted and was shaking for a very long time. This was very different from what we're used to.

After the service we went up to the youth who we met at the BBQ and we all said goodbye to them because we won't get to see them again for a long long time. We exchanged myspaces and e-mails so we could stay in touch and maybe visit each other over the summer next year.

Ashley

Concrete Angel

Chris Montgomery weighs in on Saturday's work.



Today we have made more progress in a half day or so than we have all week. It has been raining non stop! So today we decided to battle the elements. We cut tarps to length and draped them over the barbed wire fence and a soccer field right next to the pour site. We cut 7 or so tarps to length and created an awesome little club house for our pour site. It was roughly 20 yards or so in length that we poured. The poor mix crew got caught out in the middle of the rain. Luckily for them the rain came in waves so they weren't always caught with bucketloads of water falling on them.

Today everything seemed to run like clockwork. The cement mixing machine started up within the first five pulls and we were able to keep all the materials that we needed in stock. Today, however was not without it's stress. We only had the half day because of the bilingual youth service in town. Also, when the rain would come over the mix crew we would have to cover the "cemex" or the mix that we were using. Everybody always seemed to be running somewhere in a hurry to cover something up or fix some mistake within the concrete, jiggling it down next to the stadium. At one point we had Rex out on a 4 by 4 stretching across the forms to try and pat it down. We were lucky Rex would have made a fine gymnast.

Surprisingly we were all able to keep our heads and tolerate each other today, for it was a stressful one!

Chris Montgomery

Bilingual worship service

The youth group from Ciudad Mante that attended our worship service last night invited our group to a worship service led by their youth group this evening. Hilary Berner shares about tonight.

Tonight we went to a bilingual worship service. We got to learn about relationships (boyfriend/girlfriends). We did alot of singing. They sang half of the songs in spanish and the other half in english (Rockband style). I really liked it because I felt like we were all bonding together to worship God....



The youth groups are in some ways very different. Yes we all do our lessons... But here in mexico they do alot of singing and have their own praise band consisting of only young people. I really liked how the kids seemed to get alot from the message and I felt so much closer to God. After the service we talked to some of the kids from Mexico and expressed what we felt during the worship service.

In other news...I have finally caught up with my sleep from bell tour. I feel like I am more awake and ready to do my share in work.

¡Hilary!

4th of July BBQ... well, sort of

We had a small little gathering that happened to fall on the 4th of July here tonight. No fireworks, but lots of fellowship and mountains of food. JOsie Bockelie talks about the evening.









Tonight we had a Barbeque with the Casa hogar Kids and the Local Youth Group kids from Vida Nueva in Mante (132 people). One group of kids from CUMC helped the Casa Hogar kids to facilitate Peter's Walk to the Vida Nueva youth group and the other CUMC group was hanging out in the main building fellowshiping with the youth who had been through Peter's Walk already. After everyone had gone through Peter's Walk, CUMC served the food for the barbeque. We had Carne Asada (35 kilos) with guacamole and salsa (30 liters), we also had bean soup (44 kilos of refried beans). The spicy guac and salsa killed all the americans taste buds. The locals all laughed at us when we told them it was muy hot.

After we were done eating we all went outside in the still drizzling rain and played a game. Everyone links arms in a circle with a chair in the middle, if you touch the chair, you're out. With everyone pushing and pulling in oppostite directions i'm surprised more people didn't get hurt.



It was cool to see these very different groups come together.

Josie

Friday, mid-day report

HOLA! We have been working our tails off, every morning we've been waking up at 7:00 o'clock and concreting at 8. It has been raining on and off for the last 2 days, and it's been making it difficult to work. Today it started to rain, and we had to cover the wet concrete with plastic. The people at Casa Hogar had us make the side walks a half a foot off the ground, and they were right. The water forms in around the side walks to cover the grass and make it look like a pond. It is so wet that i haven't been dry for 2 days straight and when it isn't raining, i'm still wet, because it's so humid. The food is really good and the kids are very cute and nice. My Spanish is getting good too, and some of the kids know some English.

There are a lot of bugs. There are mostly gnats, but there are also red ants all over my bed and in the bathroom sinks. One night I woke up and saw this black thing so I turned on the light and it was a salamander!

Everyone is having a blast (including the bugs)!

Andy

Worship in Tropical Paradise

Thursday's Devotional was about Fellowship. Scott Reinhard shares his experiences where we have had opportunities to fellowship with each other and the kids here at Casa Hogar.



On Wednesday night, the Casa Hogar staff and children held a worship, as they do on every Wednesday night. There was singing, dancing, shouting, and jumping up and down for Jesus! This activity was such a blessing to our group for us to bond with the children, as well as worshiping God in a manner not many people get a chance to do. They were singing their routine worship songs, similar to our "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and "Lord I Lift Your Name on High." The funny thing was that I felt as if I were worshiping in my own church with my friends and family, though I was surrounded by complete strangers that I couldn't even understand! But the praising of our similar Lord and Savior brought us together in the way we both could comprehend; we both could take pride and joy in it. We were able to step out of our comfort zone and jump in with the children, singing and dancing and jumping insanely!



I was astonished that these children had such a genuine faith and they had no care in the world trying to hide it. While we were singing a song in which I understood the melody and sang along to, "Here I Am To Worship," I would look around the room and see that kids younger than I had their eyes closed with their hands in the air, singing to God. Not even I am accustomed to doing that at my church around my peers, let alone my peers around me. But here they were, sharing their faith to us complete strangers. Nothing else mattered but the Creator they were addressing. Someday I hope I become like these little children. To have faith like a child.

On Thursday we woke to our routine: breakfast and getting to work on the sidewalk. (I've never been more thankful for breakfast until I came to Mexico, working in these hot and humid conditions!) At ten o'clock, some of us broke out of the working group to help assist with assisting the locals with learning Peter's Walk. (Walking is so much funner with a blindfold on by the way! You should try it sometime!) I think it's awesome that we get to share an experience such as this with new people!



In the early afternoon, we got on a bus and took a half-hour drive to the waterhole/small lake/tropical paradise. Whatever it was, we had a ball there!! We took a little hike in order to get there, and this hike included walking over this swinging bridge high above an enormous river. No worries, nobody fell, but it definitely got our adreneline pumping! Once at the waterhole, we took a swim in the water and absolutely enjoyed each other's company. This little oasis was probably about as big as a football field (American football, not fútbol!) and was surrounded by greenery. Trees and plants to the left, right, in front, behind, and above! It was kind of like a football dome (football happens to be the perfect reference right now), except it was green and humid. There was a river flowing through it, which provided this current that flowed ¡rapido!, and we all had a great time flowing down it, getting helplessly swept away in the water! Such a great getaway.

But the best part of going to the waterhole for me was leaving it. No, not because I hated being there, because I absolutely loved it! But because it started raining.
The bus was waiting for us in a very small green little valley, and the rain came down hard. However it turned into a God moment for me. As we were walking to the bus, I couldn't help but stop, put my stuff down, look up and put my hands to the air. In this tropical paradise, the sky gray and the surroundings green with this perfect tropical rain pouring down. It can't really be described in words, but all I can think of right now is heaven on earth. Though it only lasted about five minutes, it had turned into the most humbling and calming moment in my life. I love the rain and God gave it to me on that Thursday afternoon.

I love it here and I love the kids and I love the friends I'm making and I love God! Thanks :)

Scott Reinhard

Working on Wednesday!

Today was the first day we poured concrete. There were 3 teams working. One on mixing and shoveling sand, rocks and cement into the revolver, one transporting concrete with wheelbarrows,and one smoothing the concrete once it was in the forms we made the day before.


Josie and I were in charge of the revolver. We had a few spills, but all in all it was a great day! We finished about 22 meters of sidewalk along the front of Casa Hogar.

We had awesome team work and I have really seen our group grow together.

Thanks for all your support!
Corrie Haven

Hola hola, pepsi-cola!!

One of the kids in the CUMC took the initiative to acquire several dresses and help the girls here at Casa Hogar to alter them so they would each have a new dress. She talks about this below.



I'm not going to tell you who this is because there are going to be so many errors that i'm ashamed. (i dont know how to spell check on this computer because everything is in spanish, and nothing is where its supposed to be on the keyboard)

A few girls are working on a project of providing dresses for the girls at Casa Hogar. Naturally not all of the dresses that were donated fit the girls perfectly so alterations had to be made. All the little girls were so happy to recieve their dresses, we had a massive try-on party. one girl would take a dress off that didnt look good and throw it and another girl would grab it mid-air and put it on. The sewing machine is set up in the dining hall and amy spends hours sitting hunched over in front of it, half the time she is sewing and the other half she is coaxing the machine to work. but so far everything has been wonderful. Everyone got a dress that fit, and the girls are ecstatic.



We have been blessed with copious amounts of rain this week. all the CUMC kids are like "rain? whats that?!?!?" its the kind of rain that soaks you to the bone if you are outside for more than a few minutes! It's wonderful! The little kids look at us like we are nuts when we are frolicking in it, which we actually kind of are... Anyway, we haven't taken to showering outside yet but we might as well... the water pressure is better and the water is warmer outside.

As a side note, most of the people who frolick have no dry clothing left because the humidity is so intense that nothing dries. Didn't really think that through. Oh well.

Becca is making me tell you who i am (VIA FORCE!), but hopefully you wont go back and spell check this after you read it. Please don't.

peace and love from Mexico
-amy kiechle.

Angel making

Becca Wood and her family made little angel necklaces to hand out to the children here at Casa Hogar upon their completion of Peter's Walk. As the children will be performing Peter's Walk for the community on Friday, Becca and some other kids helped some children make necklaces to give out to those who will participate.



Today Hilary and I made some of the angel necklaces and keychains for Friday´s Peter's Walk presents. We worked with two of the girls from Casa Hogar. At first, working with them was a little awkward, because they didn't speak any english, and it was hard to know what to say. I speak a little bit of spanish, and Hilary doesn't speak spanish at all; we taught them how to make the angels via body language and numbers (ex, "dos," point to knots = tie two knots.) After a while, though, we started feeling more comfortable around each other. We asked basic questions, like, "What television program were you watching next door?", or "How many brothers or sisters do you have?" We felt more comfortable teaching each other, or teasing each other. We tried teaching Hilary a few words in spanish, but it didn't really work out so well. They made fun of Hilary and I, because neither of us could talk and work at the same time. So much for girls being able to multi task... It was a lot of fun, because even if we didn't know exactly how to say something, or didn't know the word we needed, they helped to fill in the blanks, and they understood that our grammar most definitely would not ever be absolutely perfect. It was a really fun way to get closer the the kids, and working together is a really nice way of breaking down the barrier between us Americans and the kids, because sometimes, you didn't even need to talk. Just working together was enough.

Becca

A word from your Senior Editor

Uploading pictures has proven to be a larger task (and much slower) than expected. We will continue to add posts everyday but can't promise that there will be pictures until we are back in Utah and have a little faster interweb connection.

Thanks for reading!

This is your Senior Editor signing off...

Paseo De Pedro

Today the youth led the kids here at Casa Hogar in Peter's Walk (Paseo de Pedro). Associate Editor Luke Peralez has been planning since his visit here last year to help lead this walk through Peter's faith journey. He shares the Paseo de Pedro experience below.





Well, everything went well. It took a lot of preperation and patience but we finally got our wish of presenting Peter's Walk to the children and staff here at Casa Hogar!!! Even through some of the confusion and attention span loss (some of the little kids) I think that we provided a very holy and enriching experience. We led everyone through different rooms of the school that is on-site here at Casa Hogar. This proved to be very hard trying to move around twenty-eight (and twenty-two) people that were blindfolded. Even though many of the kids were not as focused as we hoped, I think that many of them will look back and realize how much of an amazing experience this was. It was one thing to go through and experience it but to be able to be a part of helping with it was such a privilege and definitely something that none us will forget.


I (Luke P.) read the part of Peter for the very first group. I was really nervous because I did not know if everyone would be able to understand what I was reading. I think that me and Eric Hutchinson (who was "Peter" for the 2nd group) did a pretty good job. Me and Drew Frisbee also sang the song, Were you there when they crucified my Lord. Everyone did a really good job and we all hope and pray that we may continue to have more amazing experiences like this with the remainder of our time here.



Dios bendiga (God Bless),

Luke

Work Work Work

The first day of work here at Casa Hogar is complete. There were a few rain delays, but lots of work was done.

Post by Jim Malin:

Well today was our first day of working. We started the day off by splitting into teams and starting on various activities. One team helped Barb with setting up Peter's Walk and another started on preparing the concrete. Once the Peter's Walk people were finished with their work they happily joined the other team with the concrete. We are working in a different area which means no big trees like last year to shade us...mucho hot-o. Some of the concrete is so far gone that when we shovel down we shovel two to three feet deep holes that are about 5 feet across. This makes it difficult to walk around sometimes. Some of the forming was completed today and all the supplies were dropped off so tommorrow we will be MIXING!!!! ...and obviously pouring. Hopefully tommorrow we will get lots done. Everyone is tired but worked hard. Sleep well little children because tommorrow will be more difficult hee hee. That's all for now.

Señor Malin (Jimmy)

And they are here...

Everyone made it to Casa Hogar safely, arriving at about 7:30 pm this evening. This busy travel day inlcuded:

* A 5:30 AM flight where the youth and their rides had to arrive at the aeropuerto at 3:30

* A tight connection in Houston

* A six hour bus ride that felt more like 26 hours

* A hearty welcome from the kids we will be living in community with and a great dinner.

We promise to have more interesting and entertaining posts throughout the rest of the week. All of the events listed above have all of us tuckered out...

Senior High Youth Missions Trip to Casa Hogar Orphanage, Mexico

And They Are Off . . . to the Casa Hogar Orphanage in Mexico. 6 Leaders and 11 Youth met at the Salt Lake International Airport at 3:30 this morning to begin their day long journey to Mexico. After flying to Houston and on to Monterey, Mexico, they will then travel 5 hours by bus before reaching their final destination.


Our thanks to Barb, our wonderful youth leader for organizing the majority of the trip.


The travelers seemed more awake and enthusiastic than the parents who accompanied them to the airport!!

Good Luck to our CUMC ambassadors as they do God's work during the next few days.