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August 21-22, 2007
After coffee and breakfast Chuck and I help Jeff pick up camp. Even though he’s going to be here a couple more days he doesn’t need all this stuff out. We rinse off and pack up the dishes and silverware, pots and pans, propane cook stove, four tables from Evergreen that need to go back, and two huge plastic trunks of other stuff. Wow, we Americans really know how to acquire stuff! Then the food needs to be dealt with. I carry up one cooler of food to the kitchen area of the rehab and ask where I can put it, explaining that it’s theirs now. I tell them I have more coolers, and ask where I can leave that stuff. Two guys instantly begin walking down to our camp. I don’t have to carry anything else… they take it all. It’s a little embarrassing how much stuff we had to eat when they were eating donations, but there were reasons for it. They will probably make many nice meals with the leftover hamburger, turkey breast and carnita fixings we added to their pantry.
After dealing with the team stuff, we have to deal with our own stuff. Yuck. Chuck does the organizing and heavy lifting, I do everything else and pretty soon the Jeep is loaded up.
Oscar wants to pray over us so we go to the main eating area and someone sounds the horn and all the guys come. The men stand in a semicircle while Oscar gives a speech about how much we helped them. It never seemed like that much to me, so it is a little humbling. I suppose the oven will change how things work over time, as the rehab accepts fewer handouts and does more for them, but I didn’t view it as that much until Oscar gets all choked up.
Oscar mentions the kids and I am touched by his prophetic word over David. He will slay giants, just like King David, Oscar says. Just as King David picked up rocks from a streambed as a boy and killed giants, so will David, who picked up rocks from the streambed, slay giants. He presents us with a beautiful handmade card thanking our family for coming. Rogelio drew the picture on the card and did some elegant hand lettering inside. He refers to Frankie as “The Princess.” So Oscar gets the last laugh on that one. Chuck has always expected Frankie to say “I’m tough” when she needs to get on with something hard. Oscar noticed Chuck teaching her to say “soy dura” and taught her to say “soy princesa” instead. All the men signed the card. There are, 28 signed names on the card and some marks from someone who doesn’t know how to write. I really don’t cry easily, but this is so touching its hard not to.
Everyone shakes hands with us or hugs us. Only Oscar and Pina rate hugs from Frankie, but I hug anyone I know pretty well. Funny how these men look so scary on the outside, with gang tattoos and scars, but here at Nueva Vida they’re so lovable. I have spent two weeks under the same roof as many of them, and they have earned my trust. In fact, I hope to be so honored as to have earned theirs.
We get in the Jeep and go as quickly as we can because we both hate goodbyes. As we go down the dusty gravel road Frankie begins to cry. First two big tears come down her dusty face, and then small sobs shake her chest. Both Chuck and I really feel worse now.
The ocean is brilliant in the sunlight. I try to concentrate on engraving the sight of it into my memory. We go past Rosarito, on to the toll booth, pay our toll, and drive like crazy toward the border. It’s already later than we meant to leave so we hope the crossing won’t be too bad.
Almost to the border, in the middle of Tijuana, exactly what I didn’t want to have happen, happens. A funny sound is coming from the top of the Jeep, so we have to pull off the freeway for Chuck to see what’s wrong. I never, ever wanted to step off the Yellow Brick Road in Tijuana. I begin praying like crazy. Chuck manages to fix the problem and we get back on the road we were on. Or so we think, because OTAY is NOT straight ahead. Now we are lost. In Tijuana. All the times I have been lost in Asia and it seemed funny, including getting lost by myself in Bangkok are distant memories. This is the one thing I did not want to happen more than anything else. I must not freak out. I must not freak out. I must pray! So I pray, while smiling and appearing to have complete confidence that everything is peachy. Chuck is concentrating hard on finding the way and I don’t think he’s unconcerned, or even pretending, I think he’s giving this 200% of his attention.
The signs say OTAY ahead. Okay, I can breathe. We get in the right lanes, and we are besieged by street vendors when we slow down for the border crossing wait. We buy churros, mango ice cream with chili sauce, ice cream bars, and lots of things. I feel so good. We never had lunch so we eat every treat we want while we wait. It’s our turn. We show the border worker our passports, the kid’s birth certificates, tell him what souvenirs we’re bringing home, and cross the border. There is a certain amount of satisfaction in that, even though we’re missing Nueva Vida.
We buy gas and get back on the freeway in San Diego. We stop only to get gas and go to the bathroom until we stop at In and Out Burger in Bakersfield. Burgers, chocolate shakes, back on the road. Finally we’re in Fresno. We select a Ramada Inn. It has one room left, but it’s a room with two queen size beds, just what we need, so we take it.
Everyone has a long hot shower. The beds are harder than the ones at the rehab, too bad I was really looking forward to box springs. Oh well, I’ll be home by this time tomorrow. We get a good night’s sleep, chow down the continental breakfast, and get on the road. Hillsboro or bust.
Back by the vineyards, olive groves, stubble fields, poopy pig smell, almond trees and more. It’s all reverse of two weeks ago… I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. We eat more fast food, we drink more Diet Coke. We shift in our seats. At Roseburg we decide we need Chinese food to make life worth living, so we pull off the road, ask at a gas station where the best Chinese food is, drive to a mall and eat up.
Back on the road. Back by the rivers, orchards, berry farms and more. Almost home. We pass signs for Albany, Salem, Woodburn and we can see Portland! We take highway 217 to TV Highway. Almost home. Imlay Avenue! Home!!
We stumble in to bed. We’re tired, but we have made it home! God is so good! Now we can enjoy culture shock for the next few days as we readjust.
Anne
August 20, 2007
Jeff drives Lynn, Donnita and Jessica back to San Diego to catch their flight home. Chuck and I are staying at Nueva Vida so that Chuck can keep work on the oven going while Jeff is on the road. We had planned on leaving today, but yesterday I called the hotel and cancelled our reservation for tonight.
The day is very quiet without everyone else. The kids spend most of the day either looking for smooth rocks from the riverbed to go over the oven, or helping me make bookmarks as a thank you present to the Nueva Vida guys. When we get tired of the hot riverbed we go back to our shady table. Thirty-two bookmarks take most of the day.
At last I give the bookmarks to Edgar to distribute to the guys after we leave. In less than an hour I see people with bookmarks. When Jeff returns he says men can’t wait to tell him how much they like the bookmarks. It is a little embarrassing. Good thing I am used to people not understanding everything I ask for when English is their second language.
We have leftover carnitas as sandwiches for dinner. The kids are happy about just having sandwiches, and I’m happy with no dishes. We eat in the dark, and finally go to bed. For the first time ever I’m really sorry to go home from a mission trip. Usually I spend the last two days of a mission trip missing home desperately. Not this time, it’s just too wonderful here. Even without enough water, even with no electricity, the presence of the Holy Spirit is so sweet here at Nueva Vida that my soul feels truly fluid, peaceful, the way I always suspected that a soul should feel.
Anne
August 19, 2007
We all got up early to be at church for the 9:00 am service. I tried to clean up David and Frankie for church as well as I could, but there was no water left in the tank. I washed Frankie’s hair with water I scrounged up from the bottom of a big jug. We played beauty parlor. She sat in a chair and I poured the water back over her head and we talked beauty parlor talk.
At church we stood in the back to make room for people because we knew this service would be full. Pastor Miguel was a little concerned with this. I think he likes to make sure he is a good host. The service was so full people had to stand in the courtyard looking in through the door. The new church can’t be built a moment too soon.
When the kids were dismissed for children’s church we took a bean bag game of our own devising which Chelsea and I had made bean bags for with socks and rice upstairs to kid’s church. Pastor Juan has two beautiful daughters, the older of which, Mindy, took us from class to class. We had so much fun giving out candy with our game and spending more time with the kids. The kids at La Hermosa church are a real credit to the people here. The nursery was brimming full of babies! We women all wished we could step in and hold babies, but we contained ourselves.
In between services we drink Coke and make small talk in the courtyard. David plays in the dirt in spite of how hard I have worked to get him clean. I banish unchristian thoughts regarding parenting him.
At the start of the second service Pastor Juan’s wife Chella calls us up the front of the Church to say goodbye. It is hard not to cry, because I know I’m really going to miss this place. Everyone prays for us and we get down and go to kid’s church to play our game with the other kids. Many of the second service kids were here for the first service. They must have parents serving someplace. We give out lots of candy, and make a clean get away.
We stop at Office Depot so I can break a $100 for some shopping. Then by Calimax to break another one, so I don’t have to worry about it anymore. They give me all my change in dollars so there will be no problem when I go home. Nice!
After a wonderful lunch, where we all eat family style, helping ourselves to the same plate of carnitas, we do a little more shopping before heading back to the beach. We decide on the same beach as yesterday, due to the lack of garbage there. We also like that we can see the van from the beach when we park there.
Today the waves are rougher than they were yesterday, and I don’t stay out and play in the water as long. David doesn’t either. We head up to the showers to rinse all the sand off ourselves. The showers are primitive, and there is no privacy as they have clear doors. You have to hang your towel over the door for privacy, but I still wouldn’t change my clothes in there.
After changing we go back down to the beach and watch the sun set before heading back to the rehab. When we get there we find the generator is running and the guys are about to watch a movie. Donnita and I run to use the bathroom while the light is on. Using the bathroom without holding a flashlight has now become a rare treat.
David goes to watch the movie with the rehab guys while Chuck builds a fire in a little clay fireplace. He finally gets the ironwood to burn! For the last two weeks we have been unable to do this. Oscar told me that they get the ironwood to burn by pouring oil on it. Chuck has been refusing to pour oil on it, he gets it to burn anyway, and we all roast marshmallows for s’mores. David comes out for a s’more and goes back to finish the movie. The rest of us enjoy the fire and the last night of each others company.
Anne
August 18, 2007
At 6:00 am this morning we are all awakened as the rehab guys come upstairs and take a lot of chairs that were being stored up there. They crash and bang the chairs. I wonder if they are having fun waking us up.
First thing this morning we all put on our best clothes and try to fix up the best we can for Pastor Juan’s induction ceremony. Today Pastor Juan becomes the district supervisor for Foursquare Baja, and we are all invited to this event, which will be held at his home.
There are tables with soda preset on them spread out across the courtyard of Pastor Juan’s home. The chairs around the tables are, of course, the ones that were upstairs at the rehab today.
The ceremony was simple. There was a little music, courtesy of the La Hermosa worship leader. There were various awards given out. The pastors were each anointed and then they anointed Pastor Juan for his new position. Evergreen kids were very well behaved during the ceremony. Especially Frankie, who sweetly put her head down on the table and slept through the whole ceremony.
We were served on of the best meals of my life after the ceremony. I have worked in fine dining for many years and have eaten few meals like this. Especially when you take into account the simple ingredients used to prepare it. It turns out that this feast was accomplished my Yoli’s mother. After the good food we had at her home previously I’m not surprised.
During the ceremony many of the guest’s children had been playing on a trampoline in the far reaches of Pastor Juan’s yard. Now Frankie and Jessica go have a turn on the trampoline while we socialize with Foursquare missionaries. At last we realize we really should be going. We say goodbye and ride off.
We try to caravan to the store to do errands but we end up getting separated from the men. It’s a little scary to be lost in Tijuana, but we manage to get back on the right road and head to Calimax. At Calimax we buy candy for a game we want to play with the kids at La Hermosa tomorrow morning. Then we do a little shopping in the tourist area for last minute souvenirs.
When we got back to Nueva Vida, we asked to go to the beach. It was 5:00 pm and Chuck thought it was too late, but we outvoted him and he came along. We went to small, close by stretch of beach. We were able to park the van where we could see it and there were some small “showers” included with the price of parking. There was a very steep hill to walk down to get to the beach, but once we did the beach was fairly clean compared to the other one.
I was just going to duck in the water and get wet, but the water is warmer than I thought and I so I stay in. Jeff is out with David, giving him tips about safety in the ocean. Jeff used to be a surfer so I feel pretty safe out there. Chuck was a little worried about us, I guess we went out farther than he would have liked, but again, the water felt so good! I haven’t played in the ocean like that for years.
When we we’re done we drive into town for coffee drinks. I’ve been high on the Mexican ocean for the last few hours, but downtown Rosarito brings me back a little. The street vendors are still working. There are the exact same people we ladies saw earlier when we were shopping. Some of these women have very small children gathered around them, sleeping or even working. It’s 9:30 pm. I am sad. Children should be at home at this time of night. At the very least they shouldn’t be working. I wish I could give every one of these ladies $20 and send them home. I can’t, even if my bank account could handle it, I have no money on me at all. I pray for them, which they probably need more than $20, even though I wish I could do something for them right now. I’m an American at heart and it’s hard to get over the thought that enough money could just fix the problems and move on to trusting God.
We drive back to the rehab to get some sleep; we need to be up early for our big day tomorrow.
Anne
August 17, 2007
Right after breakfast today we get right down to planning today’s cheeseburger event to the most careful detail. This is an annual event, looked forward to by rehab workers. As many cheeseburgers as the men can eat, courtesy of Evergreen Christian Center. We must be ready to do this right. Our church honor is on the line.
Lynn, Donnita and I spend the morning peeling, slicing and chopping fruit for the fruit salad. Papaya, mango, watermelon, grapes, apples, and much more go into a huge pot. Seasoned and stirred by Lynn, the fruit is ready to be covered with Chile lime seasoning. We slice tomatoes, we wash lettuce, and we open condiments. I didn’t say we cut the cheese, even though I wanted to. Moving on… the kids set up and run a soda station where they serve sodas to the men.
At 1:30 the men come through the line and they eat. Boy do they eat. It is so gratifying that they eat so well and have a great time of fellowship. They sit at the picnic tables that we have been using and they talk and laugh. They laugh and talk. I wonder when I have seen an American group of men fellowship like this without beer. Not very often, but it does happen.
Then they wash their van for church and this time they insist on washing our Jeep and Kevin’s van for church too. We don’t argue about it. They clean up the Jeep so well that I’m embarrassed at the way I usually clean my car. We get our clean clothes on and head off for church.
Friday night church at La Hermosa is wonderful. The worship is intoxicating, and the kids are pretty great too. I look down and see both my children completely entered into worship, and I thank God for this sign of His faithfulness. When we go upstairs to start our craft we see a big pile of kids by the door of the preschool/ kindergarten room. It turns out that under the pile of kids is Pastor Juan. They all want to kiss him on the cheek before class. I am practically in tears before we even start now. My translator for the night is a cheerful young man named Luigi. Luigi speaks great English and doesn’t mind helping me find the right Spanish word when I try to communicate with a young person. Time and time again a little person shows me their completed bookmark and I say with feeling, “Mi gusto!” Wow, do I ever like everything they do. The kids are talented in their artwork. We even have time at the end of our craft for Pastor Miguel’s wife, Yoli to do a short lesson.
Chuck and Jeff went to “class” with Pastor Juan and are totally excited about the lesson he spoke into their life. We leave the church, the kids ride in the van with everyone else and Chuck and I get a half hour of peace in the Jeep on the ride home. We snack in the dark and head off to bed.
Anne
August 16, 2007
All of the water here at Nueva Vida is pumped out of a hand dug well that is about 40 feet deep. The well only has about 3 feet of water in the bottom. The guys on well duty sit down at the well with the generator going to work the pump and work all day long to try to fill up the big water tank on the hillside. I try to make sure not to waste water at all.
One of the rehab men is watering some plants when the faucet brakes and water to sprays everywhere. He tries to catch some with a bucket and I bring over some tubs that we use as sinks to wash dishes with. Jeff managed to fix the faucet temporarily.
We head to Calimax to buy the rest of the things that we will need to fix the rehab men cheeseburgers with tomorrow. We also decide to buy things for Saturday morning ministry, should we be invited again. As we drive along we brainstorm, and by the time we get to Office Depot we are on a roll. Francisco will probably need a margarita after the way we run him all over the store, but he is so helpful, we can’t help ourselves. If he even thinks about helping another customer Lynn has him paged. We buy cardstock, contact paper, markers, and ask to cut the cardstock using their paper cutter. They agree to let us use their paper cutter and it takes only a couple of minutes to cut out 120 bookmarks.
Jeff gets out the cotton candy machine that we were going to use during the children’s festival. At least we can make some cotton candy for everyone. Lynn and I start to carry the machine into the main hall when two men come out of nowhere to carry it for us. Funny how it never feels creepy like we’re being watched, but when you need something it comes without you having to ask for it, right away.
It’s very fun to watch Frankie and Jessica passing out cotton candy to the men. Each batch that Jeff and Chuck make brings more delight. It’s really great to make other people happy with simple efforts. How happy you can make someone with baby Tylenol, markers, toothpaste, cotton candy is one of the best things about missions in my experience.
At our beautiful outdoor cooking area we start writing a Bible verse on our bookmarks. All 120 bookmarks have a prewritten verse on them:
Te alabo porque soy una creacion admirable! Salmo 139:14
This goes faster than it might have though; it’s really fun to work with all the girls outside. I really like this outdoor lifestyle. Cooking outdoors, eating outdoors and sitting in the sun and moving into the shady gentle breeze when the sun gets too hot. This is an ideal climate. When all the bookmarks are done we put them away with the rest of the things we need to take to La Hermosa to finish the craft with the kids.
Dinner is pan-seared steak fajitas. Need I say more?
Anne
August 15, 2007
Chuck has been getting up early to make everyone breakfast every day, but today since we are all working together to fix pancakes and eggs for the rehab guys we let him sleep in. I get up first and put some water on to boil to make coffee with. Donnita soon joins me and we make coffee and plan our attack work on breakfast. Chuck soon joins us, clearly he can’t sleep in to save his life. He adds his two cents to our breakfast plan. Jeff and Lynn come down and we begin work.
Working together we manage to serve everyone by 8:30, the normal breakfast time for the rehab guys. The kids are very helpful in the process. They carry food to the room where we are serving the food; they help set up and when we are done serving food David and Jessica offer juice or milk in Spanish to the men. Since we served everything on paper plates there are no dishes and we all go back to the campsite to clean things up and it goes shockingly quickly.
Laundry is never far from my mind, here in Rosarito, so I ask Jeff what the chances are that he could drop me off at a laundry mat while he runs errands. He says he can do this and Donnita wants to come. Lynn, Donnita and I all quickly grab laundry and Donnita, Jessica and I head off to do laundry.
The lavamatica is full of people and we have to be patient to get enough machines for all our laundry. One of the machines has a dead “washed” tarantula in it. I take a deep breath and fling it out of the machine, earning the admiration of Donnita. Jessica makes the cutest little friend. A beautiful four-year-old girl follows her around the lavamatica and Jessica is great with her. Jeff arrives at just the time that we finish the laundry and are at the door looking for him. What timing!
We go by the hardware store to order more bricks. Jeff is in a serious state of shock as he heads us out the door. Both Donnita and I are worried and we ask what’s wrong. But nothing is wrong, there is $500 more in his wallet than there was yesterday. He is sure of it because yesterday he counted the money three different times, facing the bills and organizing them each time. As Jeff is a former restaurant manager I am confident that he counted correctly yesterday. Donnita and I are thrilled! Maybe we aren’t out of the woods yet, but God is working.
Back at the rehab Frankie and Lynn have spent the morning reading and making sample crafts for children’s ministry activities. David and Chuck have been working on the oven. All of them ate lunch with the rehab guys so the rest of us eat peanut butter sandwiches. After eating I spend time cleaning our room, sweeping our upstairs area and putting away laundry.
We ladies make quesadillas for everyone with leftover food we had. We feel very thrifty and they are very good. Yum!
Anne
August 14, 2007
Right after breakfast we do as much more painting as we can. Jeff patches some holes in the plaster with concrete and we can’t paint over it until that dries. Lynn and Donnita and I make a plan to fix some meals for the rehab guys. We run our plans by Edgar, and headed off to Smart and Final to buy the groceries.
Lynn drives us to Smart and Final. On the way we need to stop for Lynn to deal with some insurance issues so we do a little shopping while we wait. Frankie buys a bracelet for $1.00 and some m&m style candies. The bracelet turned out to have skeletons on it and she gets upset. The candies didn’t taste good to her and she started to cry. The hot chocolate we had purchased for her was too hot and burned her tongue. She was obviously hitting the wall. David had become unreasonably upset that morning when Chuck had refused to let him have a cup of coffee. I try to breathe deeply and think good mom thoughts, praying for God’s wisdom to deal with what looks like what might be a very long day.
Smart and Final is a good store with decent prices. We had fun choosing the just right things to have for the rehab guys. We had two big carts heaping full of stuff. It took some thought to get it in the van, but we did it and headed back to the rehab.
The rehab guys had fixed Jeff and Chuck lunch, and we had snacked in town so lunch wasn’t an issue. Fortunately we have good blood sugar because we have a problem. The oven is being built with several different materials, the most expensive of which are firebricks. We need a good many more of them to complete the oven than we were told when we began the process.
The money situation isn’t pretty. We spent more than $400 that we hadn’t planned on to go to youth camp, and now we need two more pallets of bricks that cost $2 apiece. We take a moment and pray. We agree to eat peanut butter sandwiches for the rest of the trip to help make up the cost of the bricks and to chip in extra money as needed.
Quickly we fix Chuck and Jeff dinner and then send them into town. We eat and clean up slowly, enjoying the unique atmosphere of Nueva Vida. I pray quietly to myself and I’m sure Donnita and Lynn are praying silently also. Frankie and Jessica play together and David takes a shower. The day is over.
Anne
August 13, 2007
Today Chelsea and Stephanie have flights back to Oregon so Lynne is going to drive them across the border to San Diego. They are packed and ready to go by 9:30 am. It’s hard to see them go. Frankie especially doesn’t want to see them go and holds onto Chelsea for all she’s worth. Finally we watch the van go down the dusty road and we get down to business.
We have some white paint that Chuck bought at the Commercial store. Donnita, Jessica, Frankie and I are going to paint the back porch rail. We have the whole day to give to a project while Lynne drives Stephanie and Chelsea back to San Diego. Jeff goes to clear this with Oscar. When told that we have two gallons of white paint Oscar asks if we could paint the men’s bathroom instead. Jeff tells him we live to serve. We are really tickled to do something that Oscar wants done.
We drag out our paint and brushes and Oscar brings out some rollers that I would have thrown out long ago, but they are what we have, so we accept graciously. Jeff gives us a general plan of how he would proceed, and we get started. The girls are enthusiastic painters and I am very proud of both of them. Donnita doesn’t want to paint over some of the rough plaster on the ceiling so I go ask for sand paper.
When I ask for sand paper, I get a very sad look, but the man goes into the kitchen and returns with a roll of toilet paper. I realize this is may be all the toilet paper they have right now and he is willing to give it to me so I try hard not to laugh. Instead I demonstrate what I want by pretending to sand a piece of wood. Two guys laugh and go get me some metal mesh stuff that I think drywall workers use, but which should work. When they see how Donnita and I work they nicely move us out of the way and sand all the plaster on the whole bathroom ceiling in a few minutes. Then we proceed to lay down a coat of paint over the ceiling and go make some sandwiches while we wait for the paint to dry.
I really wish I hadn’t eaten my sandwich, because it turns out that they fixed lunch for us, and it is really delicious but I can’t finish it because I’m full of peanut butter. It is very embarrassing. We determine to carry our plates back to our little “campsite area” where we cook and do dishes and eat, so that no one will see that we haven’t finished our food. We scrape our plates and wash our dishes there so that no one will see our waste. We feel bad about being wasteful because they exist mostly off donated food. I don’t know if this is suffering for the Lord or not, but I really feel like a Big American Pig. I also suspect that we aren’t fooling anyone at all.
Chuck, Jeff and David go back to work on the oven and Donnita and I go back to the men’s room to paint. The cement walls have “drank” the paint that we put on and we can see we don’t have enough paint. We put another coat of paint on the ceiling and walls, using most of the paint we have, and tidy up for the day.
Donnita and I washed some laundry out by hand. This is a talent of mine that I developed in Nepal where there are no washing machines at all. It doesn’t take long to wash our things. Chuck and Jeff turn up to say they are going into town. We ask for more white paint and they agree to get it.
After dark the guys return. We fix dinner in the dark and clean up as quickly as we can. Lynne returns alone, because Kevin decided to catch a flight home with Stephanie and Chelsea. We have the rest of his things here, and we are driving his van, but he doesn’t care. He wants us to use it and bring his things back when we return. Okay! It is hard to see another person leave, but we were blessed to have him.
Anne
August 12,
We slept in and had a leisurely morning before going to the 12:00 o’clock service. I even put on fingernail polish. We got to church 40 minutes early. We parked around the corner so no one could see our dirty Jeep. (Washing your car for church is a cultural tradition here, but we didn’t want to waste water at the rehab.) There was a little concession stand and we bought Cokes to drink while we waited for the early service to end so that we could go inside. When service did let out a man selling ice cream came and sold ice cream to the people streaming out of church. There were different kids from camp there and it was fun to see them and say hi.
The service at La Hermosa is simple, but moving. Rocking worship was followed by a passionate, but understandable, applicable sermon. We all leave knowing that we have been a part of something indefinable. The movement of God in La Hermosa is different from any other church I have been to in the world. And I have been to many Asian churches besides churches in America. There is a presence of the Holy Spirit there so real it can almost be touched… I have experienced that before in other churches myself, it was more than that, and it was less than that because it is a very simple thing. I would like to break it down a little more, but I can’t. If there was a recipe that a church could follow to bring the Holy Spirit into a place like that I know that churches would happily follow it. The real key is probably the love that Pastor Juan obviously has for those he serves. And that is part of the key too, he serves his church, they are not serving him, they are serving God alone when they serve at La Hermosa, which probably greatly contributes to the atmosphere there.
After service we go to lunch with Pastor Juan and his wife Chella and their younger two children at Taco’s La Gloria. We all eat too many tacos. (My own personal account is four tacos, a big bite of Chuck’s torta, and some of Frankie’s taco. I won’t rat out anyone else.) We separate from Pastor Juan, because we must eat until our stomachs rupture evidently, and go get ice cream bars.
At the ice cream store we run into another mission team. One of the girls is wearing a t-shirt from a concert tour Chuck and I went to earlier this summer. Chuck asks where she saw the concert and she answers, “Quest Field,” which is in Seattle, which is where we saw the same concert. It’s a little weird that we were all in the same place thousands of miles away, and all turn up here.
Then we head back to Rosarito to do some shopping and go to the beach. Shopping is fun for the kids; they have never experienced bargaining before. David buys some Mexican jumping beans and Frankie buys some shoes and a backpack. Chuck and I buy a small painting for less than framing it would cost in the US. My grandmother used to bring me back tiny leather purses from Mexico when I was a girl, and now I buy one for myself. It’s very cute, with daisies on it.
My family is done shopping and ready to go to the beach, but it’s a different story when we find Jeff, Lynne and Stephanie. They are taking care of Kevin who is very sick. Lynne goes to a pharmacy, and Jeff goes to find out about a hotel room for him for the night because he obviously can’t stay at the rehab where the bathroom is downstairs in another building far from where we sleep. Stephanie and I pray for Kevin, who says he feels better after the prayer.
I see a policeman and decide to ask where the nearest medical care is from where we are. He is nearly as helpful as policemen in Nepal. He refuses to speak English to me even though I can tell by his accent that he speaks perfect English. I summon my Spanish and carefully phrase my question: “where is the nearest good medical care from where we are?” His answer is simple and to the point, “Los Angeles.” This could be maddening if God wasn’t in control of the situation. Jeff and Lynne return with their missions accomplished.
We go to the beach while Jeff and Lynne take Kevin to a hotel. The water at the beach might be nice if you didn’t have to wade through so much garbage to get in. David doesn’t care about the garbage though, and when he gets out of the water, thoroughly chilled, Donnita has purchased plenty of hot churros that warm him up. We all watch the sun set over the ocean and then go off to find Jeff and Lynn.
A plan is forming in my sneaky little head. When we find Jeff and Lynn I ask if we girls could go take a hot shower in Kevin’s hotel room. Chelsea smiles, she was already on top of this. Lynne is sure Kevin won’t mind, he was feeling a little better when they left. They are on their way back to the rehab to get Kevin’s things, so they will pick us up when they bring him his things. Lynne gives me a special bracelet to show that we are guests at the hotel so we can pass security.
No one at the hotel cares about the bracelet though; it appears to be enough to be white. We walk though the whole hotel with out any problem at all. The hotel is gorgeous, with a large buffet (with lobster) set up by a luxurious pool. We walk past that to Kevin’s room. He was asleep when we got there, but very gracious about letting us shower. The bathroom is large and there is enough hot water for showers for everyone who wants one. Then we all lay on one queen size bed watching the movie Twister, subtitled in Spanish while Kevin sleeps on the other bed.
Jeff and Lynn turn up with Kevin’s things and we all leave. When all of us in the van try to pass the security guard he is a little concerned.
“You just got here,” he tells Jeff.
“I’m just taking some girls out for a drive,” Jeff tells him. This is outrageously funny. There are seven women in the van, some are awfully young, but the security guard gives Jeff a look of deep respect.
Anne
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