Change of plans

You may have heard that we made the decision to keeps groups on the El Paso side due to threats of violence that were supposed to happen the day after our groups arrived on July 31st. I worked that week with a group from Loon Lake Minnesota, the home of Kristine, our summer volunteer from last year.

Originally, their plan was to do a VBS each morning at Sin Paredes, and then do some construction projects there as well. Rosy had told us that they could expect nearly 300 kids each day, so we were kind of freaked out at having to handle that many, but the group was raring to go. Instead, another VBS was held here at the mission, at San Pablo, and two different construction projects were completed: a complete roof in Sparks at the home of Rosa Chavez (the 4th and final time this roof was worked on, each prior time water was able to find a way inside the home), and the painting of building 13.

Even though there was the disappointment at not being able to go to Juarez, at the end of the day, we heard that it ended up being a blessing to the group. They discussed how great the trip was for the two day drive back to Minnesota and are already making plans for a return trip in 2012.

The summer events have wound down, and now I am back to office work, and we have some new super duper exciting things coming about soon, and I look forward to seeing you all as AMIGOS :). Enjoy the pics and have a blessed week.

The theme was Jonah and the big fish

Kristine and her amiga Camila

They had some sweet props

Getting others involved in the action

Two shy guys hiding from the camera

Had some fun games each day

such as bean bag toss

Lunch was also provided

One afternoon's project was to paint number 13

While Freddy (Erin's cat) supervised

The rest of the week was spent on the roof, wish i knew how to cut in a circle with the circular saw, but that's still a pretty good cut.

I would only let Kristine and Erin on the roof at first because I didn't want anyone damaging the old fragile roof before we had some more support on there. It worked well, except there were a few anxious helpers aching to get up there, they finally did get to go.

Since Erin now as taraphobia, Kristine got to roll the tar, while Erin supervised from the other side of the roof.

Ashley got some (A LOT) of tar on her, so I wrapped her in newspaper so she could ride in the car. We should have thought about how she got a bunch of tile adhesive on her a couple days before and kept her away from the tar.

The group with Rosa. I am sad I didn't get to taste her tea that Erin blogged about before. I wonder if this amazing tea really exists?