A Little Piece of Heaven

I had an absolutely great week this week! I got to spend the week with a group from my church at the City of Children. The City of Children has been one of my favorite places since the first time I went 8 years ago. Throughout the years I have been blessed to build relationships with many of the kids and staff there and always look forward to spending some time with them. Here is some of the hilights for the week:

Saturday: We did some errand running and then Misha and Sara left to go with their group to San Vicente for the week. I stayed behind at the City of Children and waited on my group to get there. When they did, I spent some time with them while they got settled in then we went and had dinner and spent some time with the teens. After dinner and some hang out time, we went back to the rooms to get some rest before really starting the work the next day. I loved getting to see so many people that I love and have missed since I have been gone.

Sunday: We got up and got ready for church. We had service with the kids then Mario took us on a tour of the home. Now I have been on this tour about 27 times, but each time I learn something new. After the tour, we ate lunch with all the kids. I sat with Oscar, the little boy who my family and Leah sponsor. We have been sponsoring him for about a year and a half and everytime it has taken him awhile to warm up to us cause he is very shy. This time though, he sat with me at lunch and talked and gave me a picture he had drawn me. He's a really sweet kid and it made me happy to see him coming out of his shell some. After lunch we had some playtime with the kids. Once again I got to experience the feeling of walking up to a dorm and having a number of kids just shout my name or run up and hug me. There is no other feeling like it. Mike and Reba and the Thurmans sponsor Oscar's sister, Wendy, and our church sponsors a Ana, who just graduated high school this year. That afternoon we were able to get those three by themselves for a bit to give them the presents we brought them. Oscar and Wendy are both still getting used to getting so much attention and love from so many people. You could tell they were a little intimidated at first but they got better as we went along. This is where I have to brag on the group from my church. They technically don't sponsor Oscar or Wendy so really they didn't have to be there. But they have been so great about being loving and accepting of them as well. It was cool to see how close Ana was with everyone from church since we had been sponsoring her for several years and then see that process just starting with Oscar and Wendy. After presents, we got ready for VBS then had dinner. After dinner, we had VBS. My group had the younger medianas (girls from about 6-9). I translated for them and we had a great class. Then we had playtime and group devo before bed.

Monday: On Monday I translated for Reba's dorm mother's class. She did a great job with the class and the ladies really loved it. She gave them each a bag that Brian's wife, Lisa, had made and they LOVED them. Then we went and played with the babies. I love being in the baby dorm, they are so sweet and loving. Its hard to think about some of the abuse and mistreatment some of them have experienced at such a young age but its comforting to know they are at the City of Children now where they will be loved unconditionally and given everything they need. I also translated for the babies VBS on Monday afternoon. We talked about using our hands and feet to please God. We did handprints and footprints for all of the kids in the class. Monday night I translated again for the girls class and had a lot of fun doing it.

Tuesday: On Tuesday I went to El Zorrillo with a small group to help translate the house visits. I love house visits, they are probably my favorite thing to translate. Its great to watch the interaction between people in house visits. It is the one thing that really makes me feel like we are all part of a family. Tuesday night I translated for the class again.

Wednesday: Wednesday I went back to El Zorrillo to translate for the group for that day. One thing we stressed a lot this week in El Zorrillo was doing fewer house visits but really taking time to learn the story of the people who we were visiting. There was a lot of emotions on Wednesday. We visits one member whose brother is dying at a young age, one mother of 5 who was baptized on Sunday but is struggling with the relationship with her husband who is abusive and a drug addict, and Felicitaz whose husband has been unjustly imprisoned for over a year. Each of those were hard visits for me because these are people who I have come to love and I hate seeing each of them going through such a hard time. It was great to see people from the group really step up to say what they could to encourage and support our brothers and sisters. I did my best to translate in a way that conveyed their great love and concern. We had class again Wednesday night for our girls.

Thursday: Thursday we went shopping in Ensenada. It was fun because Ana got to come with us so we got to spend some extra time with her. I bought some toys to take back to Oscar (maybe Leah and I spoil him just a little :) ). We got back to the City and had playtime with the kids. I spent time with Oscar and the rest of the boys and then went to say bye to the babies. I spent a lot of time in the baby dorm this week, mainly because of Carlos. Carlos is Oscar's brother. He's 4 and has always been kind of shy with me when we have done things with for their family during our visits. However this week he was attached to me anytime I was in there. He would just sit in my lap and say my name over and over or we would look at/take pictures together on my phone and camera. Every picture he saw, he would point at each person and say, "mi amigo" (which means my friend for you Spanish slacker), it was adorable! Then it was letter writing time. Thursday ngiht we get to tuck the kids into bed and say bye to them. A lot of people like to give notes to kids who they got close to during the week. There were abotu 6 of us sitting in a room writing the letters. I was trying to help everyone at once, since they wanted to write them in Spanish. It got a little crazy but I loved it. Thursday we did a slideshow for the kids of the pictures of the week. Then we went to tuck them in. Saying bye is never an easy thing but the kids have gone from asking me IF I'm coming back to now asking me WHEN I'm coming back. After that, we had a devo and got everything packed. I stayed up pretty late talking to Lilly and Sophia and Beth, probably not a good idea looking back on it since we had to get up at 5:30 this morning but it was the last night.

I got up this morning and saw them off. It was great seeing so many people that I have loved and missed so much the past couple of weeks. And I love experiencing things like a week at the City of Children or working in Baja missions with people I love.

The leaders from the next group got in this afternoon so we spent some time with them tonight and will be heading out to get shopping done tomorrow morning and then heading to Camulu with the rest of their group in the afternoon. Please pray for the safety of the group as we travel tomorrow and the success of another week in Baja. God is alive and working here and I can't wait to see what He does next.

I wont have internet in Camulu so I will check back in probably Thursday night or Friday. Have a great week and do something nice for someone else this week :) Love you guys!

In His Service & For His Glory.

I'll tell the world, I'll tell everyone I know, that I have found a Savior and He is sweet I know.

God is good!

I'm writing tonight from the Villa Marina, the hotel here in Ensenada. Yesterday I finished my week in El Zorrillo with a group from North Alabama. They brought a group of about 16 to visit and spent the week doing house visits and a medical clinic as well as a VBS at night. It was a special week for me because I got to spend it in El Zorrillo, where I lived last summer. I have missed the people there so much so I really enjoyed getting to spend time with them again. I can't explain how great it feels to walk into a church and have so many people just yelling your name for you to come see them. Knowing that they remember who I am just means so much to me. One lady told me that the other day her son said, "Mom, Siobhan hasn't been here in like a month, isn't it time for her to come back?" It makes me so hapy to know they are thinking of me even when I can't be with them.

I spent most of the week translating in the medical clinic. We saw just under 150 people in 3 days so we were pretty busy. I really enjoyed getting to do my part to help make people feel better. Most of the stuff was just body pain and cold/sinuses but we had some more serious stuff as well. It was hard to translate some of the conversations because it meant telling people bad news about their health. I really just had to rely on God to give me the courage and wisdom to say the right things. 

I also translated some house visits. I loooooove house visits. There is something that is just so special about being in someone's home with them, really gives you the feeling of being a family. We visited a lot of people that had fallen away from the church. One of them was a girl my age, who had a small baby. I translated all that the group wanted to say to her and then I talked to her some. I told her that for me, being a Christian is a decision that I have to make everyday. True, I made the decision once to be baptized, but that isn't all that being a Christian is. Everyday I have to decide that I want to live for Christ that day and I want to be His light. Kate has a devo book that we read from and last week it had one about being still. It talked about how often times we are so obsessed with making plans and getting things done that we don't just be still and let God be God. If we let him, God will give us the strength for that day. Too often I get stressed out about the future, what it will look like and how I will do certain things, instead I need to, day by day, make the decision to let God rule my life and trust him to give me the strength that I need to get through today. 

All in all, it was a great week in El Zorrillo. Then we got back to Ensenada and I found out that Pilar had gotten an email from a guy that lives here in Ensenada. His dad is a pastor here and he found my passport. He also found my Baja Missions songbook. He looked up the Baja Missions website, found email addresses, and sent emails saying that he had found my stuff. So when I got back to the City of Children, Pilar got his phone number and called him and arranged for us to meet. He came and met a group of us last night and he had my passport, my Bible, the songbook, my photo album, my journal, and a book I was reading. Most of that isn't of financial value, but it meant a lot for me to get them back. It also meant so much knowing that someone had taken the time to find it, look up the website, send emails, and then come met me to bring it. It was a great end to the week.

Today we got up and ran some errands. Then we went to the City to wait for the group. I won't be going with them because I am staying at the City this week since a group from my church is coming. They are going to be going back down to San Vicente. We went shopping this afternoon and then went to dinner with them. They are a great group, be praying for safety and success for their trip this week. 

Tomorrow is going to be a greeeeeeeeeat day! I will get to see the people coming from my group when they get to the City in the afternoon and then spend the week there with them. I am so excited to see everyone. I love working for Baja but the City of Children has a special place in my heart and I am so glad to have the opportunity to be there this week. Pray for the group as they travel tomorrow and spend the week loving on some very special kids. 

I think thats about it for tonight. I'm drained from a busy week and a busy day off as well. I absolutely love what I am doing and am excited for the rest of the summer. I will check back in with you guys Friday. I hope everyone has a safe and blessed week. Do something nice for someone else today :)

In His Service & For His Glory

I Don't Know How It Gets Better Than This.

Well week one is officially finished. We just said our goodbyes to an incredible group from Woodland Trace and are now trying to kind of process the week and get some rest in before we head out again. 

I honestly could not have asked for a better week. I am learning so much and can feel myself growing as a person each day. It is amazing the stuff you can learn to live without when you just don't have it. I prayed before I left that God would do whatever He needed to do in order for me to accomplish the things He has set out for me to do this summer and I am trusting Him that that is exactly what He is doing. 

So we spent the week in San Vicente with the preacher, Antonio, his wife, Nelly, and their kids, Christian, Itzel, and Alejandra. They are an incredible family. They have been there less than 2 years but they are doing incredible things for the church there. I am so glad I got to meet them and spend some time with them this week. Stuff I did this week included working in the medical clinic, translating kids classes, and translating conversations between the group and the members of the church. I was nervous at first but this group was so encouraging and positive that it made it so much easier for me to just jump into doing what I needed to do. 

I loved meeting and spending time with the kids and families from the church. But I can honestly say that I never expected to make friends like I feel like I did on this trip with the group members. They never once treated us just like translators but instead made us part of their group. They were always appreciative of what we were doing and understanding of the fact that its not an easy job. Before we left in Ensenada, Kate, Sara, and I had talked about doing "Summer Superlatives" for fun throughout the summer. Just maybe keeping something going that would remind us of the couple people who really stuck out to us. But Tuesday we decided we could not think of one person who did not stick out to us from that group. So we made a superlative for each person, highlighting the characteristics that made them special to us this week. We gave them out last night and I think they really enjoyed it. Its not something we will do with every group but this really was a special group to all three of us. I've already planned to go and visit them when I get home and I am just so grateful to God for putting them in my life.

Tonight Kate and Sara will head out with Alejandro. They are going to be staying here in Ensenada and working with the church in Maneadero this week. Misha and I will be working with the church in El Zorrillo and we start that tomorrow. I won't have internet at the hotel in Zorrillo but I will check in with you guys again next weekend. I am beyond excited to see my friends and family in El Zorrillo this week and spend time with them. Living there last summer caused me to build a ton of relationships and I am excited to get to see all of those people again. 

Sorry this post is kind of all over the place. I have a ton of thoughts running through my head but not a lot of time to get all of this in so I'm kind of jumping around. 

Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers. I know some of you have been worried with some of the stuff that has happened but just know that we are all safe and very happy. God is teaching us to be content in whatever circumstance we are in and I am grateful for that. Hope you all are having a great week and please continue to pray for the groups and people here in Baja.  Love you guys!

In His Service and For His Glory.

Give Me Your Peace, Oh Lord

Well the week/summer got off to a rough start but everyone is safe. Other than that bump in the road, things are going great. This first group is from Woodland Trace Church in Jasper, Alabama. They are a great group. From the start they have been very welcoming of the translators. Yesterday was kind of chill with church services going on but that evening Franco and his family and some others from Zorrillo came. Franco preached last night and it was wonderful to see him and so many others from last summer. Today was our first hardcore day of translating. Before we started this morning, Sara, Kate and I gathered to have a prayer together. We prayed and thanked God for allowing us to be a part of this group and also prayed for us to stay positive and encouraging during the week. We prayed that we could do the job that God has called us to do this summer. I translated in the medical clinic today. I worked with a doctor from the group and we saw about 25 people from 9-12. It was a great experience. I have a lot of room for improvement but I was able to get everything across that needed to be communicated. Later, Matt and Alejandro came by. It was great to see them and talk to them. All of the translators were together for the first time and we talked about the coming weeks and what the plan was. One of the things that Matt said that I loved was, "God has given you talents and abilities. It is not an accident that you are here." It was really good to hear that because I know Kate and I both have been anxious to get started because we were nervous about our abilities and such. It was good to have a reminder that God is in control and God put us here to fulfill a purpose for him. I am excited to do that. 

Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement through the first couple days. God's work is being done here in San Vicente this week and I am blessed and humbled to be a part of it. I'll check in with you guys again probably on Friday. We will have a quick turn around because we get back to Ensenada on Friday morning and I have to be in El Zorrillo to meet with another group that afternoon. Love you guys!

In His Service and For His Glory.

Too Tired to Come Up With a Catchy Title...

Tonight will be short and sweet cause I am exhaaaaausted. Today we got up and got packed. Then Sara and I went on a little adventure to find a redbox... it ended up taking an hour. Now I'm guessing any average Joe could come to Goodlettsville, TN and start looking around and find about 10 redboxes in an hour so maybe San Diego has its faults after all. 
Anyways we got checked out and rode a shuttle to the border. We lugged luggage over the border and met up with Misha who had come to pick us up. We stopped to eat in Rosarito and then headed to the hotel. Now is a good time to tell you that there is some big dirt bike/motocross thing  going on right now in Baja thats apparently a BIG deal. Because of that, Misha wasn't able to find us a room at the normal hotel we stay at. Instead, we are staying in one real close to his house called Hotel Flamingo. The only room left was the suite. So currently I'm sitting on our couch in our living room... looking at the jacuzzi. Nice right?

Tonight was good, got to see some of the guys from the City and Caroline... it's always good to see familiar, friendly faces. Now we are going to try and get a good night of sleep cause work starts tomorrow! We will get up early, get checked out of the hotel and go eat breakfast. Then we will go get cell phones and minutes for them and run some other errands before going to the City of Children where the group will meet us at 3. Then we are off to San Vicente for the week. I won't have internet but I will write some each day and post a big blog about the week when I get back (I know you all will be anxiously awaiting its arrival). 

Anyways thanks for reading, hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing weekend.Please keep us in your prayers tomorrow as we travel to San Vicente and begin work there this week. I know we are all a bit nervous since it is our first group so we could use all the prayers we can get. 

Check in with you guys Thursday or Friday. Love you all!

In His Service & For His Glory 

The Jacuzzi in our 4 star hotel in Ensenada :)

 

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

Today was a travel day. I got up just before four (after going to bed just after 1) and headed to the airport to meet Kate. Quick shout out to my amazing parents who got up that early in order to come with me to the airport. After getting checked in, I said my goodbyes to my parents. I hated that part of my day. I never enjoy leaving my family but especially for such a long period of time. And I know it is not easy for them either. Anyone who thinks that I am the only one making a sacrifice this summer is mistaken, my parents are probably sacrificing more than I am. I am doing things I love to do in a place I love with people that I love. Yes, it is hard for me to leave, but I am able to experience the give and take of it all. My parents just give. They give money, helping me to buy plane tickets and other expenses, they give having their kids home for the summer, and they give their peace of mind, knowing I'm far way. People tell me they are so impressed with the person I've become or they are surprised by the things I have done and am doing and I greatly appreciate hearing all of that. However, if they knew my parents (and grandparents for that matter), they would not be impressed or surprised, they would see that I am just doing my best to attempt to follow the example set for me by my parents and grandparents. I am more than grateful to them and the many others who have taught me what it means to truly be a servant. 

We had a bumpy first flight, a 2 hour layover, and then another two hour flight. After arriving in San Diego, we took a shuttle to the hotel... a 4 star hotel. And let me tell you, I could get used to the comforts of this. We then freshened up and went to get some lunch. After lunch we came back and had some relaxation time before Sara got here. We went back out to get her some food and some snacks for later. After we got back to the room, we spent time catching up, making sure suitcases were ready, and finalizing plans for tomorrow. We are now laying in bed watching The Social Network. We will get a good night sleep tonight and head to the border in the morning. From there we meet up with Misha who will take us to Ensenada. We will get our phones and hopefully make a visit to the City of Children and then make sure everything is set for work starting on Saturday. It will be a busy day, but I am ready to get started.

I want to thank everyone for the words of encouragement and support as I start this adventure. Today was full of emotions: happiness, sadness, excitement, nervousness, anxiety and more. I knew today would be tough, saying goodbyes always is. But I also knew I had the support of my parents, friends, and family and that helped me press through the tough part and get to where I am now: laying in a comfy bed, ready to fall asleep, and excited about the small part I have the chance to play in the amazing plan God has for the people and visitors of Baja this summer. 

I'll check in again soon. Thanks for stopping by. 

In His service & for His glory.