May My Steps be Worship, May My Thoughts be Praise, May My Words Bring Honor to Your Name

Just finished a very good, very LONG week in Camalu! Break time is short this time around because this week went from Friday-Friday instead of the normal Saturday-Thursday. However it was a great week and a lot of good things were done. 

We got down to Camalu (which is a little over three hours from Ensenada) on Saturday afternoon. We had dinner at the church (pizza that is HUUUUUGE) and spent some time with the preacher, Juan Jose, his wife, Flor, and their kids. They are a great family and I really enjoyed getting to know them this week.

The hotel this week was...interesting. We had three frogs join us via our toilet at different points throughout the week. Hot water was hard to come by and construction on the hotel started at about 6 every morning. Never thought I would look forward to the Villa Marina but its looking better every week :)

The team this week had stuff going on all day. They had VBS classes for the kids every morning, then had lunch, then got ready for more VBS classes at night. At the same time there was a construction team working on Juan and Flor's house, a team going to visit/clean the homes of some of the members, a team building furniture for some of the members, and some other random errands going on. At night they had classes for men, women, kids, teen boys, and teen girls. Sara and I translated for the teen girls class. It was really great to spend that time with the teen girls from the church and watch the relationships between us all grow. 

During the day I worked with the team going to visit some but mostly did random errand running. Little trips to the hardware store, grocery store, getting copies made, and the candy store were an everyday occurance. On Wednesday 5 of us went to the store to get food for the food bags we were making for the members of the church. When we drove up, I saw a little puppy sitting outside of the store. We got out and went over to see her, she was tiny! I asked the people around if she belonged to anyone and they said no, she had been there for a couple weeks but didn't belong to anyone. Well, being the animal lover/softie that I am, I couldn't just leave her. I left her in the van with two of the teens that were watching our stuff while we went in to shop. We bought her some food and then after we left, took her to the vet to get her some flea shampoo. The vet looked at her and said she was about 8 weeks old and was pretty healthy. Then the real fun began. We wanted to give her to Flor and Juan, their dog had been stolen about a month ago, but we didn't want to give her to them all dirty. So we decided we needed to keep her a secret until we had our break in the afternoon so that we could give her a bath and make her look nice before giving her to Juan and Flor. So we left her with another member of the church who said they would watch her till break. Then at break we put her in my backpack and took her back to the hotel and gave her a bath. That wasn't fun for any of us. Try keeping a puppy a secret that won't quit crying! She went back in my backpack for the ride back to the church and for a little while until we could get Flor alone. We went in the house and surprised Flor with her first, we didn't want the kids in there in case Flor and Juan didn't want to keep her. But that was nothing to worry about because they loved her! They named her Kiara and we left money with them to get her shots (which are MUCH cheaper here than at home). It was a fun day of puppy daycare :)

At the end of the week the group had made 2 beds, 2 dressers, 2 tables with 8 chairs each for the kids, had made real progress on Juan and Flor's house, had cleaned houses of 4 members, and had put in a shower at a house. It was a great week with a lot of great things done for our brothers and sisters in Camalu. 

I love getting to meet and build relationships with people from different churches here in Baja. I can just feel the love of God here, it is the only explanation I have for arriving at the church Saturday as strangers and leaving Friday as family. God is working here in Baja and I'm just blessed to be a part of it.

After a night off tonight, I'm heading to Zorrillo tomorrow. I'm excited to spend the week not only with the people of Zorrillo who I love so much but also with my group from church who is coming to work there this week. It'll be nice to have a little piece of home here for awhile. Please pray for us as we work in Zorrillo this week as well at the group that is going back to Camalu to work there. 

I won't have internet this week so you guys will have to wait another week for the next post. I know, I know, it'll be difficult but I'm sure you can do it :)

Love and miss you guys! Do something nice for someone this week!

In His Service and For His Glory.