What an adventure...

Since we did not get to update on Sunday let me start there.  Sunday morning we woke up and part of our team went to Espitiu y Verdad to worship practice, and part of our team prepped for our outreach that evening.  We went to church and were greeted warmly again by everyone there.  Our worship team helped lead with Pastor Jorge (the worship pastor).  After church we went to lunch with Pastor Joe & Laurie Pacheco and had some tacos.  We then left for Santa Caterina to do an outreach.  Our team lead worship and did the Beautiful things drama for everyone and then we split off to take the children to play games and have a lesson.  Rachel led the children in a teaching on God providing for our needs and we had 8-9 children raise their hand for salvation at the end!  Praise the Lord.  John led the time with the adults and about 4 women received the Lord as well.  After the services were over we went to Pastor Jorge's grandparents' house and had some delicious gorditas.  We also got to see chickens sleeping in a tree! That is another story for another time...  

We just arrived back in Mazatlan last night from being away for the past three days in Escuinapa.  We left Monday morning and have been busy every day with a new adventure.

Monday afternoon after arriving in Escuinapa, we went to the government town center to introduce ourseleves to some of the leadership there.  Pastor Alfonso Martinez thought it would be good to let them know we were in the city and introduce our group.  We were greeted with such hospitality and welcomed into the city with open arms.  He told us that anything we needed while there was ours.  What an honor it was to hear that.  After we dropped our belongings off at Los Gratos Hotel, we went to a 'river bed' on the side of city near the Pueblo Nuevo area and did some trash pick up.  We all put on our gloves, grabbed a bag and walked the river bed collecting all sorts of trash that just got thrown in there.  While meeting a physical need of picking up the trash, we were also praying over the city and asking the Lord to meet the spiritual, emotional and physical needs there.  After eating some yummy chicken for lunch, we headed back over to Pueblo Nuevo and passed out flyers inviting the people to our outreach that afternoon.  Pueblo Nuevo is a poorer section of town where we planned to do face painting, balloons, games for the kids and we were able to have worship and our dramas in the park.  Pastor John Hall did the message for the children and there were some who raised their hands for salvation.  Praise the Lord!

Tuesday we planned to go to the Tepehuane Indian Village for a VBS.  On the way to Escuinapa the van we were using started making some noises, and before our trip up to the mountains, we determined to have the van looked at.  After taking it to a mechanic, we had to go back to the hotel and wait while they 'fixed' the noise.  So about 2-3 hours behind schedule, we left for the Tepehuane Village.  On the way out of Escuinapa, about 20 minutes outside the city our van broke down.  We were sitting on the side of the highway for a bit until Alfonso went into town to get the mechanic.  They came and looked at the van and determined it wasn't a quick fix.  We all gathered our bags and hopped in the back of some pick-ups (the way most travel is done in Mexico) and headed back to Escuinapa.  By this time it was about middle of the afternoon, and we went and got 'lunch' (most of the time our eating is not on the schedule we are used to down here, but we have adjusted. )  :)  We went and had pizza(we have been eating many tacos..) and then determined to use the rest of the afternoon to go to the beach (which we were going to do Wednesday on our 'day off'.  We went to Tambora-one of the few untouched beaches in the area.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!!  No one was there but us.  It was perfect.  The waves were inviting and water was warm.  We jumped through many of waves, collected some shells, took many pictures and even had a chance for a few of us to be stung by some jelly fish.  ;)  After we left the beach, we came back to pick up the van and went to have dinner.  This was Sophia's birthday so we celebrated her all throughout the day and then when we got home from eating some AMAZING carne asada quesadillas we had a lil fiesta for her....cake, balloons, and even a pinata!  The pinata was a lil frightening to say the least...HA!  She even took part in the tradition of mordida!!   :)

Wednesday was supposed to be our day off, but instead we switched our schedules in order to still go and minister to the Tepehuanes.  We prayed over our van and after breakfast took off to the mountains.  When we got to the village we went to the chief's daughter's home.  She was grinding the corn to make us tortillas for lunch.  We each took our turn at grinding the corn and saw how difficult it was to make so many tortillas.  Our team went out to the different huts and invited the people to come out to the program we were going to do later that afternoon.  After they returned lunch was ready and we had carne asada tacos with amazing homemade tortillas!!  We couldn't ask for any fresher than we ate.  After lunch we went out to set up for our VBS.  We got out the face paints and the balloons and the children gathered around us. They were a lil more shy than the kids at Pueblo Nuevo, just because they hardly ever see any people from outside their village.  The village is very remote and they don't let many people come in.  The relationship we have with this has been built over MANY years of work by those who live in this area opening the doors for us to come in. Rafeek & Carol helped lead the kids in a song, and then Chris and Carol lead VBS and then we played a game with some of the kids.  After the game Carol left with Rachel to go and speak to the women of the village.  They taught on having hope and having hope in the future in what God can do and wants to do.  While they taught we handed out some things to the children-a coloring page, cookies, candy and a drink.  We later were able to hand out some rice and corn meal to the mothers for their families.  We left shortly thereafter and drove back to Escuinapa, picked up our things and headed back to Mazatlan for dinner (at 10 pm-told you our schedules are a lil off)

Well...it has been a busy few days.  Now that we are back in Mazatlan we will be able to update the blog more than we have.  

Thank you for your continued prayers.  We couldn't do what we are doing without them.  

The adventure of living as missionaries has taught us lots already, and we still have a week left!

Blessings,

Olivia 

Presenting Beautiful Things in Santa Caterina

Rachel sharing with the children

 

Chickens in a tree!!

End of the night silliness

Riding Mexico style

Prepping for the hot sun in the pickup

Chris & Rafeek after picking up trash in Escuinapa

Yummy chicken we ate for lunch

Face painting in Pueblo Nuevo

Worship with the children in Pueblo Nuevo

Pueblo Nuevo

'God is God' drama

'God is God' drama

Finale of drama

Sarah & Kaylee with the children

Rafeek & Jonathan drinking orchata (rice water)

Squeezed in the back of a truck, leaving our broken down van

Beautiful Tambora Beach

Sunset drive back to Escuinapa

Yummy carne asada quesadillas

Sophia surprised by her party

The creepy girl pinata we got to take turns destroying  :) 

Sophia not trusting the hand of John Hall for mordida...rightly so.

Yeah, her face ended up there.  

pinata time.

Alfonsito collecting candy

Painting faces in the Tephuane Village

Balloon time

Rafeek and Carol leading worship for the kids

Chris teaching the kids

John Hall is about to get beat by this kid in the pantyhose game.  

 Children looking at their coloring sheet the day care in TN made them.

Sarah & Kaylee praying for the kids

some beach time.  :)