Thursday's Adventure

Editorial note  -- some of these pictures should go with the post from earlier this morning.  We don't necessarily have the best computer connections here, so I am doing what I can! 

After a wonderful lunch of chicken tostadas and fresh fruit, we took off for some adventures.  When the harvest in the mountains is not good, Dave and the other missionaries purchase rice and beans, so Dave took us to the market area.  We drove past piles of cocoanuts, pineapples, tomatoes by the kilo, cucumbers by the kilo, cases of cilantro.  After stopping off for dessert (ice cream!) we headed to another part of the town so Dave could get some tools that they need.  While he and the guys were looking for the tools, the ladies went into a bead shop. Oh my. The incredible artwork these ladies do with tiny seed beads!  It's a shop we are going to return to when we have more pesos! 

Erik and Dave finally found the wheel barrow, but, as you can see by the picture, it's a "Mexican wheel barrow" - no wheel!  Actually, the wheel is in the box inside the body that Tom and Erik are carrying.

David buying rice and beans for the Huichol villages

Raising the windsock

From there we went to the home of Dave and Olivia's co-laborers - Jasson and Kim Farmer.  There we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of pozole (a soup with chicken and hominy - need to find the recipe for it!) and whole grain corn tostadas. They have four children - Kaleb, Noah, Micah, Katie Sue, and one sweet little pooch - Nacho.  They home school their children, and discovered that Kaleb has pretty significant dyslexia.  They asked specifically for prayer for that; it is a challenge to figure out just the right way to teach him and encourage him.  I know that from personal experience, but I also know that the Lord can and will be with them and encourage them every step of the way. 

Jasson talked about their journey and one thing that really impressed  me what when he said that they were really struggling with where the Lord wanted them.  After talking to their home church  elder board, they took several different turns, but found the church was totally behind them. They just reminded us of the importance of home churches.

Carrie and Cliff Huntting were there also, along with their children.  We found out that they are both MKs from Indonesia, and it is likely that their parents know or at least know of Arny Humble.  We will hear more of their story tonight.

The team - Hunttings on the left, Farmers on the right.

Jasson and Cliff shared a major ministry request.  In addition to safety while flying, they see a very real need of a helicopter.  Recently, they had a request to fly into a village to pick up a sick child, but could not get there, and sadly the child died.  Helicopters can land where there is no runway space for a plane, and in weather that a plane cannot fly in.  Cliff also mentioned flying another missionary, who looked down at villages they were flying over.  Those villages are unreachable by plane, and while they can be reached by land, it takes a very long time, time that could be more effectively used in sharing the Gospel.  Their project and major ministry request is for funding for a helicopter so they can meet these medical needs and further spread the Gospel to those who would otherwise be unable to hear it.

Tepic Adventures

Well, we made ​​it.   The flight was uneventful after we finally got in the air. The delay was really only about 10 minutes, while we waited for all the other jets to clear the runway.  Customs and Immigration were a breeze they were both empty and we whipped right through.    Dave and Olivia were waiting at the exit to pick us up .

Dave has an old van that used to belong to Mark Brians. Those from El Camino would know that name. It seats eight, but it was very tight, even though no one really noticed or complained.   The guys had fun trying to get all our luggage in; Dave had a roof top cover where we put some of the suitcases.   Watching three engineers and  a pilot strap it down ... :)

 We had dinner at a wonderful seafood restaurant! The huge portions of shrimp were delicious, and the pico de gallo was to die for; I need to make mine more like that from now on - less tomatoes, more onion, more cilantro, more lime.  They had an appetizer of a seafood soup with a meatball that was very good, as well.

Then we were finally on the road.   It took about four hours to get to Tepic, driving along the coast for the first hour or so, with glimpses of the ocean off and on.   We turned north into the mountains, and were greeted with beautiful views of the hills and valleys. It was a cloudy day, and I was in the back, so I did not get too many pictures of the drive. We passed through numerous villages that really do not look much different that Nogales. Stopped for gas and a potty break at an Oxxo station - think Stop and Go or 7/11 type store   Prices are surprisingly low; a 20 oz coke rough that would cost $ 1.75  in Arizona is $ .75 here.

The road, which is the only road between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, is a two lane, winding, well paved road.  They were working on part of it, so we did have one construction delay; other than that the drive was uneventful.   When we were within five miles of Tepic, we encountered an accident that stopped us for roughly 40 minutes. 

We arrived at Olivia's co-worker, Debby Mellberg's house.   It. Is. Beautiful.   Think colonial Mexican hacienda.   The yard is beautiful. As I sit out here on the porch writing this, there are birds chirping,  hummingbirds feeding, a light breeze blowing.   So very restful! 

Debby shared her story - we have something in common - she graduated from Southwestern, Matt's alma mater!  I really think that she needs to write down her story for others to read; certainly God's hand orchestrated things for them to begin their ministry to the Huichol people. 

Today's plans -. The men went with Dave to a village (flying!) to fix a runway and install a windsock.   We ladies are going to go to Olivia's for breakfast, go through the things we brought for Awana and begin assembling the goodie bags, and meet my friend from CHF, Mary Jo Hansen, for coffee.

Afternoon update:


The ladies spent the morning packing 80 goodie bags.  The things for the goodie bags were provided by Jan Coleman, Teri Wood, Dana Adams, and Jill Field.  We also put wordless book bracelets with explanatory tracts in Spanish, that were provided by El Camino Missions Fellowship.


The guys in the meantime flew out to a village where they dug holes, painted rocks, did runway maintenance, and installed a windsock.


We all met back at Dave and Olivia's for a wonderful lunch of chicken toastadas, fresh papaya, watermelon, and tomatoes.  The guys loved the "valentine" sauce, that apparently is available at Fry's, so I have a suspicion that we will be getting some of that.

More to come.......

Hurricane Patricia

Morning update:  I wasn't planning on writing today, but circumstances dictated otherwise.  
Yesterday, the west coast of Mexico was hit by Hurricane Patricia.
It was the largest hurricane that has ever formed in the Pacific.  
It was heading straight towards Puerto Vallarta and Tepic.  

It looks like it avoided both of them, however, and they received minimal damage.  
It sounds like our job now will be one of relief.  I just read an update that the Wolfs are safe,
but I don't have a clear picture of any damage they may have received.
From what I've read, it doesn't sound like they got more than rain.
I do not know what the conditions are around Puerto Vallarta yet,
as far as the resort we were going to stay at. If we end up staying in Tepic, then that's what will happen.
I hope to have a clearer picture this afternoon.  Please continue to pray.

Mission Trip Preparations!

We are getting ready to head to Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico for a short term mission trip.  I've kind of been elected to chronicle our journey.  Luckily, I've been taking notes for a while, since I journal daily anyhow.  The following will be the rough notes I've taken, compiled into one post. 

Pre Trip Notes

Sunday, September 13, 2015

1:36 PM

Olivia and Dave Wolf 

We are beginning the preparation for our trip to Tepic, Mexico.  Our team consists of Tom and Brenda Kabel, Erik and Chris Bendgs, Tom (my husband, for any readers who may not know) and me.  The focus of the trip is to work with Dave and Olivia Wolf, missionaries with UIM (https://www.facebook.com/UIMAviation?pnref=story) who were the first missionaries sent out by El Camino when it was established as a church. Our focus is to encourage them in their ministry and develop relationship with them, their co-workers and Huichol villagers.  The nature of the work will not be completely defined until we actually get down there, but we know that we will possibly be working on runway clearing, working with children in the village, observing and taking part in AWANA.  Beyond that, it will be whatever the Lord leads us into doing. As Dave and Olivia are approaching retirement, it is a great opportunity for us to establish a relationship with the remainder of their team so we can prayerfully consider how we can continue our support of the work that they have started. 

As part of our preparation, we will be working through "Short Term Missions Workbook."  Hopefully, we will be able to meet at least a couple of times to work through and discuss some chapters.  Erik came home yesterday from North Carolina, and Chris will be home on Tuesday, so Tom is going to contact them to determine availability.  We also need to have a picture taken so we can print up and distribute a prayer card (we are behind on this, so it is imperative that it is done ASAP!)

Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico

One of the recommendations that the book recommends is a Trip Journal. I'm a journaler anyhow, so this is not a big deal for me, I likely would have done it anyhow. But now it has focus.

Team Meeting 

Monday, October 12, 2015

13:03

We agreed to ask Cindy Russell about polo shirts with the church logo, in royal blue.

I will also look for tshirts that I can put a vinyl logo on.

Joseph Aziz has offered his house for us to park our vehicles on the day we leave, and he will take us to the airport.  Tom and I will just drive from here, since we are closer to the airport.  

What time do we need to check in?  Our flight to Phoenix is at 7:00 a.m., so we will head to the airport at 5 or so.  Going to be a long day!  Tom needs passport numbers for the American web site to speed up check in, or they may do it.

Cash - each person should bring approximately $300 to pay to Olivia when we get down there for food, lodging and gas.  There are ATMs available, American voltage and American style plugs.  WIFI is available, Tom will give his work cell phone for emergencies.

Someone (likely me) needs to keep a journal or update a web page with pictures and information about what we are doing, and prepare for a post-trip debrief, both in the services (likely November 15) and with the larger GO Team.

Olivia's message to me:

There are 50 kids in the village we will be going to and another 50 in the Awana program. Olivia wants to give them gift bags and has the following suggestions:

¥ small treat/gift bags, fall décor, no Halloween pictures

¥ Pencils (2-3 each bag)

¥ colored pencils (2 -3 each bag)

¥ markers (2-3 each bag)

¥ stickers 

¥ Gummy bears, fruit snacks (individually bagged)

¥ Candy Corn

¥ M&Ms

¥ Caramels

¥ muffin liners – fall colors (for Awana, so only need 50 or so)

¥ big bag of chocolate chips

Olivia has been saving gallon ice cream containers, egg cartons and tp rolls and suggested we come up with crafts/games that could utilize them.  

Olivia also suggested that we get matching shirts.  They can be simple T-shirts that are the same color, or if everyone wants to, we could get a logo put on them.  I’ll work on a plan tomorrow and let you all know what I come up with on Saturday.  

We discussed our Spiritual Gifts and Talents  

Brenda - Exhortation, evangelism, gifts of mercy, helps

Tom K - Evangelism and teaching - willing to do a devotional for the Awana kids - carpentry work physical labor

Tom P - administration, prophecy, exhortation, helps

Erik -  Service, carpentry and physical labor

Chris - Mercy and Evangelism, physically able to do most anything

Teri - service, administration

Gifts? What is expected?  Also - if we find what the pastor's needs are, can we bring extra funds down to help?

Financial update from Toni

Friday, October 16, 2015

1:27 PM

Toni told me yesterday that each member of the team got a donation of $500. That's  $3000! I don't know who made the donation, she didn't tell me and I didn't ask, although I may ask her for a list of the donors (with no amounts) so I can invite them to the meeting on November 22.  Such a huge answer to prayer. In our case, that just about covers the entire trip.  I'm hoping we have some money left over so we can provide a gift to Olivia and Dave, along with their team members.

Cindy Russell called me yesterday as well, the shirts are in and coming along.  She will invoice the church, then each of us will need to give Toni a check for our part.  I have t-shirts that I bought yesterday that I'm getting ready to apply the church's cross logo to. I still need to get a shirt for Tom, as Michaels didn't have 2XL shirts.  Hopefully, I can find one in the next day or so. 

23 October 2015 Update

Friday, October 23, 2015

4:47 AM

I haven't written in a while, work has been very busy, but I'm putting this up as a slight update. Things are coming together for the trip.  Jan Coleman, Teri Wood, Dana Adams and Jill Field have all indicated they have things for us to bring down, and I suspect we will get more on Sunday.  Pastor Ron dropped off some Crystal Light containers for us to bring and use in some way as well.  I'll need to look at that today.  Brenda, Chris and I are going to divvy up all the things we are bringing down, so the packing will be a bit easier.  We also have a box of Gideon Spanish New Testaments that we need to divide among ourselves.  

I talked to Olivia a little yesterday.  She said that the villagers are extremely simple and would not understand instructions for a complicated game, but to keep them very easy. We can still use some of the other ideas we have with the team children, and possibly in AWANA. The key phrase of the entire trip will be:  go with the flow! We can't go down with any expectations, that way we won't be disappointed!  Fortunately, everyone is on the same page as far as that goes! 

There is one MAJOR concern about the trip that has come up in the last few days - Hurricane Patricia! She's bearing down on Puerto Vallarta as a Category 5 storm.

http://www.weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-patricia-mexico-coast.  We will keep a close eye on it and the airlines to see if there are any delays that we need to be concerned with. 

Our team commissioning prayer is on Sunday during both services.  We plan on wearing our new El Camino polo shirts. I need to make arrangements for someone to take a picture of it in at least one of the services. 

Prayer requests:

• That Patricia will disappear
• That we will have a safe trip down and to Tepic
• That we will have zero issues with our luggage
• That we may effectively minister to Dave and Olivia, their team and the villagers
• That God will strengthen us in all ways: spiritually, mentally, physically. We will be there over Halloween, which is a spiritually dark time in a land that still practices forms of Spiritism.

I have a personal request as well. About three weeks ago, I received a phone call that my father who is 85, was in the hospital.  He is home now, resting, but will be undergoing open heart surgery on November 16.  Please pray for this surgery, and for me that I will not let the concern I have for him distract me from what I need to do.  We are planning on driving back to Louisville, KY the week after we return from Tepic to be with him.  

We leave on Wednesday, October 28. My plan is to journal daily, along with pictures so our prayer warriors will know how to pray for us!  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers so far. 

Praising God for all things,

Teri

Doors

Doors.  Have you ever thought about doors?  We deal with so many doors every day of our lives.  There's the bathroom door, first thing in the morning. We keep it closed out of a sense of privacy; same as our bedroom doors.  When that door is open, it's an invitation to our children to enter and fellowship with us; when it is closed, It's a signal that we don't want to be disturbed.   We leave our houses through a door, making sure that it is securely locked behind us.  We get into our cars, closing and locking the car door, giving us some measure of safety against the elements as well as keeping us safer in the event of an accident.   

Arrive at work and encounter another set of doors, the door to our building, then our office.  Both of them are usually kept locked, unfortunately to guard against those who would harm us.  Once in our offices, our doors are either kept open (as mine is all day) or closed (as my boss's often is - when he needs privacy or to concentrate on the task at hand).  I can knock, and receive permission to enter, but there is still a door.  

  

There are other doors. We often talk of a door of opportunity and knocking on symbolic doors to see if there is something behind the door that we should do.  The door can crack open, showing us a glimpse of a new adventure, only to slam shut because God sees what is on the other side that we do not see and is protecting us from it.  The door can crack open a little further, inviting tentative steps in, or it can be swung wide open, beckoning us to come.    

God talks a lot about doors, but there are three that come to mind more than any other.  The first one is a warning found in Genesis 4:7 "Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it."    Yea. Subdue is probably too subtle of a word at times.  Just yesterday, it didn't subdue me, it grabbed me by the ankle and pulled me down into its abyss.  I saw it sitting there, crouching, with darkness in its eye, felt it grab my ankle and didn't even resist when it pulled me down into its deadly hole.  However, there was Someone on the other side, waiting to pull me up out of the pit. In fact, that Someone would let me have no rest at all until I dealt with the sin issue at hand.  So today, I knocked on a door, confessing my sin to the person I had sinned against, and received forgiveness.  It was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, but I did it.   

That leads to the second door that I thought about, Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come to him, and sup with him and he with Me. "  For so long, I thought that this verse was an evangelistic verse.  I think now that it really is a symbol of Christ desiring fellowship with us. Do we have the door to Him open or closed? I definitely heard Him knocking on my door last night....all night... praying that He would just go away and let me ignore my sin, but He persisted in knocking, gently, on the door of my heart, until I gave in and opened it so He could come in and heal and forgive me.   

The last door is also in Revelation chapter 3, verse 8.  "I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name."   The door to heaven is open, and will not shut.  It's the door to the Throne room of the Almighty God.  Israel did not have the access we have to God.  The door to the Holy of Holies in the form of a curtain kept them apart from God, and the only one who could enter was the High Priest.  Today, through the shed blood of Christ, we have an open door to God that no one, not even satan himself can shut.  He can try to block it, he can trip us up and try to drag us down, but he cannot keep me away from God.  

Reflections

I've not written a blog entry in some time.  With this new job, I don't have the time I used to, and I certainly don't have the time to really develop this blog the way I was hoping.  Ah well. I'm mostly writing it for my own benefit, and if it blesses others, so much the better.

First, the light weight stuff.  My friend Vickie challenged me to learn how to prep meals for the freezer/crockpot.  She's been doing it for some time, and asked if anybody was willing to take part in a meal exchange.  I finally found some recipes that I thought looked good and dove in.  I found this site to be very useful!

 http://www.six-cents.com/2012/06/crockpot-freezer-cooking-101.html 

In fact, I'm going to be making her freezer chicken salsa, with some minor modifications, for the first meal exchange next week. 

This past few weeks at work have been very busy.  Finished the followup work to our largest outreach - our Living Lord's Supper presentation, then went to a conference last week.  I did glean some good information about short term mission trips during the conference, and bonded a little with some of the Ministry Leadership Team from church as well.  Then this week, yesterday actually, we hosted a National Day of Prayer event at church.  I was tasked with making a display board for the Worship Ministries, and my choice was "Pray for Our Elected Officials"  Here's a (not so great) picture of the board I designed:

I am loving the fact that I can use my creative scrapbooking skills and get paid for them :) 

Now, for what I really wanted to write about:

I found out that a childhood/high school friend died the morning of May 7 as a result of a tragic accident. It's funny how things like that cause you to reflect.  I've reestablished contact with some of those friends, but have lost all contact others. I know out of the group of 11 of us, six of us have remained faithful to God, and are active in our churches, including the one who is now rejoicing in Heaven. The rest, I don't know.  Certainly puts life in perspective. 

My quiet time this morning was Jeremiah 27-31

29:11 I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

William's death has really caused me to reflect on my past life, and how far I've come in the 40+ years since then. I'm not the same person, in so many ways, that I used to be, yet the insecurities that were present then - the feeling of being just on the fringe with nothing to contribute, has not gone away.  I still second guess myself all the time, especially when trying something new.

Yet, the Lord has been good.  Since those days I've…

• Joined the Air Force, graduating as an honor grad from tech school.
• Became a paralegal in the Air Force and won awards.
• Was requested to go on TDY trips because of my skill in claims.
• Eventually retired as a Master Sergeant, having turned down promotions because of the impact it would have had on my family.
• Married (too young), had 4 children. Divorced. Remarried a very Godly man.  Now have two grandchildren, a son in law and a daughter in law. One child is preparing to go on her third mission trip, and talking about going to Honduras as a full-time missionary in the near future.
• Moved - Cleveland, Omaha, Portugal, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Arizona
• Went to college off and on until finally graduating Summa Cum Laude from Liberty University in 2014 - 40 years after graduating from high school
• Served on multiple boards at a handful of churches, missions committees, women's fellowship director or board member, constitutional revision committee, church clerk, choir secretary
• Several short term mission trips, and one upcoming
• Landed in a dream job - Administrative Assistant to the Worship Pastor. Not only serving the Lord in a full time capacity, but using creative skills I never believed I had in a way I never could have imagined. 

I can see the Lord's hand through all of this, although at times I wonder. But You are faithful, and yes, You did and do have plans for me, plans to give me hope and a future.  What will the next…20?..however many years I have left, bring?  Hearing of William's death… I know that my life could end today. Help me live my life in every moment so I hear you say "well done, good and faithful servant."

God's Amazing Grace

I started my job as the administrative assistant to the Worship Pastor at our church in September.  I've worked before; I was in the military as a paralegal, worked for attorneys, and in other jobs.  I was fairly competent in those jobs, I knew what I was doing, had been through pretty extensive training, courtesy of the Air Force, so I didn't feel out of my league.  However, in this job for some reason I have often felt like I was in way over my head.  I've been in choirs for years, and was the choir secretary for many years. But this is different. For starters, this choir is larger than any other choir that I was secretary for.  Second, my responsibilities are much greater than they ever were back in those days!

Part of my job is to create the bulletin and announcement inserts.  That part is easy - some word processing and Publisher experience is all it takes.  Another part which is slightly more difficult is getting used to a program called Pro Presenter that we use to project the service to the congregation.  After several weeks of consternation, I think I've finally figured it out. Still not a pro on it by any means, but I feel a lot more comfortable.  Today I had the pleasure of actually having to run the images during a memorial service.  I put the playlist in the system on Thursday, ran through it, made sure everything worked.  Then when today came and I actually had to play it for people, it went just fine! Thank you Lord!!

A part I really enjoy is being able to flex my creative skills.  I have the responsibility to do announcement power points, a video for announcements (power points converted into an MP-4), and posters for the Worship ministry. Since my boss is also the executive pastor, and in charge of a major remodeling project we are beginning the day after Easter, I have had to create signage directing our congregation about entries, information flyers and commitment flyers.  That part is fun, I have to admit.  It's interesting to see how God has taken what was a hobby  and turned it into something to use for His glory.

Another part of my job is the musical part. While I've been in choirs and am very familiar with choral music, orchestrations are another thing.  I played flute (badly) in junior high school, and that is the extent of my exposure to orchestra music.  I was responsible for sending out orchestrations to all the members, including nine that we hire from the community.  Well, wouldn't you know it, but I sent the wrong arrangement to one of the songs and it wasn't discovered until this past week?  Ugh.  I didn't realize that we had two different arrangements of the same song!  Stress level - over the top!  It was rectified on Monday though, and everyone is professional enough that in the end it turned out ok. 

Second issue surfaced this morning, during our final practice.  In one of the songs, the woodwinds had a problem.  At first, I thought (and so did my boss) that I hadn't copied a page.  Come to realize that no, the problem was that the editor/publisher had messed up and three or four measures were missing. They are "rest" measures, and fortunately my daughter-in-law, one of our paid clarinet players and a Music Ed teacher, discovered it and said that it was NOT me! Whew! 

I'm finally getting to the point of this entry, which is a reflection on God's Amazing Grace.  On my way into church this morning, I was listening to the music we are performing. This year we have added three new songs, Scandal of Grace, Oh the Blood, and Cornerstone.  All three of them, and the song that is my favorite, I Stand Redeemed, talk in different ways about God's amazing grace.  I couldn't help but think that without God's grace that He has so freely extended to us, we would have no idea how to extend grace to others.  I've been the recipient of that grace.    In previous jobs, if I've made a mistake, even an innocent, ignorant one, I've been beat up and berated, once cursed out for a mistake that was primarily my then-boss's fault.  What I have discovered working in a church is that GRACE is the operative word!  Oh, I am so very grateful for that.  I've never experienced such grace.  To quote a line from I Stand Redeemed, I am humbled by the grace that has been offered. Not only by my wonderful boss, but more importantly by my wonderful Savior.  

My prayer is that everyone experience this grace. God's grace is simply amazing. He took me, when I was a sinner, totally lost, and offered me grace and forgiveness.  I stand redeemed. 

When I think of all my faults and all my failures
When I consider all the times I've let God down
I am humbled by the grace He has extended
I'm amazed at the mercy I have found
I could never earn His love on my own
Yet every time I come before His throne
 

Chorus:
I stand redeemed by the blood of the Lamb
I stand redeemed before the great I AM
When He looks at me, He sees the nail scarred hands
That bought my liberty
I stand redeemed

Even at my best I am unworthy
I have nothing precious i can give
A broken life is all I have to offer
And yet it's a priceless gift to Him
The bitter mark of sin will never fade away
But I can come before Him unashamed 

http://lyrics333.com/i_stand_redeemed_lyrics_legacy_five.html

http://tinyurl.com/nncrbg6

Lastly, a shameless plug. Tomorrow at 3:00 Tucson time, and Wednesday, April 1- Friday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m. Tucson time, we will be live streaming The Living Lord's Supper.  It is a live depiction of Da Vinci's The Lord's Supper, with each of the disciples coming to life from the painting and telling their story, accompanied by choral music and orchestra.  We would love to have you join us!  If you do join in, let me know!  You may join in the service by going to www.elcaminochurch.org and clicking on Live Stream.