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Sunday, March 02, 2008

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Wednesday, July 05, 2006

July 2

    We drove for a long time July 1 until we came to a hotel. But as we got there we found out that they were full and it’s around 11:30pm so we had to go look for another one. Very close by we found there WAS a motel 8 that was open. So we took it and quietly walked into the hotel and by the time we were set there and ready for bed it was past midnight I think. The next day (now July 2) we got up earlier and started off for home. We did stop for lunch with the other time and shortly afterwards we were off again. Several hours later…. Oh I should probably also mention our friends “Billy Bob Joe Jose” Who we took in our hotel and we still have, the Mexican cockroach. There was some argument about bringing him home from the girls but we kind of smuggled him through. Although his fate was death by the foot of pastor later that week.

    Well we got home today. And it was a really cool trip. The Holy Spirit worked in pretty cool ways. And interestingly enough tonight as I am typing this on xanga we are headed on our NEXT Mexico trip. I have been kind of busy/lazy in typing this out since we got back from the first one but now about a year later from off and on typing every couple months it is finally done with this chapter.    And we look forward to what might be ahead in “San quinten” where we are headed tomorrow at 5 in the morning. This should be interesting because the whole town is like the migrant camp we hear. Chris our base player told me that he might be down there as well this year. Well I need to get to bed earlier. Perhaps I will write all about the NEXT Mexico trip when I get back if (and hopefully) we get back. Well I trust Holy Spirit will guide us down there. Thanks for all you who read this and perhaps you could be praying for us. It will be about two weeks were down there. I will try to bring back photos!!!! J Good bye for now.

                                                                                      Ethan C. (Treck Runner)
Currently Listening
Strong Tower
By Kutless
Take me in
see related

July 1

Today after we woke up we had gone around looking for the others room. We didn't know were Eric’s room was exactly or Adas for a little bit but we found them. Once we all met in the lobby and were ready with our stuff to go out the door we and to our surprise we found that our driver had gotten donuts for us to eat for breakfast since we needed to be off pretty soon. Shortly after we had eaten we were off to Magic Mountain. When we arrived there weren’t that many people there at this time in the morning, it was probably around 8 or 9 something and there might have been at most 500 people I would say. But that’s a guess. Anyways we waited about half an hour in line maybe an hour after that line to get into this other line were these big gates were, and we were just standing there waiting for them to open the park. Finally they did open the gates and we walked in with the crowed and headed right to some of the rollercoaster’s. One of them we got to we were like the first there or at least there was no one else in line in front of us so we decided to go on it right away. It was a really fun one I thought and personally I think it was my first upside down/loopdeloop one ever. It was really fun though and we did it again before many people got in line. We did this for about an hour, going to the rides with not huge lines until about 10 or 11 when lots more people started showing up and then we had to wait 30 probably just to ride once. Another cool thing is we are still driving with another group from Washington that was there in Mexico so there accompanying us to Magic Mountain as well. We got to eat lunch with there team witch was really cool and I’m starting to get to know one of the kids in there group named James who I have spoken with a far amount during this trip.

After lunch with consisted mainly of pizza and hamburgers at Magic Mountain we split up into groups and started roaming the park looking for good rides. After a while I and Wayne found a cool three story climbing wall witch you had to pay 5 bucks to climb on! Well we decided to anyways and it was pretty fun. I didn’t quite make it to the top though Wayne did. Wayne and I were kind of competing when we climbed and he won like two or three times in a row…. Anyways that was fun and we headed off again for more rides. We went on a couple more rollercoaster’s and stuff like that but by now most of them have like 30 minute wait times for rides so we’ve slowed down and are more looking at the littler rides or attractions now. As the day neared an end we all headed back to meet at the entrance by the big gates we came through into the park. We all made it even though there were a couple delays and we were off to the next hotel. Tomorrow we will be in Washington.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

June 31

We got up a little later today then normal, and after a fairly uneventful breakfast we went to the ampatheator to worship, And shortly after we arrived the family of the pastor got there to worship with us witch was also really cool since we were always at there Church worshiping they got to come to the ampatheator were all of our groups worshiped. The other groups all brought there pastors and families from what I could tell as well, And after the main worship one by one we had them on stage speak about what God had done with the teams in there Churches. Then they asked all the pastors and I think as well all the youth pastors to come down and form to lines facing each other. Then they had the teams walk in-between the lines while all the pastors prayed for each of us. We might have worshiped a bit more then we left. And because this is our last day we "spent" some of it shopping.

We went around the stores looking for the different things for sale witch was a really fun thing to do I think. Well I remember going into a shop and seeing some hot sauce..... I like hot sauce incase you didn't know and this brand was habnero a particularly hot "hot sauce". So I went it and got one bottle and on my way out noticed some jumping beans! Well I have heard about them so I got two little cases witch had about 4 beans in each and the store owner who happened to speak good English and strangely looked very American.... Well we continued our shopping spree I guess you could say and wandered down some different streets along the shops and vendors until me and Andrew came to this one shop I remember pretty well even today. It sold weapons, and most of these weapons were really cheap and probably illegal in the U.S.A.... If it wasn't for that and I didn't think my parents would want me to own some I would have gotten some of them. When we walked past the opening of the store we were greeted by a man telling us that they had everything from switchblades to grenades for sale..... And that got our attention so after we had a look around we saw TONS of knifes, brace knuckles, switchblades, throwing stars, mini and held gun things I think and lots of other stuff. The thing I thought was dumb was the guy invited us into the shop and after I asked about some of the "merchandise" he told me he couldn't sell to me those things without someone 18 or older there..... Well anyways we left that shop and surprisingly found others like it just sitting there selling weapons.

After our day of shopping we drove back to California before stopping at our hotel for tonight, let me mention that a hotel like this one I have NEVER seen before. This is probably the fanciest hotel I have ever slept in. It was called the "HYATT" the lobby floor was almost entirely covered by what looked like marble and the desk people were in tuxes. Besides all that the elevator talks to you when you get into it as we found out. We got in and it told us to hit the buttons and stuff..... Anyways I think we ended up on like the 4th floor and I was with Pastor and Wayne and Josh. Matt and Eric and Andrew were in another room on like the other side of the hotel along with the girls who were in yet another room.

Once we got all settled in the room Pastor wanted to go for a walk. And so did Ada so they asked if anyone else wanted to come just for a walk around the outside of the hotel and surrounding area. I decided to come for a walk with them even though it’s probably about 10:45 pm right now. It was pretty cool walking through the hotel down to the lobby and out the door and around the hotel at that late of time. And to see even as late as it was there were still tons of people just walking around and hanging out in the streets. We found this weird almost "cull-a-sac" like area were the buildings were built in a little more then a half circle around this square were people were just sitting and on the other side there was a ice-cream parlor area. And Pastor and Ada decided to go get something and even though I didn't need ice-cream at the time they insisted on buying for me.

We talked back shortly afterwards, but one thing I should mention earlier we all thought was funny was this one area were the elevators are situated in this room were there are 3 elevators. While we were all waiting to decide what was happening and people were calling some of there families to check in we waited for them in this mini lobby were the elevators were. Well this man walks in (nothing strange) and goes into an elevator in front of me..... We just stayed in the lobby and didn't think much of it. But then about 5 minutes later were still there and the man comes up in the 3ed elevator behind me. It was pretty funny at the time and really weird because we just saw him go down in front of me and then he comes up right behind me in another elevator. Oh and also that habinero sauce I have bout from Mexico I should also mention the bottle got broken in the parking lot as we came in because I was holding it and I tripped on a back as we were unloading. Well it spilled down my shirt not to mention it was hot just to smell.... So aside from having to walk through the lobby like that witch wasn't too bad I had to pour out the rest of it in the sink because we couldn't really take it home with us. Pastor had us pour it out in the sink witch made the sink smell weird for a while....... And they also continently had water bottles in our rooms...... really big water bottles just sitting there for us to drink, until you read the tag. It said that if this bottle of water was opened they automatically charge your bill an extra 3 dollars and 50 cents I think witch really surprised Pastor and didn't thrill him to much when Wayne accidentally opened one..... Well anyways I just wanted to comment on the very interesting hotel we got to stay at. We slept pretty well that night and tomorrow is "Magic Mountain"

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

June 30

Today after getting up and heading down for breakfast we had just finished eating if I recall correctly Eric and Pastor had headed over about 40 feet to a meeting with all the other youth pastors and Church pastors for the different groups including the head of the youth directors for all of Washington I believe. Anyways, in the court yard Josh had walked over near the pool and got into an argument with Wayne.... They started arguing about something and Wayne decided to push Josh.... Fully clothed and before we were headed to worship, into the pool.

    Well I don't think Josh liked that very much although they sure got attention.... Perhaps they forgot that the entire group of leaders was just 40 feet away.... Or maybe they just didn't care. Even Ada helped get Josh into the pool. And shortly afterwards Andrew decided to push Wayne in.   So they all had to go back up and change cloths.

    This is the last day we will be in Mexico, or at least the last day of being hosted by our Church.... I think we have one more half day we spend for souvenirs and stuff. So after they had gotten change we finally were off to the Church. We arrived there shortly and started setting up the vbs and puppets. We got the balloons filled up and set off in the streets to hand them out to kids we might meet. The thing I still remember pretty clearly even today as I’m typing all this out is one kid that walked up to me and Anthony. He was probably around 7 to 12 or something like that, but he walked up to us and motioned us to follow him. So we did, I did not think until now looking back that it could have a huge risk to take, That he could have been leading us anyway. But thankfully it turned out alright, he lead us through this alleyway into some back streets and up a hill through some stair cases and so on. A very interesting little trip following this young kid. Or at least I thought so. Then we got to this house whose front yard we walked through to this stair going through and alleyway up to another level of houses. Might I add these houses are VERY close together. You don't really see any grass. Its not like there’s yards, its like there’s 3 feet then the next house so we could have easily gotten lost in this maze but thankfully the Holy Spirit allowed us to get there and back safely. But once we got to were the boy was taking us we saw why he wanted us to come so far. A little boy who I don't even think was wearing pants had walked up and wanted a balloon.   The young boy had taken us there to give his brother apparently a balloon. I thought that was pretty cute. Then he also took us into a house were a woman was holding a baby and I am assuming this was his mother. I couldn't speak to her but I could say hello and that was about it. Then we left and got back in time for the vbs, Witch went pretty poorly I might add. The one time I was in doing puppets we accidentally switch witch puppets were speaking along with the tape we had playing in Spanish.

    That really didn't help things. But other then that it was a great service and the kids were asked if they wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. There were some that came forward and I guess if even one did receive the Holy Spirit then it was worth it.

    Now we get to go to an Orphanage! It took about 40 minutes to get there and I think we stopped for our lunch (sandwitchbread with jelly and penut butter, and also ham and and stuff if we wanted) That we were supplied with. Then we got to the Orphanage were we got to help set up our portable vbs puppets stage with pvc pipe and a blanked donated by Josh's mom.

    Also when we got there we got to play with some of the children. Most were around 10 years old. And some were EXTREMLY good at basket-ball! One little girl was making shots me and Eric together couldn't make! She beat me and Eric I think when we tried playing her in this big open court they had at the Orphanage. Either that or me and Eric REALLY REALLY stink at basket-ball....

    If the Orphanage photos aren’t hear I probably haven’t gotten around do setting them up on sight yet. But I hope to sometime its just that its fairly time consuming for me to do. But if there hear then I guess I got around to getting it done.

    After that we left the Orphanage and headed to a Christian book store partly because Eric told the guy we suspect of trying steal our stuff he would buy him a Bible before we leave. So were here to get a Bible for that man. And while were there Pastor bought some cassette tapes I believe. I took a look at the ones he was saying he really liked by an old Christian group called "Petra" Witch when I asked if Pastor liked he replied, and I quote” Is the pope catholic?" And so.... I'm going to assume he meant yes.

    Tonight is our last night with our host pastor and her family. So this is pretty exiting, We had our worship service tonight as well as our prayer. We even got to pray for the guy we suspect of trying to steal stuff. For his sake and because I don't know his name lets call him Bob. Witch was pretty cool praying for Bob who still by the way comes to the Church whether to steal or not he’s still hear so I guess that’s a good sign.

After our prayer and worship service the pastor went up to thank us for coming down and we learned that the Holy Spirit had used us at the time we came down because she said the Church was in real need of help. Well after the service and most people left instead of being served supper by our host we were taken out and treated to a Mexican restaurant witch was also really pretty cool. When we got there at about maybe 8? I'm not sure what time it was but it was dark outside. We found out not only the typical beef tacos were served but fish as well. That was pretty cool because they serve them on platters with like 7 tacos because of there size. So we order several batches of them, and besides all that we had dip for chips we were given and different coke bottles. Although these bottles were old, probably American coke bottles. Thing is when the Mexican restaurants use them they put the coke into the bottles and serve them. But when the next customer comes along they take the same bottle, wash it out with water and pour more coke into it from what we saw. Probably not the best idea if cleanliness is concerned but aside from that it saves them a lot of money I bet! And also we were told not to drink some of them because they had ice in them. And the ice was from there water frozen witch might contain parasites so sometimes we tried not drinking our cokes .

    Well we said good bye to them. And got to sake hands and stuff with the pastor and her family. Who we all got to meet and eat with while at the fish taco restaurant. That was pretty cool and kind of sad at the same time. Well that’s about it for today, Tomorrow we have them (the pastors family) over to our worship ampatheator and that will be it. Same with every group. They get there host pastor to come be thanked on stage at the ampatheator were we worship each morning.