Vacation

It's been a whirlwind since my return to the states. Last weekend Ali and I went camping with her family and a group of their friends, but returned Saturday night so Ali and I could lead worship at our church. Then Tuesday, we headed to Wild Waves with the mid school group from church.

Now we are about to leave for the week, again with Ali's family, for Lake Tahoe. It should be a great, relaxing week.

I hope yours is too.

Mexico Mission Trip Video

Brian just finished the short version of our Mexico mission trip video. It gives you a great taste of what happened. When the longer version is finished, I'll post it too.

Refferals

My page hits counter does more than count hits. It also tells me where people are when they look at my site, and how they got here (refferals).

I always expect getting hits off my friend's blogs, or the occasional hit off the 180 staff page or even the 180 newsletter. But sometimes, people get to my blog by searching on Google.

What do they search for that leads to my blog? Here's a sample:

"head on" +"apply directly to the forehead"

tetanus shots multnomah county

stepupmovie

emo-o-matic

everclear lyrics "i would buy you"

tsunami what was said to the rose to make it

...Very Interesting...

Breakfast program.

Our youth group takes a collection for some Compassion children and a breakfast program in Mexico every week. While in Mexico, we got to visit that breakfast program. Out in a beautiful valley was a very poor community in which we played baseball with the kids. Their bat was cracked in two, taped together, and they only had one unrecognizable tennis ball. They didn't even have a soccer ball in the whole community. And soccer was their favorite sport!

At this breakfast program, the kids come together to hear Bible teaching led by a local pastor, and then receive breakfast from YUGO, with whom we partner. On TV you see the kids who are starving and have the flies all over their bodies but do not care or notice. As I watched these kids with many flies on their bodies, I realized that these kids were the same kids. It broke my heart. But my heart also felt joy, because these kids had hope. They heard the word of God, and their stomachs were fed. It is so amazing to see the gifts from our students each week being used to expand the Kingdom. I'm so glad that our students obey God's command to care for the needy, and to seek justice.

I have much more to say about Mexico. If you want to read what others are saying, check out Brian Eberly's blog and the 180 Mexico Team Report site.

Back in the US with China

We made it safely back across the world's busiest land border crossing. We had a great trip. God worked in us and through us. I'll post all about it soon and let you see some pictures too.

But for right now, it's easier to just write a few sentences about our return home. My brother, sister and brother-in-law looked after our cat and place while we were in Mexico. And apparently, so did my parents.

For Christmas, they gave Ali and I a china hutch. But half of it was on order, and then they were going to stain it for us. Well, we got home and both of us noticed that the table in our dining room had been moved.

Hmmm...odd.

Then, there it was! The china hutch, stained, decorated...as well as many other decoration changes in the house.

Thanks mom and dad! (And Annie, Matt & AJ)