Mexico - Day 10

I'm sitting on the plane and won't post this until we land. It's both
exciting that I'll finally be home, yet I love being in Mexico and
living in that culture so much. I know that if I had to do it every
day my story might change. Who knows.

Well, I had the craziest travel and border crossing experience yet.
Like I said yesterday, instead of taking our usual route through
Tijuana, we followed Tim & Kathy up to Tecate and then into the States.

The trip itself was beautiful. There were hills covered in giant
boulders and we traveled through the Mexican wine country. The only
problem was that we got stuck behind many trucks going up the
mountains. At times we would be going 5mph uphill. It wouldn't have
been too bad minus all the extra travel time except for John's van. It
began to overheat going uphill behind the trucks, so on a 92 degree
day, the other van had to turn on the heater! Ugh.

The reason for going through Tecate was because the Tijuana border
crossing takes at least an hour if not more. We only waited in line
for 5 minutes here! I was thinking, "no way!" but...

They pulled both our vans into secondary. I followed the usual
crossing procedure, giving over all the IDs and offering up passports
and birth certificates. The guy asked if I'd ever crossed before. I
wanted to say yes, 6 times without problems. Then he asked both our
vans to unload an go inside the immigration building. You've got to be
kidding me right?! Well we went inside and the officertold john and I
to get checked first and then go park our vans on the street and wait
for everybody else. The guard letting John and I out to get the vans
couldn't even believe that they brought us in in the first place.

Well, at least we made it across the border. Then we got to drive back
west toward San Diego of course stopping at In 'n Out. Good stuff. We
debated the finer points on whether or not it was better than
Burgerville. It was nice to have a good show of support for the NW
chain.

Yesterday was wonderful. There were so many hard workers on our team
that helpped finish more than we planned to accomplish. VBS ended
which was sad saying goodbye to all hose kids.

A group of us poured concrete steps leading up to the Church from the
dirt road. A few more painted the upright poles and benches outside
and another team of us finished tiling an grouting. We estimated a
little over 800 sq. ft. of tile laid. Grouting gave me a few good cuts
and stained hands but we sure had fun.

It was a long day. About six of us had quick breaks for lunch and
dinner at the church bit pretty much worked straight through untill
8pm. I feel very tired, but that's good. I feel that a number of us
used up all the energy given.

Our last group session was special. The new pastor at the church,
Melquiades and his wife Salvina-who works with the kids and youth-
shared with us how God brought them to this point. It is exciting to
know the church, pastors, kids and town that our group supports.

Well our decent is beginning and the sights and sounds of home will
soon be before us. What will each of our lives be like now? We prayed
that the changes that God put on our heart in Mexico through our
serving, observing the culture, and listening to God's Word would not
soon be forgotten. (Really never!)