Posted by Posted in adventures, gospel and outreach, journal entries, memorys, Mexico, missions, Rancho3M

Journal Entries- Mission Trip to Mexico- Day 5

So when I woke up this morning, I don’t think it would be humanly possible to imagine the fun I had today! Lots of days are like that for me. 🙂

Pretty regular morning this morning, we had breakfast and got to work staining. Right next to where we were staining some of the guys were building a storage room off of an office. It was really cool to see the progress they made, day by day.

Today though, I got a special treat. Santiago, a very cute staff child, still too young for school, followed me around and would hide behind brick walls and play peek-a-boo. He hung out around us all during the morning, until we went in for lunch. When Mikayla and I were setting up for games he was with us playing with chalk. I got to chat with him in Spanish all morning!

Also, this morning, Lauren brought us some authentic Mexican food to try. She wouldn’t tell us what it was until after we ate it. I ate it and found out what it was. Pig skin.

Over lunch, our team thought it would be fun to have a water fight with the kids and the afternoon work crew would ambush them. So that afternoon during siesta, some of the other teens/college students of the group and me of course helped fill the water balloons.

We filled about 1500! There were three huge coolers of them! We all had blisters on our hands from tying them all! By then the kids were out of school and it was quite a big job to keep them from getting into it right then!

For games that day we played with balloons. We had some games planned to do with them but the games involved popping the balloons and the kids grew rather…. attached. 🙂 Instead they carefully untied the balloons and filled them with water and dumped them… on us. Today I was the “translator” of the group again.

After a while, the kids doing crafts came out and we played a big game of Shipwreck or 4 Corners. Whatever you want to call it.

During this time the work crew had gone and gotten water balloons and then went out to the sombrero and proceeded to ambush the kids!

Well after this, we brought the rest of the water balloons out and had fun throwing those around. The water balloons evolved into buckets which somehow turned into hoses and basically, everyone got wet! I was soaked, muddy (I had slipped in a mud puddle), and had a skinned knee (from slipping). It was pretty fun.

After washing up and hanging out with the kids some more, we went into dinner and then we played our USA vs. MEX soccer game.

I played midfield. They won, like usual. 4-1 But hey! We scored and they didn’t score more than 5! I would say Victory for us. I actually got the ball a few times and I didn’t kick anyone by accident. Good game!

By now, as you can imagine, I was tired and proceeded to go to bed. Ahhhh! Good night!

Your one and only, 🙂
Priscilla

Posted by Posted in gospel and outreach, journal entries, memorys, Mexico, missions, Rancho3M

Journal Entries- Mission Trip to Mexico- Day 4

On this day it was pretty normal. Get up, have devotions and breakfast and then get to work! The whole morning I worked hard staining the eaves, we had fun while we did it, lots of laughing and joking and enjoying others company. And then lunch and siesta.

After siesta, Mikayla (my amazing game partner for the day) and I set up for games. Daniel, the son of Rancho3M’s director, helped us with Spanish translation that day and we had a lot of fun.

I played soccer with the kids until it was time for dinner. After dinner I was playing some more soccer with the kids (I was goalie) until an event that I will never forget happened. So on my last post I told you about how the staff guys shoo the kids off the field and play their own rough game in the evenings. Well, tonight I somehow got myself into that game! They made teams, (I was still standing in the goal) and they asked me if I wanted to play as their goalie. I said “Sure” and prepared for battle.

I felt bad whenever I let a goal in but when I made a save, I had a cheerleader squad to celebrate for me. Yes, all the older girls were watching and cheering me on.

This game actually gave me lots of opportunities even better than just playing with the big guys (…. an honor :)). I formed friendships with people I would not have thought of being my friends. Senor Carlos, a guy on my team would always say “Hola Priscilla! Como estas?” when he saw me and I got to know him more.

And the older girls, in the past they have not been the ones I click with naturally but after going over and thanking them for cheering me on, they became instant friends. Lluvia (one of the girls) always flashes me the most adorable smile when she sees me and well, Aline and Yesenia are some of my besties. 🙂

After soccer, I played basketball with some of the older girls and teens on the trip. Then we looked at the stars. Beautiful. Renee, a young lady who has been at the Ranch for 2 years, took me and Sarah (girl from our team) up this sand dune type thing and pointed out the cities around Guadelupe. Again, beautiful.

Then I went to bed. Boy, do I love Mexico.

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in journal entries, Living for God, memorys, Mexico, missions, Rancho3M

Journal Entries- Mission Trip to Mexico- Day 3

AAAGHHH! Its July and it has already been two months since my trip. But I will finish my ‘Journal Entries’ series, so keep updated for days 4-8 in the (hopefully) near future.

So today I got up and had devotions outside in the early morning before breakfast. I had to have it in the play house because Lolo (dog) and Tigre (cat) were following me around everywhere and that is the only place where I could find some peace! Then we had breakfast and got to work.

First, we had a meeting to plan kids activities for the day. I was put in charge of games and was given (overwhelmed with) game suggestions to use. After that, some of the other teen girls and I went to tour the baby home while the other ladies measured for curtains they were going to be sewing. Next we did some small projects to get ready for the games we would be playing that day by making a bowling set using 2×4’s and dowels. Lauren (a former intern) then took some of us girls to dust and start staining the eaves around the girls and boys dorms.

After that we had lunch and siesta. In my siesta I normally read, write or lay there (I rarely nap) but that day I was pretty tired so I lay there and rested. I got up and set up for games before the kids got out of school and then hugged them when they did get out of school.

In the group of people who were helping me with games I was the only one who spoke Spanish and so I was what I like to call translator although I am not quite fluent in Spanish. Today we worked with kids (boys and girls) 3-11. We played some water relays and a version of “Mother, May I?”.

After we did organized games we just hung out with the kids and I worked on my Spanish by talking with some of my little friends Yesenia, Cristian and Alfredo. It was a nice surprise to see Alfredo since I had not seen him there on Saturday or Sunday and assumed that he wasn’t at the Ranch anymore. I spied him and asked Cristian if it was Alfredo and if he still remembered me. Cristian’s response? “Oh yes” I hope that is a good thing. 🙂

When the kids went in for dinner, David, Mikayla and I kicked the soccer ball around a little bit before our dinner. In the evening I watched the staff guys play soccer (check for a funny story about this in my Day 4 post!) and just hung out with the kids.

When the kids went to bed some of our team played cards and then I went and took a shower and went to bed. Aaahhh…… it has been a great day!

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in gospel and outreach, journal entries, memorys, Mexico, missions, Rancho3M

Journal Entries- Mission Trip to Mexico- Day 2

It is Sunday today. After breakfast, we got ready for church and then just hung out as a team. We then went on down to the church and just hung out there with the kids before the service started.

Church is fun there. We worshiped the Lord in Spanish of course. Poncho led us in worship with his guitar and we sang some songs. Some I recognized the tune and could pick out words. We also sang a song about saying to the mountains ‘Move!’ and they move. That is when they give the offering and then you dance around in a certain part of the song. It is very fun! Then they have a time of testimonies where the kids can come up and recite a verse or say something they are thankful for. I enjoy that time too. Then after that, my youth pastor did the sermon and then we left for lunch.

In the afternoon it was visiting time for the kids who have parents in the area. Brian, a boy who was at the Ranch last year but not this year, came to visit his brothers who are still there. It was refreshing to see him again. I mostly hung out with and played with the kids who didn’t have parents visiting. We played tag and this really fun game that is hard to explain.

In the evening we just hung out some more, it might sound boring but really, just hanging out is one of the most fun parts. The slide on the playground is really fun to slide on, the first time I went down I slid right off the slide! Another fun game one of the girls Yesenia likes to play is where they say the Spanish name and pronunciation and then we say the English. Example: Alejandro, Alexander.

Monday we start the work day, and organized structure.

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in Friendship, gospel and outreach, journal entries, me, Mexico, missions, Rancho3M

Journal Entries- Mission Trip to Mexico- Day 1

It was early when I got up. About 5:00 in the morning. Everything had been packed yesterday so all I had to do was get dressed, brush my teeth and grab my two backpacks on the floor. My mom drove me to the airport. We went out of our little town of Mooresville where everything was still asleep and into busy Charlotte where a lot more was going on.

After parking in the car garage, my mom went with me into the airport where we met the other people who were on the same flight, my youth pastor, two college students and a dad. A hurried hug with my mom and I was off to Mexico and Rancho3M!

I went through security, rather quickly because I was pre-check. A nice surprise. We then hurried to our gate and chilled until it was time to board, although even then we waited because we were Group 3, the last group to board. The airplane was very new and modern with screens that played TV all through the flight. Rather distracting. I mostly read a “Christians Then and Now” book on Cameron Townsend and then just sat and thought to myself.

We arrived in Dallas TX and I made the fatal mistake of NOT buying something to eat. We had a short layover there and then got on another airplane to El Paso TX. This plane had little screens on every seat which was better because I could choose what to do. I got the interactive map up on there and watched our course. After touching down in El Paso, my favorite part of the plane rides, we got to go through those swinging glass door thing, and an escalator. By now I was VERY hungry but I would have to wait even longer.

In the El Paso airport we met up with another family on our team and two couples from the Sovereign Grace Church of the Lowcountry. Dean Adamek (director of Rancho3M) and some of the early crew from our team came to pick us up. I got in the big 15 passenger van and then everyone went to an authentic Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. My stomach was very happy with this, but alas, Anna (a girl from our team) and I were of course the last ones to get our food, which we gobbled down quickly. I got chicken tacos.

After lunch, we all piled in again and headed to the border. The border crossing went well and we were in Mexico! After an hour long drive we reached the Ranch! When everyone piled out of the vans all of the kids piled on us! Hugs, hugs and more hugs. Lots of the kids remembered me and my name so when I got out some kids would yell “Priscilla! Priscilla!” Lil Cristian and Juanito were some of the ones who remembered me. It was like reuniting with family!

I settled into the dorm room, I was bunking with Sarah (a college age girl I have gotten to know on past trips down there) and then went to hang out with the kids. Some of the kids from the year before were not there, which was sad, but for the kids who were there it was, like I said, reuniting with family. We kicked the futbol around and I was delighted to find that my Spanish was an answer to prayer! While the rest of the group went on a tour I stayed back and played with the kids. I played basketball with Josefina and Bianca, some of my new friends and played tag with some of the young boys.

I went to bed very happy that night. I was there in Mexico with my dear Mexican family.

Priscilla