I bought video games this week.

People, come visit me in Texas...


Until then, I have been reading Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton. I am a fan. Here are the two statements that made a big impact during my reading today:

"A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged...For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony."

"In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician. And this pointed a profound emotion always present and sub-conscious; that this world of ours has some purpose; and if there is a purpose, there is a person. I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller."

My heart is in TJ

It's been a couple of days since we got back from Mexico. It has been nice to shower and flush toilets, but it's exhausting to enter back into everyday life. My mind is racing again and it makes me long for the pace of life and sense of community that we experienced last week in Mexico. So as a way of avoiding "real life" let me tell you a little about the trip.

It started out at the crack of dawn last Saturday. We flew into San Diego and spent the afternoon in Coronado. Let me tell you that at this point I was not excited for the trip. I was tired of planning, tired of talking about it, etc. At Coronado I was able to hang out with some great girls and one of my favorite people of all time stopped by to visit. After some catching up with my old friend, Jenla, the group headed to cross the border. We had a moment of silence as it was my first time out of the country and then we entered Mexico. The first thing I noticed was the traffic. I was really thankful that I wasn't driving. I like the rules of driving. I like lanes and stop signs and people that obey them (although by the end of the week, I found the lack of obedience slightly liberating).

The orphanage was amazing. Not so much the place that we slept (i had a cot in the hallway), but the construction for what will be the new orphanage. Its exciting to see how many families and children will be served in this new building. I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere at the orphanage-it was safe. I liked it.

We woke up the next morning and headed to our sites in our work groups. I had the most amazing group of students and co-leaders. I was blessed by them and thankful for the ministry that happened. I am so grateful for their positive attitudes, because we spent the next three days doing some intense manual labor. We moved the most amount of dirt and rocks that I have ever seen and then mixed cement for the floor of the house. Laying cement is not easy. But relating to people while laying cement is. I have three new best friends now. The rest of the week we built the walls and put up siding, painted and put on the roof. It was pretty typical of house building.

At night we spent time together before dinner, showered from a bucket, ate dinner, had program and prayed with our prayer partner. Then it was bedtime, except I usually ended up picking a girl's room and going in there and chatting it up for awhile. It was great. I loved being able to get that much time to learn about my students and talk to them about their lives.

Mornings were slow paced. Breakfast, leader meeting, quiet times. It was delightful. TJ in the morning smells and sounds a little like a country farm-dogs barking, roosters crowing, birds chirping and the smell of a new day. I delighted in it more everyday.

One of the best parts were our site owners. They were a family of 7. Dad, Mom and 5 kids. Three of the daughters spent the majority of their day with us. They were so fun. Keep in mind that I speak .2 words of Spanish. But seeing their eyes light up when we would drive up was the best feeling. I brought them a coloring book on the next to last day and got to color with them for a good bit of the morning. It was so fun. I re-learned my colors in Spanish. I learned more than just a little Spanish from this family. The dad is an honest policeman. Its pretty rare for the area that he works in and, therefore, he makes very little money. His decision to be a man of integrity has extreme implications on his family's financial well being, yet he has made an active decision to care about his character. And how much better will his family be for it? A lot. He is teaching his children the value of who they are, rather than what they have. They will be able to look to their father as an example of an outstanding man. I was very impressed with who he is and how he would come and labor with us. And how thankful he was. Then, at the end this man who I have a great amount of respect for told us that we are apart of his family. What a blessing.

I could write more, but I am sure you are tired of reading. These pictures sum up all I feel about my experience.