Last post from the trip.

This will be the last post for now. We have had fun on the ferry as Ian is a captain for BC ferries, therefore we got to tour the bridge. Here is a pic of Steve in the Captain's chair. Hope to see you in a few minutes. Weird to think that most of you will read this after we actually see you.


I"m out.

We are on the 12 ferry.

PARENTS:

We will be on the 12 ferry instead of the 1pm. please be at the terminal at 1:30.

One more early morning.

One last early morning. They won't let me upload pictures to the blog here at the hotel so that is why there isn't any today and yesterday but I will make sure there is lots when we get home don't worry. We are on the road at 8:30 this morning so I will post a new blog once we get to canada to let everyone know which ferry we are on for sure.
Please pray for safe travels and short line ups at the boarder.

Peace.

Touchdown Seattle!!!

We made it to Seattle at about 11pm and are now at the hotel. All 43 of us!!!! Today has been a long travel day so I'm keeping this short as we need to get some rest before tomorrow.

PARENTS PLEASE NOTE:
We may be catching the 12pm ferry on sunday. It all depends on how long the border crossing takes. We will be phoning parents to advise if we are catching the earlier boat.

Team orange on the go.

Well it's bright and sunny already today. Should be a great travel day. Yesterday was full of adventures. We went to the Oaxacan Market in the morning and El Pabion beach in the afternoon. We are on the road now so will we post another update tonight.

A foggy morning.

Well we finished the house and moved in the family last night. It took two truck loads to move the Miranda-Sierra family to their new house, spiders, pigeons and all. There was also a suitcase full of items for each of the 7 family members. Thanks to all of you who donated items for the family as they were so blessed by the stuff. After we moved them over, we ate dinner with them and then brought out a giant Dora the Explorer pinata filled with candy. Everyone took turns hitting is as you can see from the pics.
Today we get to go to the local market to shop for a bit and then it's off to the beach for a while. Steve really wants to rent some dune buggies at the beach. Crazy guy.

Here is a post from Laura Tresidder:
Hey ya'll! just kidding, I've been hanging around the Americans here a little too much. Well, I didn't know this experience would be so life changing, I mean I heard it would, but to actually see the changes in the house, the family, each other and myself... it blows me away. Wednesday night we had our Crave at the church here. It was so powerful listening to almost a thousand people praising God with the same song, in two different languages. It really makes you think that people all over the world are worshipping the same amazing God. Also, another moment that got to me was when I was holding the little four year old that was moving into the house, she asked me to go inside the house and her eyes completely lit up when she saw the suitcases full of donations and her new room. She had the purest smile on her face and she just turned back to me and said, "Gracias! Gracias!" and she hugged me like she'd never let go. It was sad saying the goodbyes, and I know we've changed these children's lives forever, as they have changed our hearts for a life time. I am now seeing that God has chosen each person to come here to give to these people and serve him, and come back with a changed heart and new experiences. I truly wish everyone back home could experience the miracles down here. Miss you all! Laura's out..

Wakey Wakey!!

This is a picture from the Baja Fiesta where we went to get some dessert last night. Chris got fries for some reason. I guess he really misses Mc Donalds or something.
Buenos dias (good morning)!! Today we had great breakfast burritos...hmmmmm. Please continue to pray for us as we are just over the hump now and the lack of sleep is setting in. Pray for energy and work ethic. It's overcast today but we are told it will burn off by 10am or so and then be sunny and hot.

A message from Alyson Shultz:

Good morning!!!! Greg and I are so thrilled and blessed to have Saanich here. We look forward to having these guys visit us every year, not just because they're from our home church, but because these are the best behaved youth we've seen! Thank you family members for allowing your kids to come down. They are such a blessing to everyone that comes in contact with them. We love you guys and we look forward to hopefully seeing you in a couple weeks when we're up there in Victoria!! God bless!

House almost finished.

Yes some of you have been noticing how fast the house is going up. This is because we have all 43 people at one site this year. We need to have the house completely finished by tomorrow because we are actually moving the family from their current house (the Bus pictured below), to their new home. Today the Snow cone man came buy to sell us some much needed snow cones. The flavor choices were interesting, like chili. I didn't venture to try it as I thought my taste buds would have had a heart attack. I mean seriously, spicy ice? Think about it. Some of us tried the hot sauce with out realizing it...rookies. I also got a chance to quickly go see the 2 houses we built last year. I thought I would post them for those of you that went in '07. They are the 2 blue houses.
Tonight we went a local church called the Big-O. There were just under a thousand people there, mostly youth. I think being around so much youth caused Steve to have a radical experiance as you can see by the picture above. It was a great service and we knew most of the songs, well the english part anyway.

Good Morning World.

Well it's a little bit overcast this morning but Tom says it'll be gone by 10, unlike in Victoria. Here are a couple more pictures from yesterday. Enjoy.


Peace.

An afternoon at the campos.

This afternoon after we finished our working on the house we went out to the campos. The campos is where the migrant workers live while they work in the fields. The conditions at the campos are less than desirable for living. The picture of the out-houses you see are the functional ones for these 11 families. Not cool at all. The families were so gratful when we came there bearing gifts. We brought them clothing, toys and many other things that we take for granted everyday. We are off to chapel now so I'll post more later.

Breakfast time.

Yes it's 7am and we are all up for breakfast, well most of us anyways. It's a bit chilly at night here and about 3 or 4 degrees when we wake up so everyone is bundled up. It quickly warms up though. Yesterday we had great weather and there weren't too many sunburns...good thing we brought Aloe. The picture above was taken yesterday. It is the bus that the family lives in for which we are building the house. I hope this gives you a picture of the desperate conditions down here that the people live in. Remember that a mother and her 5 kids live in this bus.
Today we will be putting on the roof of the house and doing the electrical work. The house will be outfitted with Solar power as electricity is expensive down here.

Next post should be this afternoon and there will be pics from the day.

Hasta manana

A few more pics from Day 1.

Here are the promised day one pics. Click to make them bigger if you want to.
Jesse Edmonds Photography Copyright 2008

Sorry for the Delay.

So yes we did arrive in VG safely. I wasn't able to write a blog last night as it was raining....yes that was the reason the internet wasn't working. As you can imagine, rain storms are few and far between down here so it's kinda like a snow day in Victoria. We went to the job site today and started the build. It's just south of San Quintin, about 20 min south of the IDT base. Here are some pics from the job site. Enjoy. We are back at the IDT base right now getting ready for dinner. Look for another post tonight with more pics.

This is From Sydney Medd :
Today was amazing! The kids were so cute! Some of us (including me) were assinged to dig the hole for *ahem the reliving area. i was chosen as the measuring stick so that was fun. when you look around here, your heart breaks but is happy at the same time. You can see in the kids faces that their definetly is a God. weathers good. much Love,

Sydney
PS mom i miss you!

Seattle

So after a little delay at the border, we made it to the Super 8 motel in Seattle. We are getting ready to sleep because we need to awaken at the ripe old hour of 3:30am. Ya that's right, 3:30AM. I didn't think that my alarm clock had that setting, but it does. Well I had better sign off for now. Next update will be from somewhere in Mexico I think.
Chris Sundby wants to shout out to all his peeps.....(so old skool).

Peace

On the ferry

Here is a quick update from the ferry. It's a smooth ride. Next update will be from Seattle tonight. I'll make sure to include some pics tonight.

Peace.

Less than 24hrs!!

Ok everyone, time to make sure you have everything packed and such. make sure you look your best for traveling tomorrow(may I suggest orange?) as I'll have the camera out taking all kinds of pics to document our trip.
Hey I had a thought today, at the end of the house build can we say, "move out of that BUS!"? I think that Nick J should have the Megaphone and could run around yelling at us like Ty does on that show that you all watch.
Anyways, I'm out. see you in Seattle and remember we get to get up nice and early in Seattle.

Peace

2 Days and counting!!

2 Days until we leave. I thought I would just post up the team pic for you but I'm writing this while at work and therefore don't have the team pic with me. I'll post it tonight when I get home.