Tuesday 26 March 2013

At the border

We are now sitting at the border, waiting to cross.

Adam Van Dop

Back in Seattle!!

Just a heads up to everyone, WE ARE BACK IN SEATTLE!!!

Please pray that this final leg of the journey will be fast!! And that the border crossing will be epically smooth!!

Adam Van Dop

Monday 25 March 2013

Day 8 :: packed up

Good morning!!

We're all packed up and ready to go! We just have to load the van, and make way for the train station.

As a reminder, you can follow our progress on the train through Amtrak.com (more instructions in one of the first blog posts)

Sunday 24 March 2013

Day 7 :: beach day!

This morning we woke up at the church in Chula Vista, had breakfast and attended the service - where they were celebrating 5 baptisms of new believers!! Pastor Randy then spoke on how Jesus said "blessed are the poor" - he talked about how we are all poor, not just in the sense of our bank accounts or lack thereof - but of being poor in spirit. He said that the blessing flows when we fully realize just how poor we are - how empty we are. It is in that state of mind that we realize out need for God and following his Son!

I learnt that lesson today again - that when we come to the point of admitting our brokenness, blessings follow. I thank The Lord for teaching that to me today.

Following the service, we got lunch, and found our way to Mission Beach. Everyone laughed at us Canadians for wanting to soak up some sun rays - but it appeared that half of California wanted to do the same. The parking lot was jam packed (ask Rudy about his parking adventure), as was the beach. However we still enjoyed an afternoon in the sun.

We stopped for some groceries for the train ride home, cleaned up, and had our final high-low sharing time.

Highs were mainly the relaxing time at the beach after such a long week of none stop service and activity.

Lows were primarily in the idea that my alarm is set for 3.00am and we have two very long days ahead of us.

So that's it - our trip is near over. We've had an amazing time, The Lord has blessed is so richly, The Lord has challenges us all in so many different ways. I really cannot wait for you all to start hearing the stories.

A few prayer requests:
- at this point, 26 people have been living together for 9 days - pray that our final two days moving into even closer quarters will be pleasant and used for times of reminiscing and remembering the good we got to be a part of.
- pray for our trip home, for safety on the train, for our drivers, for the connection in LA and for our bus driver (Bob) who will meet us in Seattle.

Adam Van Dop

Saturday 23 March 2013

Day 6 :: School service projects and leaving

Today was a hard day to wake up to, we all knew it was the last. 

We has an opportunity to go support a local school whose students were made up of orphan girls.  We again pulled weeds, and planted shrubs, build a fence, and pulled more weeds.  We were able to help make their school more pleasant - work that would have taken the caretakers weeks to complete.  One of the amazing things, was that we got to spend time with a missionary that we worked with in San Diego in 2011!!! Neither of us had any idea that our meeting there at the school would take place.
Our day there came to an end, we got more taco's, and churros, and returned to the base camp to pack up and clean up.

That was sad - it always is

We got our final team photo, shook hands, gave hugs with our staff - and loaded the vans, and pointed north - heading for the busiest border crossing in the world.  After a series of interesting maneuvers and a bump here and there - we got into the line up at 4.45pm.  Where we were met with a barrage of people selling their wares and beggars looking for some spare change.

Around one corner, and around another, over a bridge, and around another corner - 3.5 hours later, we sat at the crossing.  All passed through without issue, while out luggage van got sent for inspection.

We got back to the church here in Chula Vista, went for dinner, and returned to our luggage - set up our rooms, and shut the lights off.

This truly has been an impacting trip.  The Lord has tugged hard on so many hearts, and has begun new work in them.  I have had conversation after conversation about understanding the voice of God and about reconciling past hurt. 

Can you all continue to pray that we will all be able to fully digest what all has happened here, and come to a firm understanding of just how exactly the Lord has been at work.

Tomorrow, we worship here at the church, and will head to the beach to enjoy some freedom before getting on the train on Monday morning.

Thanks all for your continued support and prayer! - none of this would be possible without any of that!!!

-Adam.

Friday 22 March 2013

Day 5 :: Orphanage

Today we got the privilege to be the guests at a local orphanage - to do a variety of things.  We started the day working on their property, and weeding gardens and pathways while the children were still in their school sessions.

Once the sessions were done, some of our group prepared the hot dog lunch for the children and ourselves.  We served them - and they were amazed at the sight of their lunch.  We were told that these children only get to eat meat once a week - if they are lucky.  The children were eating 3 - 4 - even 5 hot dogs each. 

Following lunch, a few cleaned up, giving the few kids who were scheduled to clean a day off - to go play.  And play they did - there were frisbees, jump-rope, basketball, soccer, crafts, coloring ... a little bit of everything - while a few of us kept on attacking those pesky weeds.

We said our good-byes, some of which were hard - because these kids get so little attention, and so few visitors - these visits are really bright days for them.

You might be wondering - "what good comes of the team spending a day at the orphanage?" - Our being there as a team - gives YWAM a reason to be there, and allows them to build a relationship with this orphanage, and allows the YWAM staff to connect with the leadership ans support them and their needs as they seek to raise children in a christian 'home.' 


We returned to the base, had a chance to breath and relax before dinner - had dinner, and then joined together for our night session.  In this session, our speaker shared about our need to be listening to God's voice, and to be seeking understanding from him for our lives.  We were encouraged to sit in silence and ask the Lord to speak to us, and to pray for each others needs when we felt lead to do so.  Students prayed for students, and leaders for students.  It was an amazing night of many feeling the Lord speak to them in different ways.

We concluded the night with forgoing our usual high-low routine, allowing for some very needed free time, while us leaders met and prayed for our day tomorrow.

It was a great day today, however it being our last full day here in Mexico.  This time has gone by quickly, perhaps all to quickly.  Many youth feel as through they want to stay longer, come back again, or just plain never leave (and others wishing they could take some of the kids home with them...). 

I can't wait for you all to actually hear of individual stories and reflections.

Adam.

ps.  I'm going to leave you with this view of the sunset tonight, a view from the front steps of the main building at the base.  We're truly blessed to have called this home for the past 5 days.

Prayer Requests:
- Tomorrow, we start our journey home, first by making our way off the base, and across the border back into the US.  Where we'll stay at a church for the night, worship with them on Sunday, and follow that with a relaxing day before getting on the train on Monday morning.  Pray for a speedy border line, and a friendly/understanding/sympathetic border guard.
- Tomorrow, we have our final tasks here.  We are going a local school to complete a series of work projects, before packing up.  Pray that our work will be meaningful to the existing relationship between this school and YWAM.

Thursday 21 March 2013

Day 4 :: Children's Ministry

Dining/meeting hall
Beep beep beep, 7 o'clock came around too early this morning, but somehow getting out of bed isn't that hard when you know that today, you have a mission.

At 7:30 am we marched on over to the dining hall, ate some delicious (and some not so nutritious cereal) followed by morning devotions, led by Pepe, a YWAM staff member. He shared with us what God had placed on his heart about certain team members; Josh, Moira, Wes, and Kenko all received what they said felt like the Holy Spirit was talking to them through Pepe.

We then broke off into our smaller encouragement groups. We talked about our trip so far, our highs and lows, we prayed about each others concerns and what we feel God placing on our hearts.

Wes sharing about trusting in the Lord
Our Mission for today was to go to a village and take part in helping run their thursday afternoon children's ministry. We opened that up by singing, starting in English and trying a verse or two in Spanish...we weren't very good but definitely earned an A in effort. We then played duck duck goose with the younger kids and charades with the older ones.

We then went to the local street market where some of us bartered, and others willingly accepted the prices... then we headed for the classic, tacos-round two. Wes' high from today came from the taco shop, where Moira discretely slipped away to buy tacos for a beggar, who had been watching us eat. 
Beef tacos

We arrived back at the base, just in time for our worship time. We spent a good chunk of time  singing, then our host, Mark led a speech on sin, not just any regular speech, but a moment that we will never forget. We wrote down our sins on a piece of paper, put them in a plastic bag and then "finished" off in prayer. During the prayer, we heard loud shouts and banging coming from the other room. Most of us confused, and thinking to ourselves how rude and disruptive some people were being being, and then we were in shock when the doors flew open and a bunch of men ran into our session. A man dressed in white (who represented Jesus), was dragged to the front, whipped, humiliated and was holding the bag with our sins in it. He was dragged back outside, we were left unsure what we were to do until we were yelled at to "GET UP"!! We lined up single file and marched our ways out the door. The man in white was lying on the ground, just in a cloth with his back covered in red. He began to carry a cross, with the forced help of Rich. We marched up the hill and witnessed the man in white being raised on a cross, most of us, having tears streaming down our faces. We closed that of in group prayers and some us rededicating our lives to serving God.

-Hailey McGrail and Brittany Beukens

Prayer Requests
- That the work that the Lord is doing in the lives of these youth would continue.
- That although we are getting more and more tired by the day, that our ministry to the Mexican people would be effective!
- That those who are tired, would find rest.
- That our final full day will be an amazing day!

-Adam
ps - thanks Hailey and Brittany!
pss - sorry about the lack of pictures tonight - it's getting too late.

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Day 3 :: Building Day 2

During breakfast this morning the whole team decided that it was a good idea to donate money to the family for grocery shopping. Each family received $470 for shopping. A group of three or four from each team along with a translator were able to accompany them. Although I did not go I heard so many great things about the shopping trip. At home, we are used to buying too much and stocking food, if a box of cereal is on sale we buy three boxes. In these families, they buy only as they need - or can meagerly afford. So while the families were being so cautious of how many bags of rice or boxes of crackers they were placing in the buggy, the group was right behind them trying to secretly throw in five more.

While the family was out shopping, all the finishing touches were being worked on such as: finishing off the roof, putting the trim up and touching up on our painting job and a group of people starting on assembling furniture such as the bunk bed and dinning room chairs and table. the cool thing about the furniture package was that the family did not know that they were receiving it.

Today was not as hard physically as emotionally. We were not carrying piles of shingles up the ladder, cutting and hanging dry wall, installing windows and doors or painting everything for the first time. We had our dedication ceremony for the family which consisted of handing over the keys, a bible and a plaque. We all stood in a circle and shared our prayers and last words with the family. Then the family was able to open their doors and take ownership of what was now theirs. We followed in after a few minutes and prayed for them and wished them a blessing one more time. The mother had tears in her eyes, but once the middle daughter started to bawl, there was not a dry eye in the room. It was a hard day for a lot of us, having to say goodbye to the families. What was even harder, was to comprehend the joy and graditatude they had for a 16x20 ft home, a house smaller than most of our garages.
 the other house and team picture was not available at time of writing.  
  

Tonight we ended off like we do everynight, by sharing our highs and lows. the past two days have been a great experience, and although the families were thanking us, we were the ones who should be thanking them for giving us the opporitunity to do this for them.

Thank you congregation of Living Hope for providing for our financial needs and our prayer requests because with out any of that, none of this could have happened.

My highs and lows for today are:

LOWS:
- hitting my finger and head with hammer
- not being able to fully communicate with the families 

HIGHS
- hearing the teams final prayers and words to the family
- seeing the smiles on the families faces
- being able to walk away, confident that we wern't doing this to make ourselves feel better.
- seeing the team work so hard and dilegently to finish the home and create new relationships with team members, YWAM staff and the familes.

-Alyssa Haak

Prayer Requests:
- Tomorrow we are learning to run a short children's program for a nearby primary-type school.  Pray that we might be fast learners and effective in ministry there.
- It's becoming evident that the Lord is working in many of the lives of the youth and leaders on this team - pray that the Lord would continue to make Himself known to all of us, and to make clear his purpose and plans for our lives.

- thanks Alyssa!!!
~Adam.



Tuesday 19 March 2013

Day 2 :: Building Day 1

Wow.

If I could leave it there I would - but many of you know me - and I couldn't do that. 

Today was absolutely fantastic!! We finally got to start building the two homes we've been waiting to build for five months!!  Our whole team is split into two, and each team is responsible for building one house under the direction of a crew leader and a bunch of other YWAM staff who have built many homes already.

Their system is amazing, as soon as we got to the sites - everything happened - and within 2 hours (at least on my team) two walls were up!! and much other progress done.  Here's a few pictures:


 
 


As you can see - things happen quickly when you have an AMAZING team who works incredibly hard!!

Once we all returned back to the base, we cleaned up and had dinner - and had our evening session - where we learned a little about the need for justice in our world, and then perhaps where we might all be called to play a role in making so many wrongs right.  A significant challenge, where it was cleared up a little more by one of the students who said "I just want to live life the way God would like it!"  Living right.

After our session, we met as just our group and did our daily 'high's and low's' - where we all share what our days looked like - I want to share mine with you ::

HIGH - (most times we limit them to one - but reread the second line up top)
  • watching all the students (and hearing about the other team) work their hardest - all day long.  
  • I watched one student tirelessly try to nail one single nail for a long time (it was a very difficult spot to nail something), bent nail after bent nail - and only smiles and laughter from the student.  I loved seeing that - they even turned down offers of help.  That deserved a BIG HIGH FIVE!!!
  • getting to see a house build.
  • hearing the students pray for our meals and for our days.
  • and a video I received from home - where my 3.5yr old daughter sang "Jesus loves my daddy, the bible tells you so!" (I teared up there...)
LOW -
  • I got a little queasy on a van ride.

And you're thinking - "woop-de-do - he got a little queasy ..."

And that's it - that was the low (other than being so far from home).  It is truly amazing to be a part of this story down here.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Adam.

Prayer Requests:
- that build day two would be amazing, and that the families who are receiving the homes would truly feel the presence of the Lord there.
- that we would continue to be safe in travels and at work (only one injury today - one student hit there thumb with a hammer).
- that our students (and leaders) would continue to grow in the Lord and together!




___

Monday 18 March 2013

Day 1 :: Arrival

Very early this morning we got off our final train in San Diego, and met some of our YWAM staff hosts, and proceeded to collect our luggage and find our vans.  Enter the first 'problem' of the trip. The YWAM staff van, wouldn't start - and we waited for quite a while.  A number of us tried our hand at it, then Rudy said to our other van load of people "you guys pray, we'll push" ...

It started!!

It was an amazing start to our trip, seeing very visible God's hand among us.

We then drove to a church just outside of San Diego - First Baptist Church of Chula Vista - unpacked and slept.  We got up after a relatively decent sleep - it wasn't in chairs, nor was it constantly moving.  Had breakfast, and loaded the vans to head south to the border.  We got through the border without issue, and arrived a the amazing YWAM base (front office and main meeting hall pictured here) with ease.  We got introduced to (and say this with your best kiwi accent) - "Mark from New Zealand" - our speaker for the trip.

We had lunch at a taco stand in Rosarito (pictured left), and returned back to the YWAM base for a game of soccer and a walk to the beach (picture below).  After dinner, we had our first introductory session, where we received the challenge of being "ALL IN" for being open to the Lord's call.

Currently, I am sitting out on a terrace, a nice cool evening with a warm breeze - we are truly blessed to be in this place.

We are getting a pretty good sense that the Lord has something pretty amazing in store for us, and for all those we come into contact with.

Tomorrow, we start building the houses, and go to work at an after-school program.

So - we really can't wait for tomorrow, when we jump in with two feet and get going!!!

Thanks so much for the outpouring of support and prayers.

Adam.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
- continued safe travel as we move about this area
- health and freedom from injury
- team unity on the house builds
- spiritual growth of everyone on the team


Sunday 17 March 2013

Los Angeles

We are now in Los Angeles! Waiting to get on our final train to take us too San Diego!!!

Thanks to The Lord for safe travels!!

So very close!

Adam Van Dop

Sacramento!!

Good morning!!

Currently it is 6.15am - we are currently stopped in Sacramento, California.  If it was light out - I'm almost positive we would see palm trees.  But no - it's still dark and most are looking at the insides of their eyelids.

The trip has been great thus far. There have been no issues.  The trip into Seattle went seamless, no border issues, our bus driver Bob, got us to the Amtrak station at 8.15, and we had plenty of time to check in, find a coffee, and prepare ourselves for the long trip ahead. 

So that's where we're at.

Check back later tonight for another update!

Blessings to you all!
 
Prayer requests:
1. Strength to endure this leg of the trip on the train.  As the excitement now settles about being on the train - we begin to feel a little claustraphobic.
2. We will be meeting in our encouragement groups this morning, to talk a little about repentance and Psalm 51.  Pray that we'll all be open to the Lord's leading in those conversations.

ps.  Have you remembered to pray for the individual you took the name tag of?

Sacramento ...

Good morning all-
It's 5.58, and we are currently sitting in Sacramento. Most of the team is still asleep, a few restless ones (such as myself) have woken. It's been a good ride thus far, but man - we are sure looking forward to getting off this thing late tonight.

Blessings to you all!

Adam Van Dop

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Three days away ...

We're now just three short days away.  Everything has been confirmed, and just one more simple task has to be done tomorrow - then we'll be ready to go on Saturday morning!!

Here's a whole list of the youth and leaders who comprise this Mexico team:
Youth:
Aaron Vanderleek      Alyssa Haak             Amanda Crozier         Anna Van Dorp 
Beth Saathof              Brittany Beukens      Carissa Berger           Charity Dykstra 
Dan Huizing               Hailey McGrail        Joshua Olthius           Kenko Yoshida 
Kevin Lin                   Kristina Schaap        Moira Louw              Mya Coesel 
Neena DeRuiter         Nelson Bullock         Wes Braun

Leadership:

Chantelle Floris         Jocelyn Ratzlaff        Kari Huizing            Richard Ratzlaff 
Rudy Ratzlaff            Tamara Vaandrager   Adam Van Dop
This past Sunday morning, we asked many of you to take a Prayer Tag name home with you - every name was taken.  Thank-you all for your support through prayer.

If you're interested, you can go over to the AMTRAK website and track our trains progress. In the top left, below the image of the conductor, click on "STATUS" - and enter in information from our itinerary.  Don't have that? Go HERE.

If you wish to leave messages for us as a team - you are free to do so.  You can do that in several ways - 1. leave comments below, 2. email Adam

Thanks to you all once again! 

Sunday 10 March 2013

Great service this morning ...

Living Hope - we had a tremendous service this morning to send out team off!!
Thank you for the prayers and all the support that you have so blessed our team with.
Thanks goes to Wes and the band (Josh O, Josh F, Beth, Kevin, Aaron, & Moira), you all sounded amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your musical gifts with us!
Thanks also goes to Moira for sharing with the congregation about our trip!! It was awesome to get to meet the families that will receiver the homes that we will be building!!
Thanks to Mitch for helping to hear everything, and to Clarissa who helped us see everything.  Thanks to Pastor Steve who helped in the leading of the service, and to Sandra who put everything together.
Thanks to Jack, Eben, & Tamara for your prayers for our team.
And thanks goes to all of you who are participating in the "prayer tags."  Don't forget that you took one.

And all thanks goes to our God in heaven who has made this trip possible, who leaves us with the challenge (through to story of the rich young man in Mark 10:17-31) of "what is hindering you from being all in with your faith in Christ??"

Thursday 7 March 2013

We're gearing up for our send-off service this Sunday morning at Living Hope, 10.00am.  Come and support our team!

There, you will see this opportunity ::

















It would be amazing to get every individual covered in prayer by 5 different people.  What a difference that could make for our team!!!!