Roadtrip..

Grand Canyon.

we didnt have tooo much space in the backseat....

We had a snowballfight. I thiiink it ended up being everybody against me. and i lost...

Hello guys!
So sense the last update was so short I figured I could write a little bit more this time… haha.
I am now in Alexandria, Minnesota. We drove from San Diego, CA Sunday night, stopped to look at the Grand Canyon, and then drove to Denver, Colorado. There we stayed one night at a hotel, before we Tuesday morning started driving again. We stopped at Mount Rushmore, and then in Sioux Falls where I got to meet Alicia and Amy from my DTS (YAAAAAAAY), and arrived here in Alexandria about 3am last night.. It was a loooong trip. Haha. I cant find my camera any where, so Im gonna steal some pictures from Megan and Amandas facebook when they add them! Wait for it……. Haha

So yeah, I am not in Mexico where the swineflu is attacking people, but I still think its kind of scary. Its not like Im any safer here in the US, its all over the place now! Hmm… However- I feel fine, so I don’t have it, but Ill let you know if anything changes… What can I say? Its not like I can promise you that I wont get it, but I sure hope not…!!
An other thing Im worried about is that they are closing the borders to Mexico. Or they might be. I have all my stuff down there! Hopefully they will get it under control and it will all be fine! J

Its been a wired year working with YWAM Ensenada. A lot of our team has been cancelling because of the danger of violence they hear about in the news. Now, unless you are a drug dealer or something else that’s not really good to be, there is not really a danger at all. So for us living down there, its been kinda interesting going up to the states, and start talking to someone random at like Starbucks, and tell them that we are missionaries in Ensenada. They look at us like we are heroes, like we are working in the middle of a warzone and they always say “Wow- I could never do that!”. Then we go back down to Ensenada, live our life like nothing has happened, cause really, as long as you are smart and use your brain, you are fine!! But then Mission Adventures starts or we plan the arrival of a Homes Of Hope team, and teams start cancelling on us, sometimes like 1 week ahead. And that’s hard. Cause that means that we have to go to a family and tell them that we cant give them a house. Or go to a local church or orphanage and tell them that we cant send people to help them anyways.
…and its all because of the news, making a big deal out of something that you really shouldn’t worry too much about, unless you are one of the bad guys.
But the swineflu…. This is different… This is something that really is dangerous… Uncontrollable… Unknown… Ive always told people to not listen to the news when it comes to the violence. Cause its over rated. But this…. Hmm… its to early to tell. And Im not like scared. But I know that I have to be really careful. And I understand when teams are cancelling…

But guys- so far so good!

Oh Hello!
Just wanted to let you guys know that im fine! I dont have the swineflu, and Im not even in Mexico right now. At the moment Im in Denver, Colorado, on my way to Minnesota, roadtripping with 3 friends. So I am fine! Do not worry!

...We'll see if I get to come in to Mexico again, they are talking about closing the boarders, so... I still have all my stuff there, so I sure hope so, but we' ll see! Haha!

Love you guys!

Done! Finally! Free!!

 

I have to admit... That is kinda how Im feeling right now. This week has been intense. I have been pushed to the limit (and over), been frusterated, cried, mad, happy, smiled, felt Gods love and understood more of him. But I have to admit; this week more of the bad stuff took up my thoughts then the good. If I had a week from Hell? Kinda. If it was worth it? Yes. If I ever was happy? Yes. If I would do it again? Yes.

 

But; Am I happy its all over? YES!!!

Im talking about Mission Adventures, guys. I LOVE it! Don’t get me wrong! If you ever get the chance to go and do MA- DO IT! Staff, students, speaker… whatever- YES!!!

However, for me this week was HARD. I hit the wall. Working from 7 am to 10:30 pm every day for 5 weeks it hard. Its FUN. But its hard. The team was challenging, the staff and even the family we build for. But it was fun at the same time. And it was worth it in the end.

Sunday night, they ALL kneeled down in front of the cross after passion play. The students grew so much during this week. The staff too. Having 160 people on base, and 13 staff, was a challenge. A hard one. But we learned stuff.

….and now its over. We ended it all by having a massive water fight on the base. I just got out of the shower- I was already wet, but so so cold, and I needed a HOT shower. Aaaah!

 

…and I get to have a life again! Seriously; that’s how I feel. For the past 5 weeks Ive been passing Hillary in the hallway, office, kitchen, you name it, and said “Hey- remember that time when we used to be friends, and talk?!” or “Hey- remember that time when I had a life and we used to have coffee together?”…. and that’s how I feel. These past 5 weeks had been intense, lots of fun, filled with memories and experiences I could not have gotten anywhere else, but I am done. I am ready to move on. Do something different. Get to sleep at night. Not having to worry about bringing the coolers and putting them in the right van, counting people, translating, going to La Buffadora or running sessions. It has been fun. I feel like this post is all a “MA sucks, I want my life back!” kinda thing. NOT TRUE. Its just that when you are doing MA- MA is your life! The time you have off, from 12:30 Friday to 10:00am Saturday, is not enough if you want to have a life of your own. So that is what I am free to be doing now. I am free to be living my life as I want without tight schedules and breakfastpreps and teamtime.

 

…So what´s next? Well, I don’t know yet- at least not the part after June 10^th. I will be working with Misty with hospitality the time I still have left here in Ensenada, then only thing is that I am probably gonna be gone a lot. First thing is a roadtrip to Minnesota in 1 week. Amanda (my dear roommate), Brandon, Brandons sister and I are driving up there. To bring Brandons car home, but most of all just for fun! Ill be stopping in Denver, to hang out with Ali, South Dakota to hang out with Amy, probably Iowa to hang out with Alicia and the stopping in Minnesota where I am planning on meeting up with Patience, Bryan and Indra, Savanna, Maren and who ever else that’s around. Fun? I think YES.

 

Tomorrow is my first day off, like off off OFF in over 6 weeks. Im STOKED!! I am planning on spending it in my bed, with God, and catching up on stuff that I haven’t done for 6 weeks. Im super excited! Today I was catching up on everybody’s blogs, enjoying what I read. Especially Maries. She is doing her DTS outreach in Malawi at the moment, and its so far away physically and mentally what I cannot comprehend it. But I was thinking about it as I read- how unbelievable different her outreach is form what mine were. We had beds, showers, good Mexican food and no creepy animals. Read her blog, and see what she is experiencing… My outreach was pretty much “lets go and do dramas in the park” kinda thing, while she will be working at a hospital… Wow! Its all for the kingdom and glory of God. But its soooo different. A couple of weeks ago I found myself doubting our mission during our outreach. I had a great time, met a lot of great people, but did they really meet me? Did we make a deep difference? I dunno. I though. So when I was on my way to pick Corina from the Pachuca base up at the airport, I was thinking about my time there, what we did (a heck of a lot of dramas in parks…. And a lot more), and asking God if we really did make a difference. God said yes. I didn’t really get it. But in the car back from the TJ airport, I was talking to Corina about it.

Guys: we did make a difference. Our whole DTS outreach, God was teaching us about the worth of every SINGLE person. And we made a BIG difference for one family in particular.

During our time in Mexico City, we meet a girl names Jocelyn. She was 18, had a two year old son, was pregnant (something we didn’t know than, but know now, as she had given birth to another boy), and followed us around for 3 days. We got to meet her two sister and her mother who is a drug addict, and they all more or less live on the streets of Mexico City. My more or less I mean, they were all born and raised there, but Jocelyn wanted to take care of her son Brian, so she was renting a hotel room every night to create a home for him, washing car windows the whole day to raise the money for it. We talked to her, the people from the base in Pachuca talked to her, and to make a looong story short; her sisters now live in Pachuca at the base. When Giezi, Kelsey and I went down there around New Years, we got to meet them again and talk to them. Corina could tell me that the youngest has now totally changed, prays, is a lot happier, is trying to learn English and is starting school this fall. When the team goes to Mexico City she goes with them, meeting up with Jocelyn and her mom, and also the other sister who used to live in Pachuca. The other sister, Sandra, moved back to MC to help Jocelyn take care of the kids, and also help take care of her mom. Their mom wants to take care of her daughters when they are there, and rents rooms or apartments, but when her daughters are not there she just lives on the street with is dangerous and not healthy, and I think Sandra feels like she should be with her mom just to make sure she has a job. However; their mom is totally ok with them living in Pachuca, and is happy that the YWAMers there take care of them. And so to the amazing news; a couple of weeks, before Corina came here to Ensenada, the mom accepted Christ, and now they are trying to move her out of Mexico City, to start a new life away from the streets and the drug. And now the mom is ready too. Hopefully that will make Sandra move back to Pachuca with them, and she will be able to start school as well. And maybe even Jocelyn will move after them!? Please keep them all in your prayers!!

 

Bah, this ended up being really long. Haha. Oh well, I don’t even have any pictures, but that ok I would think!

 

 

Oh, What an AMAZING time!

This cycle I ended up bulding a house with Bonney Lake High School from Washington! I had so much fun!! The housebuild was a 3 day build, so we had plenty of time! And for the students, this was their "senior project", and their teacher was there, so they did all the work! Seriously: they did GOOD! I had a lot of fun too, even though it for me ended up just hanging around and driving around (picking up Corina from Pachuca at the TJ airport, bringing water coolers, etc). The whole point in us being there was just to show the students what to do, and then have them to it, so that was a perfect excuse just to chill out, and get a sun burn.. haha. Ingvar, Jessy, Kaiya, Teyus and Jessy´s friend Anna came down for like 4 days this week, helping us build the house, so I had fun talking Norwegian and just hanging out with them. Kaiya is seriously the most amazing little girl Ive ever met. Haha! I had fun! Also, our speaker this week, Phil Cunningham was amazing, and he brought down an amazing couple with him, so I got to hang out with them a lot too! And the team was amazing!! And did I mention the other staff?? Amazing. Oh, other amazing thing: I was gonna be the translator, but luckly Saul was there, so I only had to translate from Spanish to English! Yay! Amazing!!

 So yeah, it was an amazing, but tiring week. Im excited to have some time off, but most of all excited about the fact that Erika is coming down for the weekend with some friends I dont know yet, and also: Ruben and Øyvind is coming, so Im gonna go and pick them up in San Diego on saturday! So yeah: That was all the amazingness for now, I think! 

Have an amazing day!

Kaiya and Carleigh building... 
Kaiya is helping out!
Finished!! 
House Dedication... 
Me and Ronda!

Kaiya and I trying to build something (ended up being a disformed bird house Jessy did NOT want in her backyard), and practicing Norwegian... 
Kaiya is pretty much the most amazing kid i know!

Brandon!
Ingvar, Aaron y Shelby!