Travel back to the ranch

                Saturday, April 6, we spent driving all day to reach the Grand Canyon before sunset. J We got there and stayed around an hour, viewing the canyon, taking pictures, and watching the sunset around it. It was amazing to see the Grand Canyon in person, and what I got to see only made me want to see more of it and explore some of it. As it was, we only could walk along the top ridge of it for just a little ways. It was still great to see it though. The next day we traveled more, along with stopping at the Petrified Forest National Park, and the Painted Desert. Those were both neat to see. Then we were on our way again, travelling all night, all the next day, and most of the next night, until we arrived back at the ranch Tuesday morning around 4:30. School started that day, so we had a little time to haul our luggage into our room before heading to chores at 6:30! (Some of us managed to catch a nap in there – I got about an hour.) Needless to say, we were pretty tired that day of school! We are all glad to be back, but I really enjoyed myself in Mexico, and wished we could have stayed a couple days longer.

 

                Thank you to everyone who was a support to me, and thank you especially for your prayers. I have a few more pictures I am going to post yet of the trip. Hopefully that will be soon, if my internet will work properly!

                God bless, Adios!

 

     Ruth

 Me at the Pacific Ocean!

 The Grand Canyon.

 Me at the Grand Canyon

Leaving Mexico

April 3 we ate our last meal in Mexico, and then packed up all our stuff into the vans for the slow trek across the border. There was a really long line up for the US border, so we moved slowly along, waiting while other vehicles so far ahead we couldn’t see them, crossed the border. When we finally reached the actual border crossing, they asked us to get out of the vans, and go through their building, where they looked at our passports and then let us go through. Meanwhile our drivers of the vans stayed in them while they were driven through these huge scanner thingy’s, whatever they are called, to detect stuff. Everything went smoothly and fine, and in no time we were back in the vans again. We drove through the few streets to the church where we had left the bus. There we transported all our luggage into the bus and were on our way after saying good bye to six of our team members, who were going back home a different way than with the rest of us.  From there we traveled all day into Arizona, where we had supper at a steak house before spending the night in a hotel. Some of us girls went to Melissa’s house (one of our team members), and stayed there for the night.

 

                Then on the 4^th we were off again on the road, travelling to California, where we were going to another one of our team members home for a visit. This part of the trip became a bit of a fun part for us, and we took our time returning back to school, stopping at a few tourist places along the way. The California stop was one of those fun stops. We spent all day travelling in the bus, arriving at the Halcomb home really late at night. They opened their house to us, and we crashed on the floors and such, scattered all over the place. J

 

                We spent the following day visiting with the Halcomb family, and going to the beach! It was the first time I had seen the ocean since I was three years old. I only vaguely have a memory of seeing water at night, but that isn’t really a good memory of what the ocean looks like, so it was like I was seeing it for the first time. I loved watching how the waves built up higher and higher before they crashed. God created the ocean in a wonderful and unique way! J We waded into the water, some went out on the boogie boards, and we also played a game of ultimate Frisbee on the beach. J It was a good nice day of relaxing before we hit the road again the following day.

More pictures from Mexico

 Above: the church at Babicora with a bridge in front that the team from here constructed another year.
Below: A rock shaped like a turtle outside of Babicora

 The road was...interesting! This is about an hour outside of Babicora.

 Donkey on the side of the road.

 This was in the park where we ate lunch while still in Mexico

 Above: the church. Below: little boy having fun. :)

 Friends enjoying sitting together on the bridge.

 The inside of the church

More of Babicora

                Monday, April 1, we set about doing work projects and day camps once again. The kids didn’t come out right away, so we waited around until they showed up to play games. We spent the morning playing with them, and then in the afternoon we had another Bible lesson before playing more games. We blew up more balloons to make into different shapes, including hats, flowers, and swords. With the pretend swords we had fun doing fake sword fights, and I usually had two or three all trying to “fight” me at once. J It was fun, but they definitely had more energy! J After that I started playing around with one girl in particular, and we kept on rubbing the sidewalk chalk all over each other. Then the game turned into her and another girl stealing my hat, and a game of tag along with two other girls from our team! We would chase them around the swings and down the slide, and it was all a fun time.

 

                The work projects went well, but the wielder quit, so they couldn’t continue on that job anymore. The steps were completed, and the wall had a good amount done on it. Once again in the evening before supper we played a game of soccer with the adults. That was a lot of fun. After supper we had a bonfire and all went around sharing things that we had learned over this trip. Quite a few of the Mexicans joined us, and so both we and they shared our stories, with the translator translating for us. It went a long time, but was super great.

 

                The next morning we had to stay our goodbyes to all the people and head on out. I was sad to leave the village and the people, and wish we could have stayed there a day or two longer. Our caravan of vans and trucks headed out, driving along the bumpy twisty roads. Only a little ways down the road we came to a stop. We had a flat tire on the trailer that held all our luggage. So we all tumbled out, either to help change the tire or stretch our legs at this unplanned stop, but  with having so many guys who know vehicles the way they do on this trip, it was no time  before we were on our way again. We arrived in a fair sized town around noon, and ate a picnic lunch the ladies had prepared for us, in a park in the Mexican town. It was a really nice park, and had rich green grass growing in it! It was something we had not seen along our trip in Mexico. We enjoyed the break, and then were once again on our way again. All day we traveled along the roads, getting closer and closer to the US border. We were behind schedule though, and soon it grew dark, and with it we grew tired and hungry for supper. We had fun in our van though, as we shared jokes with each other and had a grand time. J Finally we arrived in Warras, at the Bible Institute there, where we at supper and bedded down on floors and the such in the buildings there, all of them protected by a big secure fence. All our vans were behind locked fence as well.

 

In Babicora!

Saturday, March 30, in we had a devotional in the morning, and then split into what we would be doing for the day. Most of the guys went to work on projects, while the girls and a few of the guys organized day camps for the kids. There were some of us who stayed back to work on a skit for Easter first. We practiced it in the church a couple of times before heading off to where we would be working. Oh yah, so our team of almost 50 people slept in the church, the girls sleeping in the sanctuary, and the guys in the back room, all of us on the hard cold floor. But, it was better than the way it was the year before, because now they had the doors and windows on. J

 

                One work project was wielding together a fence to go around the church grounds. Another project was buiding a wall hear the house on the one side that didn’t have one. Then the third work project was building a few stairs leading to the bridge that goes to the church. I was in the day camps with the kids. We played games with them, such as soccer, and had activities like drawing with chalk, blowing up balloon animals, and coloring pictures. After lunch when the kids gathered again, we had a Bible lesson, and then we played group games including elbow tag and a game like duck duck goose, only there were two people running around the outside. In the evening when the work was done, the adults played a game of soccer until supper. Because there were so many of us, most of us ate sitting on the high wall outside the house where our meals were cooked, leaving the inside for the older people and leaders of our team. After supper we then had another devotional before heading off to bed. It was very hot during the day, and most of us got burned, but once the sun set it got dark pretty fast, and by 7:00 we were eating our supper in the dark. The stars were glorious though, and made the walk from the house across the center of town to the church, a pleasant walk. (With a lot of glances toward the skies at the stars.) J

 

 

 

                Easter Sunday we hiked up a hill around the village of Babicora. It was a beautiful view, and we found a place to sit down for a mini service. There we sang lots and lots of songs, and then had a devotional from Mark Brenner. The church services down in Mexico there are held at 4:00 pm, so we ate lunch, practiced the skit and singing some more, and then it was soon for the people to start arriving. There were a lot of songs in Spanish that we didn’t know, but that was okay. We did our skit of the Resurrection, starting where they took Jesus off the cross, and ended with the women going to tell the disciples. It was fun seeing the kids smile at seeing us all dressed up funny, and knowing who we were from playing with them the day before. There was a message from the Mexican pastor there, with someone translating it into English for us North Americans. J

 

                After the service a few of us spent an hour or so, playing instruments and singing songs with a few Mexicans, who played along on their guitars. Overall it was a good Easter service.

 

our view on the hike on Easter morning.

 the village of Babicora.

 the crew who did the skit.

Rio Chico

April 4, 2013

So let’s see where I left off last time... okay, in Rio Chico. In the evening of the second day there we finished up all the projects early, and then climbed up some rocks to see the cross that is up there overlooking Rio Chico. It was a fun hike, although too short. (J) We got lots of pictures taken up there, since it is so cool.

One thing that I enjoyed at Rio Chico was hearing Pastor Thomas explain how he had a desire to reach his fellow countrymen with the gospel, and from that it grew into what is there now with the mission at Rio Chico. He only knew a few words in English, but there were a couple of others who knew enough to translate, plus we had Jamie, our own translator with us. J There are American missionaries there at Rio Chico, but they were not there right now when we were there. But it was neat to see how the native people are reaching out to their own people.

 

The next day, Friday, we said good bye to Rio Chico (I didn’t want to leave it that soon), and drove all day long to Babicora. There were interesting roads we traveled on, as the last half of it was dirt/rock roads that made hairpin turns on mountainous roads. It was a very bumpy ride, and even though I didn’t mind it, it was hard for all those who get car-sick. 

Hiking up to the cross.

 the cross with the mission in the background.

 roommates. :)

 Advisor family. :) (just missing one, since she didn't come on the Mexico trip)

 Another picture of the cross

 

Getting into Mexico!

April 1, 2013

                So for the third day of our trip we travelled some more and some more until we arrived in El Paso, Teaxs. Along the way we stopped at some caverns in New Mexico, called Carlsbad Caverns. They were so cool!!! We just kept going down and down and down into more “rooms” that were huge, until we reached the bottom, where there was the biggest room. It was 750 feet below ground at the lowest part. It took a couple of hours to walk the whole thing, and then they had an elevator to go back up, otherwise it might have taken another ½ hour to 1 hour! J The whole thing was good, since we got a break from being cooped up in the bus all day! After that we were on our way, where we met up with the last few people to join us on the trip, in El Paso.

 

Here are some pictures from the caverens.

 

 Advisor buddies. :)

 The students that went on the trip.

 Those who have been students in past years. (including staff who have been students before coming on as staff at the ranch)

 

                The next morning we waited for a pastor to come and meet us, and we went to a church where we parked the bus and loaded all our stuff into 15 passenger vans. We had three of them, a suburban, and then a few trucks, one which was pulling a trailer with all our luggage in it. There were a few Mexican missionaries who were travelling with us. We drove through El Paso to the border crossing. The city of Warras is just on the other side of the border in Mexico, so it is almost like twin cities, only in two different countries. The border crossing was interesting. All they wanted to see were the passports of the foreign people, an exchange student from Finland that was coming with her American family, and me the Canadian. The rest just had to like hold up their passports to show that they had one, and that was fine. On the other side of the city, we had to get our visas before entering the rest of the country. There the Mexican missionaries helped us by translating and the such, and we showed them the passports and bought the visas. By the time that was done it was lunch time, and we had left in the morning, so it took awhile to go just a little ways. However, after that we made good progress, even though it was slower than we thought it would be. You see, the Mexican people are not in a hurry, and think that they have to stop in every single town they drive through. So we had plenty of gas and restroom stops along the way, arriving in Rio Chico after supper time. We unloaded all our stuff into the mission while the Mexicans at the mission cooked us supper.

 

Only half of us fit in the dining room, so the other half went up to the balcony to eat there. It actually was nice eating up there, except for being cold. It got dark fast after the sun went down, and the cold came with it. Well compared to where most of you all are, it wasn’t cold, but for us getting used to short-sleeve weather, it got cold enough to find a sweater or two.

 

In Mexico. :)

 The cross at the mission in Rio Chico.

 

 

                The next day after breakfast and a group devotional, we split into groups to do different work projects. I was sent to work on some fruit trees with a few others. We went to one of Mexican guys’ home, and there built up the dirt around the fruit trees, so that they could get the water better. We also picked up old water hose. It took all morning to do about half of the trees, and then in the afternoon we had a couple more girls join us, and finished up the rest. There were about five of us out there at first, and then three more joined us later, since they had finished their job. The other jobs that were being worked on were fixing up a green house, building a roof on a church, picking rocks for a rock fence, and doing some painting. The painting job was finished first, along with the trees at the end of the day. The rest of the projects were continued the next day. That second day of being in Rio Chico I was helping out with the green house in the morning, and then picking rocks in the afternoon.   

 

another pic

Pictures :)

 Her dog Gem (in picture above). Enjoying rocking chairs at a gas stop along the way. (picture below.)

“Room anywhere for my pillow?”

 

                The first day of our trip started out with everyone gathering at Town Hall to be taxied down to the bus that will take us on our trip. I arrived there in body, but not in mind. After only about 4 hours of sleep, and only being awake for less than a half an hour, I was not awake yet. Everyone was saying good morning, or hi, or something (I can’t remember that clearly enough), or are you awake. Well I was still half asleep, and evidence of that was I didn’t hear someone talking to me until like the fourth or fifth time they said my name. We loaded up on the bus, shuffling down to find a good seat and someone to sit with. In my sleeping stage I chose a seat that I thought was just fine, until we realized that it couldn’t lean back, because of the seats facing the opposite way behind them. L So much for leaning back your seat to sleep! Leah, my “seat partner” for the day, and I took turns sitting next to the window so we could lean on it to sleep. Most of the day was spent sleeping for me, or reading a book.

 

                Every time we made a rest stop we were glad to be out and stretch our legs. Usually a group were tossing around a football until the last minute before getting on the bus. We have been in a total of four states today, leaving Pennsylvania to travel through Ohio and Kentucky, and are now in Tennessee. We arrived at Leah’s place, well actually the church near her house, around supper time. They had a big supper of delicious food, including lasagna, garlic bread, pecan pie, and some banana pudding which is Leah’s favorite and her mom made just for her. We all got to meet Leah’s parents and two of her sisters, which was neat. The Watkins put us up for the night, letting the guys sleep in the church, and splitting up the girls and the married couples between their house and the aunt and uncle’s stable house. I was in the group in her house, and we all spread out on the carpeted floor or air mattresses and went to sleep almost right away, since we were very tired.

 

                “Traveling in a cramped bus again. J”

                Our second day of the trip started out with a good breakfast put on by the Watkins, and then loading all up on the bus by 7:30. We had been concerned the night before, since something went wrong with the bus the evening before when they went to leave the church to take us to the houses. I think someone said it was something with the brakes, but do not quote me, since I do not know, and it would be better to ask the mechanics on the trip, since they know what it was! J Anyways, thankfully it was fixed in not too long of time, so they weren’t up all night with it.

 

                We took off and have traveled through Arkansas and Oklahoma and are now in a hotel in Texas. We had a devotional led by Mr. Brenner in the morning, after a half hour of quiet time for devotions. Around noon we had a long time at a gas stop to buy lunch/snacks and stretch our legs. We got on the road again, and after traveling for several hours arrived at the Starrett’s ranch for supper around 5:30. There we met up with two others who were joining us on the Mexico trip, as well as seeing several people that have been at the ranch before. We ate a good  meal and then got a quick tour of the ranch. I liked seeing the chandelier they had in their office building and their unique light posts with horses on them. I especially enjoyed seeing their big crew-cap Freightliner semi, and a cute little palomino colt that has the cutest little face ever! Looks aren’t everything though; his manners could still improve. (Found my long hair something desirable to nibble on.) 

 

                All too soon we had to leave for our next destination, a hotel in Texas where we will spend the night. The noise level went on an increase as everybody was ready for the ride to end for the day, and we were all very tired.

The Start

Hello Everybody! Well this is the start to a blog of our trip to Mexico! I hope to update it as often as I can so you can keep track of what we are doing, but of course we may not have internet in Mexico, so we will see how often I can get on.