Leah's Favorite Things

about our Mexico missions trip.

Breakfast was beans, eggs and a tortilla.
I don’t like eggs but I know they are a breakfast staple to everyone else in the world and therefore was mentally prepared.
I even ate some…mixed in with my beans.
The idea of making up at home and making myself some beans for breakfast is so wrong.
However, at the ranch it’s so perfect.

 
The morning of our last day we hiked up to “the cross”
It was a beautiful sight.
You get a really great perspective of the orphanage from up there.

On the way up to the cross you hike past the daycare.
What an awesome view those little punkins have.

Speaking of punkins…

I call this picture ducks.

That’s what husb and I thought every time we saw a group of these guys walking around.
I must remember this technique when I have children

Wanna know how great of a blogger I am?
Not that great of one!
Who do you think left her camera behind on one of the best nights of the whole trip?
Oh yeah…you guessed it…ME!
Thankfully others took pictures and then posted them on Facebook where I was able to take full advantage.

This is where we had dinner.

Not any old dinner…we had MULITAS and coke in a glass bottle!
How bad do I wish I had a picture to show you?
BAD!
A mulita is a cross between a quesadilla and a taco.
That is my white girl description.
And this is the special fellow who made them.

He was fast!
And we were hungry!
The perfect combination really.

Then we got to sit and chat and laugh.
It was awesome.
I wanna have mulitas with these people every night.
Natalie, Pato, Erika, Nate…we miss you already!

See that guy sitting next to husb?
The one with his hand over his mouth?
That is Bean.
That’s not his real name…just what husb calls him.
They have been friends since they were toddlers.
Bean came with us.
Note to all the ladies out there…
if you go on a road trip with two fellas you wont have to carry one piece of luggage, load any luggage or drive.
I highly recommend it

To top it all off…
after dinner we went to a bakery.
This was a bakery unlike any I have ever seen.
A maze of pastries.
Husb was in heaven.
He loves a good pastry.
I had a glazed donut.
What can I say…I like to live dangerously.

Needless to say it was a great night.
Shoot…it was a great trip.
Thank you Lord for taking care of those babies
and the Rancho staff
and Natalie and her Tecate Youth!

This is the part where I sound like everyone else in the world that has ever gone on a missions trip.
But they are right.
If you get a chance to go on a trip with your church…
DO IT!

Three years ago Natalie got up in front of the church and shared her heart.
She was moving to Mexico to work at the orphanage.
At that time we didn’t know that God had a much bigger plan for her.
But, she did.

She is now the the founder of Studio del Creador.
An art studio free of charge to the youth of Tecate, Mexico.

Natalie says that God is a Creator
He created all of us in his image.
So, we each have some sort of creativity inside us.
She uses the art studio to draw out that creativity and point it toward the one true God.
 

When you first enter the studio she has a gallery that show cases youth artwork.
Imagine the sense of belonging and pride that gives the youth.

Natalie explained that there are a lot of gangs in the area.
Get this…she holds graffiti competitions inside the studio.
Members of different gangs come and compete against one another.
She explained that normally they would just write the name of their gang in a cool way.
However, she gives them a specific topic to help direct them.
I can only imagine the awesome things they come up with.
Instead of fighting in the streets they are in a studio completely devoted to the Lord producing art.

How great is our God!

These boys were totally rockin out on the drum set.
They have only been playing the drums for about four months and only at the studio.
What a gift God has given them!
Right now Natalie is praying for a worship leader who can direct that gift to glorify the Lord.

These boys had smiles on their faces the entire time.

Seeing the studio in person was the highlight of our trip.

Natalie has such a sweet heart for the Lord.
When he speaks to her she listens and obeys.
I can only imagine the joy this studio brings to him!

If you are looking for a ministry to get behind…
this is the real deal!

Did you miss me?
We moved past our car troubles and got our rear ends to Mexico!
And I loved it!

Rancho De Sus Ninos is an orphanage just across the Tecate boarder.
Our church has been supporting it through mission trips for years and years and years.
However, this was our first time to the ranch.

This is the school bus that picked us up in San Diego and drove us across the boarder to the ranch.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a school bus!

We had lots of men with construction experience and lots of tools.

Below is the bunk house where we all stayed.
Girls bunk is on the far right.
The rest were full of men…snoring men.

My bunk.
Like I could go to Mexico without multiple water bottles and a box of Kleenex!
 
This is where we took showers.
The blue buckets are how we took showers.
I was scared of having to take a bucket shower…but after a long day of work…the blue bucket and I became great friends. 

These guys however…not such great friends

There were multiple projects our team was working on.
These guys were building a covered patio for the new daycare building.

Nice work men!
My job was to help grout floor tile in the new hospice.
This is the wall I had to scale in order to get to it.
This wall and I become friends…we said hello every time I had to climb over it to go pee.
I drink a lot of water.

This is the hospice.
Such a beautiful building.
My prayer is that those who will call this building home find comfort and Jesus within its walls.

Beautiful kitchen with an awesome pantry

This is the courtyard that is in the middle of the building.
Room after room wrap around it.

And these…
these are the beautiful terra cotta tiles that cover the floor of the entire hospice.
Day 1: remove broken tiles and clean each tile with sponge.
Day 2: grout tiles
Day 3: grout tiles
Let’s just say I can grout some floor tiles

Meg, I’m bringing you back your hiking boots.
They are too small and injured both my big toes.
I’ve been afraid for days that my big toe nails might fall out.
I’m in a wedding in December…how gross would that be! 

I’ve got more pics of the orphanage and of our trip to Studio del Creador.
Studio del Creador is awesome so you wont want to miss that post!
However, I didn’t want to overload you with a weeks worth of pictures in one post.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving…so here is an early Happy Thanksgiving to ya!
I hope you all have a great day with full bellies!

at a Goodyear…
because last night there was a LOUD squeaking coming from the front of the jeep.
We might have to leave it here for the week and get a rental car.

It’s not a road trip without some sort of bump in the road, right?

Pray we get to San Diego at a decent hour tonight
and that it doesn’t cost a bazillion dollars to get the jeep fixed.

Thanks!