GUTS (Grace Unleashed To Serve): Days 1-3

I spent a large portion of my Christmas break on a mission trip to Papalote, MX. It was fantastic! I learned so many things, and had several fabulous adventures. Enjoy!

12/26/05

We arrived in Dillon a little later than we had planned, but all was well, and we were all packed up and ready to embark on our great adventure by 10 AM. I showered in the morning, and so my hair was all wet and rather cold. And I started to braid. Tassie was a huge help in dividing all the sections and getting a start on the braids. We took a few breaks in between for snacks, visiting, and such. After all, we were just driving…and driving…and driving some more. Just past Salt Lake, we stopped at Cabella’s for a pit stop. It was a fun place to stop. However, I felt a little out of place. You see, I was wearing my tye dye sweats and had only half of my hair finished and in braids. Everyone else in Cabella’s seemed to be in trendy outfits that were a little less casual. J Oh well. I got over the feeling as soon as I was out of the sight of the door guards that eyed me suspiciously. We all enjoyed the displays of the various types of game. The African one was definitely the most violent. (Lions+prey=lots of fangs, claws, and other such things). We played soccer and football outside in the parking lot for quite a while to stretch our legs and get to know each other a bit better. Sometime after Salt Lake, we hit a terrible snowstorm. It was pretty dangerous there for a bit, but Dale Stewart, (the leader and driver on the trip), did a fabulous job of avoiding hazards and delivering us safely to Beaver, UT, where we spent the night in a hotel. We made good use of the pool before hitting the rack.

12/27/05

Another driving day. I finished braiding my hair with the help of some of the other people on the trip, and then started braiding other people’s hair. I also read “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” out loud to Matthew and Jillisa. We made it to San Diego, and unloaded all our stuff at a church that we scheduled as our second stopping point. Matthew couldn’t find his sleeping bag, so he borrowed one from one of the families who had an extra. We ordered pizza for dinner and went to bed fairly soon.

12/28/05

In the morning, we all loaded up and headed to WalMart to restock on water, food, and other such supplies. Matthew and I, upon learning that we would be sleeping on concrete floors down in Mexico, headed to the camping section. There, we each purchased a sleeping mat, and Matthew got a cheap sleeping bag. We discovered we were not in Montana. The warmest sleeping back was for something like 20 degrees. And it was expensive. I restocked on hair rubberbands, as my stock was somewhat depleted. It wasn’t too far to the border. We had expected at least a small, routine search, but when the two guards heard that we were on our way down to help the church near San Quentín, they waved us on by, without even getting on the bus! This was a huge answer to prayer, because we thought there may be some trouble due to all the clothing, supplies, etc. we had under the bus to distribute. We were dreading some sort of tariff or something. But there was no hitch at all.

We kept driving south for the remainder of the day, stopping at the regular toll stations and military checkpoints. We finally arrived in Papalote, MX in the late afternoon. After unloading, we had a short meeting with Don and Eileen Nagel, the missionaries with whom we worked with on our last mission trip down to Mexico four years ago. They gave us a bit of an update on the proposed schedule. (In other words…there WAS no schedule). I love it!

We had good ‘ole spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. The cooking team had a very interesting sort of setup. They had huge propane burners set up next to a wall inside the church, a couple of sinks, a little bit of countertop, and that was pretty much it. Well, almost. I guess they had access to a couple stoves in various surrounding houses. After dinner, a few Mexican kids showed up, and I chatted with a couple of them. Maria and I were the only ones out of 29 team members who speak any Spanish…and we got to translate for everyone else. It was fabulous! When Matthew went to tuck himself into his sleeping bag, he realized that it only reached to about his armpits. I had accidentally picked out a kids sleeping bag for a 6-foot young adult! Woops! ;) Thankfully, one of the families had an extra adult sized one for him to borrow for the remainder of the trip.