From Mexico to Missouri

Before we left Denton, Texas, we washed off the rest of the Mexico mud off of our tires.

Wait, this looks familiar.

Whew, he was just checking the oil.

One more stop on the road for lunch.

And we arrived in Missouri.

We stopped at the Lake of the Ozarks where we were reunited with Melissa and Pastor Carol.

We even had some time to rest and relax and GO TUBING!

Leaving Mexico

Because of flooding due to Hurricane Alex, several roads had been closed. The border crossings that were open were very crowded. We had to leave a bit early on Thursday to get across the border.

We crossed the border and drove through Texas. Today we did lots of this:

And saw lots of this:

We stopped for dinner at one of our favorite spots yet for BBQ.

The best part of the restaurant was a "Hand Jacuzzi" to wash your hands. It was complete with stickers.

It was a long, blessedly uneventful day.

Tomorrow we are heading to the lake for a day of rest before we get home.

Day Three - A New Floor

We headed to the church. The work site buzzed with activity to get the floor/roof ready for the concrete pour.




Then came the concrete -- 1245 square feet. Larry found an extra pair of boots and jumped in to help.



Lunch was home made tamales, followed by a hot pepper eating contest.

Afternoon was time for Vacation Bible School.




After cooking for us for a week, our cook Rita began to look like us.


We returned to the church for service that evening.


We returned to our new floor/ roof for one last picture with Willie from Mantos Juntas.


Jon and Jake were invited to join a soccer game. And then it was back for bed.

It was another full day.

Day Two - The Return to the Roof

Day two we woke up bright and early- eager to meet the day's challenge.


Eager to tie more rebar.....

Eager to beat the heat of the day.

We were unsuccessful in beating the heat, but we did tie lot of rebar.


Lots and lots of rebar!


Then we added more rebar to tie.

At lunch, we paused to blow bubbles with the children!

Then it was back to the roof. It was amazing, the roof was almost ready for the concrete.

Next we had to break big rocks into smaller rocks to fill spaces.

And carry these rock up to the roof. Whew, look at these girls work!


Later that evening we organized for Vacation Bible School. We will run VBS for the neighborhood kids Wednesday afternoon.


Everyone worked very hard?

We ended a very full and rewarding day with our evening devotion.

Day One

We woke up and had an awesome breakfast and headed to the church to see what our tasks would be for the week.

The first task was concrete. First we had to get the rebar and reinforcements up to the second floor.
It was much easier to move the styrofoam blocks to the second floor.

Tying the rebar together took all of all all day - We are almost done.



After a hard day in the hot sun, we went back and relaxed with an epic UNO tournament.

We were surprised later that evening with an friend from last year's trip. Julian was the Maetro from last year. He was all set to work with us this week, when on Sunday he woke up and half of his face was numb.

Please add him to your prayers for a quick and complete recovery.

Even when he was not feeling well, Julian was still lots of fun.

Tuesday we will finish the rebar for the concrete pour and - well I guess we will find out when we get there.

Traveling to Rio Bravo - The Story

The day began uneventful. We had breakfast and a short devotion and headed south.

We stopped for lunch and then......


There was a sudden loss of power in the gray van. Oh no!




A committee was formed to investigate the problem.

And when the air filter was removed, lots of grey fluffy stuff (that is the technical term) came out along with the filter. And then we saw the large hole.








We made a detour to keep us on the interstate and programmed a route to the nearest auto parts store.

Note: Finding auto parts on a Sunday afternoon is not as easy as it sounds.



But soon we found a new air filter and we were back on our way.

It seemed like we had been in the van FOREVER but we were back heading south for the border.

Until we reached a long stretch of highway between towns. I mean there was no billboards --- no restaurants---- no rest stops and (wait for it)---- no gas stations.

Here is the grey van resting again, this time waiting for the other van to return with a gas can - 0.7 miles from the gas pump.

We still had to drive to the McAllen Airport to pick up one last team memeber and grocery shop for lunches and snacks that were needed for the week.

We refocused - one team went to the airport and the other filled up four grocery carts full of food. We filled the gas tanks up and headed to the border.

There was one last surprise for us. As we crossed the border we called our escort and he told us that he had only found out that night that the tollway to Rio Bravo was closed due to flooding from last weeks Hurricane. He gave us the directions to the detour and began to drive towards us to meet us halfway and guide us in.


Finally we arrived!!

We unpacked and updated our facebook statuses.

Whew - Home Sweet Home!