Eat tacos. Save the world!

Today at church we had a taco lunch to fund raise for our trip. For five dollars a hungry hungry hippo got two tacos, nachos, and a drink - not too bad! We served meals, had a silent auction, and bake sale after the 9:30 and 11:00 services. I'm not sure who would want tacos at 9:30 in the morning, but eat tacos they did! We ended up raising $1600 in four hours! We had one guy walk up and hand us $100 and didn't even want any tacos. What a giving and caring community we have!

I've started gathering things I need for the trip - work boots, work gloves, earplugs - apparently the roosters are loud in the morning so some of the group veterans suggested earplugs. I still have to get a shower bag, which is a black bag you fill with water and lay out in the sun. By the end of the day, (hopefully) you have a bag of warm water to shower under. No running water here! I'm a big fan of camping, but we've always had showers near by, so this will be a new experience for me. I think baby wipes would be a good back up plan!

A sobering thought

When I was ten or eleven I was constantly worried about people breaking into our house. I'm not exactly sure what produced these concerns other than my own imagination and few too many nights sneaking downstairs to watch late night t.v. with my parents. We lived in a safe suburban neighborhood within a good city and had never had an incident in our immediate neighborhood. Despite this, I would brush my teeth and then begin my nightly routine of walking around the house making sure every window and door was shut and locked. My mom, in particular, didn't appreciate my routine on hot stuffy summer nights. But to me, being hot was worth the peace of mind knowing we were "locked down." Eventually I outgrew my fears, but looking back I can say that knowing I could lock the windows and doors to protect my family allowed me to sleep at night.

The families we are helping in Mexico are forced to construct makeshift homes made of cardboard, pallets and any other materials they can find in the streets. Most of the families are making five dollars a day and there is little to no government or social service assistance. The family the group helped last year had their home broken into several times before our group built a sturdy structure with a door and locks. It is sobering to think about a child not having the option to help "lock down" her family. In my mind I felt safe and secure behind the locked doors of my house, and now I have the opportunity to give two families that same sense of security.

More thanks....

to Alicia and Dave, Sylvain, my sister Julie and brother-in-law John, Keith's parents Fritz and Sandy, and Joan. I can't begin to express my gratitude for everyone's generosity.

Total to date: $780...that's amazing!!

A special thanks to....

The Frost Family (Jen, Rob & Carson), Davida, Bill, Brent & Wendy, Keith, my Mom and Dad, and Hobie for their support! Your generosity has blown me away. I can't thank you enough!

Violence in Mexico

I've had a lot of people asking if I'm still planning on going to Mexico with the recent surge in gang violence. I've been assured by my church and the group stationed in Mexico that we will be fine. The majority of the violence is in the big cities where the drug cartels hang out. Our group will be in the outlying areas and will be staying in a guarded/gated dormitory in the evenings. At any point in time that the Mexico mission thinks it is unsafe, they will let us know. It made me feel better to talk to my college friend Seth who works for border patrol at the US-Mexico border. His thoughts echoed the information I had already been given, so the trip is still a go!