What happens in Mexico.....PART I

Well, I'm back. I'm still feeling overwhelmed by all that I have seen, heard, done and experienced. I'm sure my blog will not even come close to describing everything. If it did, you would be reading a few hours worth....So I will try to summarize.


The Team~
Early Saturday morning, and I do mean early, like 4:00am, our friends, Steve & Laurel, came to pick me up. They would be leading our team, having taken several similar trips to Africa over the past couple years. We arrived at the airport only to experience God's hand already on our team! We each had two suitcases to check, the second would cost an additional $25. Multiply that by 8 and that's $200. The bag checker man thought it too complicated and so he just waived the fee altogether. Everything went smoothly and we boarded our flight to Houston. Upon arrival, one member of our team, Doug, arranged for his friend who lived in the area to pick us up and take us back to his home during our 11-hour layover. It was a lovely home, and we were treated very well. We enjoyed a steak dinner, lounged by the pool and some even watched, gasp, football. This day of rest would have to serve as a pleasant reminder of what we were leaving behind because the rest of the week was grueling!





Back at the airport we boarded our flight to Oaxaca City. Arriving around 8:30 pm, we were ushered through customs and again, experienced no difficulties. We were driven to the Wycliffe living center in Mitla for the night where we organized and packed 90 gift bags of school supplies and hygiene items for the families we would visit. After a long day, we got very little sleep and were on our way to breakfast with the Lokers, our American missionary contact, by 8:30am. We enjoyed a hearty meal, loaded all the "Treasures", the audio New Testament Bibles, with the Mixe language, and packed a lunch for the loooong journey up into the mountains.

Wycliffe Center Accommodations


The Treasures




We secured two pickup trucks for the trip. We were able to crowd four into each cab, with a few of the men riding in the back, Mexican style. The village of Atitlan was not that far away, but due to the moutains, we had to wind our way up and the trip actually took 3.5 hours. Bouncing along, we stopped halfway in Ayutla for lunch, and switched vehicles for the duration of the trip. This was my first experience with seeing the people, the markets, and the dwellings. We arrived in Atitlan around dinnertime. We would be staying at the home of the local pastor, Renufro, and his family. The women would be in the building atop a hill and the men in another building on the side of the road. Both were constructed of cement block walls, concrete floors, and tin roofs -- noisy especially during rainy season, which of course it was. Most homes, however, did not have cement floors, but dirt, and even open windows with no glass, so we had quite a luxurious place to stay.


Ayutla



Stay tuned for Part II!

Leaving on a jet plane....

That's right. In about 12 hours I will be boarding Continental and heading to Houston where I will re-board another jet to Oaxaca, Mexico. Now, before you sign in longing and jealousy, realize that I am venturing with seven individuals from my church to share a message of love and to bring encouragement and basic necessities to some hurting people. When we arrive in Oaxaca, we will be traveling up into the mountains (jungle, rocky, cold, hot, RAIN) to visit a few villages and the Mixe (mee-hay) people. We will be distributing school supplies, hygiene items, and the Treasure (a audio recording of the New Testament in the Mixe dialect). We will worship with the people, visit and learn about their culture and how we can serve them.

This is my FIRST mission trip. My FIRST time out of the United States. Only my third time on an airplane. There will be lots of rain, sleeping on the ground, bugs, variable temperatures, lots of walking, weird food and bugs. Yeah, they eat grasshoppers. Don't worry, I'll be sure to set them straight! :)

Here's a map of where I will be. If you think of it, please pray for our team, for safety, for growth, and for our families at home. I promise to post pictures when I get back!!

A Christ-centered marriage...

I shot this wedding with Leda of LVL Photography. The groom, the son of a sod farmer, and the bride, the daughter of a greenhouse grower, met at MSU. Even though everything about this wedding was beautiful, from the gown to the decor, when circumstances became tense, this couple showed that marriage is about more than just pretty things. You see, shortly before the ceremony, the bride's ring disappeared. Understandably, she was upset. But with a gracious demeanor, she firmly announced that their marriage would happen with or without a ring. This was not an inexepensive piece of jewelry and the sentiment was substantial. However, a marriage built on "things" that will disappear, or passion that will diminish, will not endure. But a marriage founded on the promises of God, and centered on His commands will truly survive until the end of a lifetime. From I Timothy 6:17: "Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment"

A White Wedding

I had an opportunity to shoot a wedding with Lisa of Elite Photo Design at First United Methodist Church in downtown Grand Rapids. Ironically, the family was full of attorneys and the dinner prayer was offered by a Kent County Circuit Court judge. I say ironic because my "other" job is a legal assistant and my college degree is pre-law.

Hard to Say Goodbye

Well, I'm not sure where to begin with this one. But a very special family is now settling into their new home 200 miles away.... There are a zillion memories I could share from the awkward first moments at a condo in Traverse City to camping while pregnant with nothing but pit toilets to risking our lives in an ice storm outside Chicago for a night out without kids! The last decade of our lives have been spent sharing moments like these with good friends, the kind that you don't bother putting away the laundry when they drop by. The kind that know your failures and mistakes but forgive and encourage. The kind that suddenly stop being friends and suddenly become an extended part of your family. There's a sappy song by Michael W. Smith called "Friends," and the last line of the chorus says, "a lifetime is not too long to live as friends." And 200 miles is not too far to make that happen.....

Fall.....mmm

I LOVE fall. I have this tradition of burning vanilla candles, baking apple anythings (yes, from scratch), and playing my favorite Windham Hill CD, "Thanksgiving." There is one track on it that's extra special because it was playing the moment my first child came into this world....eight years ago.

Speaking of my eight-year-old, I photographed this family here at our home who are a former school-friend family. They are in the process of moving out of town so they are no longer with us at North Hills. The hardest part of growing up is having friends that move away....which doesn't get any easier the older you get.