By: Rosie Y. This is my second or third year giving up TV and movies for lent. Although it’s a trivial thing, I found it harder this year for some reason than in the past. Perhaps because I use TV as my de-stressor, and the last month has been very stressful. Regardless, this Lenten period...Continue Reading
Coming home. As I sit here in Houston for the most boring layover ever (seriously, what is there to do between 5-9 am?), I just wanted to send out my last reflection before heading home. The thing I’ve appreciated most about Barb and Gerry is how integrated they are in their community. They made...Continue Reading
Party time. Given that it’s the end of exams for the Pilas students and it’s the start of their week-long break due to Holy week, all the Pilas students slept over at Barb and Gerry’s. I’m sure you can imagine the craziness of having 8 youth sleep over. It was a lot of fun...Continue Reading
Broken Spanish. There’s no delicate way to put this. Our Spanish isn’t great, mine is especially terrible. We have several stories of where we tried to communicate even the simplest of phrases, but people would just look at us in confusion. And yes, I have the same problem in Spanish as I do in...Continue Reading
Rinse and Repeat. This morning, we had the opportunity to go with the Pilas students on their service project. The activity was to do a shampoo treatment for lice in one of the villages where they run their youth group. Now, as many of you know, I am not a big fan of...Continue Reading
That we survive. This morning, we had the privilege of visiting with a family whose child is supported by Pilas. Now, a common reaction we’ve been made aware of is the disconnect between the student we see during the day and the home they come from. When we see this student, he presents well...Continue Reading
Sweet spot. Coming into this trip, we didn’t have any illusions that we were going to come in and change the lives of these youth forever. We were very aware of our limitations in Spanish and the lack of time we have here. We knew that even though we were coming to provide Barb...Continue Reading
By: Jeremy N. Living God’s mission. Unlike yesterday, today was a jam-packed day starting at 6 am (although I slept in for the stair climb). We are actually incredibly thankful for how everything went and appreciate the ongoing support and prayers. We tried our hand at Spanish and hopefully we didn’t totally butcher the language....Continue Reading
By: Jeremy N. Rest. Normally, when I travel, I like to jam pack my schedule and make the most out of my time. When I think about going on missions, I must admit, there’s that same expectation underneath but probably even more so. It’s probably fitting then that our first full day here for John...Continue Reading
By: Jeremy N. Just a few quick thoughts while at laying over in Washington. It’s definitely been a whirlwind to get to this point. It’s been a quick 3 months when we all decided to make this trip. Almost every week that we’ve met, we’ve had something to do for the trip, whether it’s...Continue Reading
