Photos from day 3 and 4

Group of students shoveling gravel

Palapa

The great Sammy Mallow working hard!

Sunburns, Stories, and Scorpions

We just finished out last day out at the Ranch. It has been a fun last four day out there. The students are doing amazing work. I was soo amazed at how God was working in them. They had so much joy all four days that it really encouraged and challenged me. We started on five projects at the ranch:

1. Building a corral for a horse

2. Putting the support beams on various roofs on the property

3. Start building a garden

4. Tiling the bathroom and shower rooms

5. The poop team (Not sure what they did but, it involved the septic and a filtration system. ) :)

In all five projects the students were willing to go the extra mile for the Ranch ministry. We had girls using sledgehammers, shoveling dirt, guys climbing on roofs, other working in poop, many of the students for the first time trying new things, all with so much Joy. I don't think I EVER heard complaining. It was a joy to see students giving up their comforts for others. We didn't finish all the projects but the students gave it their best and it was a huge blessing for the ministry to get that much further in their dreams for the property.

Besides seeing so much Joy in the students as they work at the Ranch, something bigger was happening, especially the last few days. I started seeing God do some amazing work in some of the students. Students were realizing how much their story or testimony of God's grace in their lives can change people. In my breaks, I sat and heard about two or three testimonies from random students, it was so much fun to see them share and also see that God can use them to change lives. Most of the students I have talked to have never given their testimony and shared with others about the love of God, and to see them even share it with me and a few others was so encouraging. As I said in a previous post, the students are starting to see more and more that God can use them and work through them, even in high school!! Some of them might even share tonight at VBS... more to come with that tonight, please pray God directs them. We serve an awesome God!

I promised I would mention this, a student (Josh) has been stung but a wasp and was stung by a scorpion last night. Nothing is wrong with him, he just wanted to make sure that everyone knows how much bugs hate him! :)

Thanks for reading and praying for us. We have one more big ministry gathering tonight. We are going to be giving away free food and clothes to a neighborhood here in La Paz. Along with the VBS tonight we are inviting the whole family to join their kids and we are going to be presenting the Gospel. Please pray for Fletch as he gives his testimony tonight and also for whatever students share too.

Blessings,

Antho

Day 4 - Tuesday!

Hello all! Today was so much fun! It seems as though each day keeps getting better and better. We started out with our usual early morning start at 5:30 in the morning. We drove to the ranch and began our work. Our team did everything from building a septic system to digging holes for a horse corral! It was a lot of hard work, but just in a few hours we accomplished so much! After our work for the day was finished we headed back to Casa Buena for a yummy lunch, then headed off for our quiet time. A lot of us are reading the book of Acts. It is a good book to be reading this week because it explains the missionaries journey. As the day became hotter we had some fun in the pool playing Marco Polo and such. Before we went to the VBS, our team went to eat some tacos for dinner! YUM. We had a fun ride to the VBS listening to the only English radio station. When we got to Marcus de Leon (where the VBS is held), I think we were all over joyed to see the returning kids from yesterday. I found it to be really fun attempting to communicate with the children. It is amazing to see that they are so happy and have so little. All of the kids are so sweet. It was really sad to leave, but at least we will see them tomorrow! I feel that our team is working really hard and are very encouraging towards one another. It is clear that God is working through all of us!

From Delaney

Pictures from Day 3 (Monday)

We said "Yes"

When we first got down to La Paz one of the first things we did was have the missionary that we are working with, Peter Gatto, share with us from his heart about the ministry he was doing down here in La Paz and also to give a short testimony of God's grace and goodness in his life. One thing that stood out to us as a team was saying "yes." Saying "yes" to God and being willing to say "yes" to whatever God is calling us to do in our lives here in Mexico and back home. With it being the first day of working out at the ranch and VBS, the students had a many opportunities to say "yes" and it was amazing what has happened even in these first couple of days. As we started working out at the Ranch, I was shocked to see how many students were willing to do anything, no one complained about the heat, or the work, or the dirt, they just said "yes" and went off and did amazing work.

From painting, to building a corral for horses, to working with the sceptic, to building a roof for the Palapa, everyone was willing and eager to do anything. Then at VBS God did amazing things. This was a time where God was working on our hearts and not on the kids. There wasn't many kids that showed up last night because there was a miscommunication (who would have thought this would happen in Latin America) in who was going to invite people. So there was only a handful of kids that came. So with there being a few handful of kids I took some students out to the neighborhood to invite more students for the rest of the week. My spanish is horrendous and the person we were with didn't speak English so it was interesting from the first step. The Spanish speaking person with us (Luis) was the only person talking as we were going out in the neighborhood and after about 3 homes he said in his broken english and hand motions that he was done talking and that we needed to start talking, he went over what to say and how to invite and then didn't say another word. I had four students with me (Katie, Marci, Sammy, and Emma) and these four students are some of the quietest people on our trip but, as we approached a new home we all took turns inviting people to the VBS. It was amazing to see how, in our broken spanish, we could do this, and from that we had great conversations and got to invite a lot of people to the VBS. (please pray they come) The best part was after the last home we went too, one of the students, Katie, was just in awe of how God could use her to invite people to come hear about Jesus. The smile on her face was something I will not forget for a long time. It was amazing to see the Joy that was beaming from her, all because she decided to say yes and step out and take a chance. We may never know if any of the people we invited will show up, but for one high school girl it didn't matter, because she knows now that by just being obedient and saying "yes" she can do amazing things through Christ.

This is one of the many stories happening down here. I am very thankful to be apart of this team. Please continue to pray for us. It has carried us this far and will continue to as the week goes on.

Blessings,

Antho

Photos from day 2

Fletch trying to keep Simo in line

Getting ready for spanish worship service

Hanging out with the "interns"

Day 2- Sunday

Hello everybody! As you can tell we made it safely to La Paz. Today is Sunday, and people had the option of going to an English church service at 9:00 AM. Then everybody went to the church service at La Paz de Cristo and the whole service was in Spanish. We also had lunch there and got to talk to some of the people. After church, we came back to Casabuena and had some time in the pool, which was very fun. Then we were able to go to the Gatto's home and have dinner there. It was a long drive to their house but it was very scenic and we were able to have a very good look at the boardwalk where we will be going on Friday. While we were at the Gatto's home, we had a tour around their property and got to look at all the animals. We also had a cook out and went hiking up a mountain. It was so beautiful! Then we came back to Casabuena and everyone was getting ready for bed. Excited to start another day in Mexico and continue doing the Lord's work.

Blog post from Natalie Peterson