A bit of April & May

April was another month of some teams, local churches hosting retreats and for us interns lots of classes and outreaches. In April we started leading outreaches, each of us was assigned a partner and a date and we planned a whole outreach.  The outreach I did was to a local church in a community called Lomas Bonitas.  We made food for their feeding program and played with all of the kids.  We had a short lesson and just enjoyed the morning feeding the community and spending time with them.  It was fun for me because I also got to see a family I had built for a few weeks back. :)  Tianna took us  on a outreach to an orphanage she had worked at in March. This orphanage is much different than many of the orphanages we visit.  It is in a house and can hold 20 children, as of now they have 17 children currently living there.  The man, his wife and their daughter take extremely good care of these children.  Some of the children have come from situations of severe abuse and they are now loving them and showing them the love of Christ.  During this outreach we fingerpainted, played games and ate  PB & J. It was so fun to hear the man's heart behind this ministry and to see how the kids interacted with each other.  Later in the month Martin led an outreach to my favorite community El Zorrillo!  We put on a small children's program with songs, games and a skit.  We then fed them hot dogs and you would be so surprised at how much these kids love hot dogs.  They kept coming back to get more and I think one kid ate 6!

At the beginning of May we headed out for vacation! Most of staff went out in different directions. One to Guatemala, some to Hawaii, some to Canada, Santa Barbara, Oregon and some stayed close to camp or went a few hours south.  In was SO good to go home! I was able to be there for almost 2 weeks. It was insanely busy and I was able to get a lot done.  The first week I was home I focused on seeing family and getting all of my appointments out of the way. I went to the eye doctor (where I found out I didn't need glasses after all), to a doctor's appointment, to the dentist and ran errands.  I got to spend a ton of time with my mom which was awesome, we got pedicures together and ate out.  I got to spend lots of time with friends as well as having a party with all my small group girls.  I went to Salem to see my grandparents and meet my new baby cousin as well as some advising meetings at WOU the same day. I also got to go to 4 of Cam's lacrosse games as well as see him score the game winning goal in double overtime against the best team in the state! I got to celebrate my best friend's birthday and spend Mother's day with a ton of family.  My aunt brought up our two baby cousins Khloe and Leah and it was such a blessing to spend the day with both sets of grandparents and enjoy a day of family time.  I also went to WOU to register for my classes and visit the house I will be living in.  I am soooo excited for the next chapter that I am stepping into. I also found out the my boss at Menchies will let me work for a few weeks once I get home, before I move to Monmouth, which is a huge blessing.  If you think about it please be praying that I can find a job in Monmouth when I move there! Overall my visit home was incredible and felt way too short but I loved every minute of being home,

When I got back to Mexico Saturday night I had a little over 24 hours to rest and get ready to go on our first ever intern mission trip! I will write another blog on that soon because if I include it in this one the blog will be a mile long!  But here is a sneak peak picture of us doing our skit at one of the ministry sights that week. :)

After we got back from our trip on the we spent most of the weekend resting and hanging out.  Saturday morning  some of us helped our friend Gerry make 250 tortas to give out to the homeless people of Ensenada during an outreach day.  That night they ended the outreach day with a concert at the beach! We all went and enjoyed a few hours of great music and fellowship!  On Monday we went out and visited some of the families we have built for over the last couple of months.  One family Lexa and I built for last June was expecting their second child so we wanted to visit and see the new baby!  The mom had a c-section and was still recovering but was excited for us to visit for a bit.

June is here, seems like this year has been going by so quickly.  Crazy to think that I have been living here 4 months and have less than 2 months left here. It is so bittersweet.  The last weekend of May/first weekend of June all of the staff at the EOC went about an hour and a half up to the ROC for an all staff camp out/retreat.  It was fun to have all of the YUGO staff including the board from the US and Canada. It was a fun weekend of fellowship and spending time all together. The first week of June we started our summer season! It marked the beginning of 12 straight weeks of house building.  I spent the week building with a great team from Alabama.  But before I headed out to work, I made a trip to Chula Vista California to see Mumford & Sons. It was so fun to go to the states for a bit and spend time with some of my favorite people!  The family I built for was a mom, dad and their 2 year old Heymi (Amy).  It was a great week spent with fun people and ended with a family receiving a new house!  4 of the 5 summer interns arrived and we are now starting to build every week! I have been having a lot of stomach problems lately so prayer would be greatly appreciated because I have been so frustrated! But I am so excited for what this summer has to bring!