Day 6 - The Voyage Home

The plan was to wake up at 8:30, pack, clean, say our goodbyes and head out for the airport around 10:45am. This however, is Mexico and God finds our plans humorous. So, it was about 4:30am when our leader from Ravah Ministries Enrique noticed our room was taking in water at an alarming rate. It had been storming out for a few hours and sure enough, the church was flooding ... completely. The next two hours were spent sifting through soaking wet clothes, packing what was worth bringing back and bailing water out of the building. I would be lying if I said the smell was anything better than barely tolerable.

Our local hosts swung by and helped us make an escape to a local motel where we finally enjoyed the luxury of hot showers and a little rest before heading to the airport. We're in a holding pattern here for a couple of hours before heading for Phoenix. There we have 2 hours to pass through immigration and customs before going back through security and boarding for Denver.

See you at the airport!

jose and the team

Day 4- rain, puddles and teeter totters

Hey family and friends!

Today has been awesome! Last night it Rained and thundered like crazy, which although it was scary as all get out to wake up to for us, it was even worse for the locals. Part of the roof of our church ( where we are staying) flooded. Some of the boys got up there and helped bail the water out, only to notice that a neighbor had it even worse. His house was pretty much at the lowest point in the whole neighborhood, and he didn't have a concrete foundation. This led to about 3 feet of flooding in some places in his house. Normally after a storm he has to leave his house for several days until it clears, however the boys ran over and began bailing out bucket by bucket of hundred of gallons of rain water. About half a dozen locals boys emidiatly began to assist in whatever way they could. Meanwhile, myself and lyanne tried to scrub our chairs and tables that are used for meal times. Right before lunch all of our boys and several of the local boys got in a huge mud/water fight in the streets, and it was amazing to watch. It wasn't " gringos vs mexican" but it was pure boy bonding, which was awesome to watch. After lunch we hung out for a couple hours before heading to the soccer field to invite some of the locals to come to church tonight. When we got there were no kids to be found, so the boys jumped on the ( six feet tall) teetor totters, only to have Dylan injure himself. He has a sprained ankle ( no es bueno) but it doesn't seem to be serious. We got about 5 kids to come to service with us. However the service was about 2 hours long so all but one had left by the end. During the service Enrique, Paul, Jose, and myself got to share a very simplified version of our testimonies. It was incredible!

Please continue to pray for our team's safety and health as we continue to serve here the last couple of days.

Love from Mazatlan,
Madison Andrews and the Mazatlan team
Maddy and the rest of the team

Day 2 = Successful

Hi family and friends! First off, the team would like to give a big shout out to josh's mom, Dawn Hykan for supplying the team with safety goggles! Our 2nd day here in Mazatlan was a fun and successful day. We worked hard in the morning knocking down a wall and a half so the church can have a bigger and more useful kitchen in the building. Later on in the day we had an amazing time playing futbol (soccer) with some of the local boys. After getting our butts whooped by the locals we acted out the creation story to the kids. It was amazing to see how happy the kids were even thought most of them had very little. We have been continuously humbled by the amount of passion that the people of Mazatlan have for each other and for God. We have only been here for 2 days and we are already amazed at the work God has been doing here. Thank you all for your love and support!
Love in Christ,
Kyle Skattum and the rest of the Mazatlan team

Alive and very well!

Hello loved ones!

Our journey to Mazatlan was long and fairly uneventful - getting us to the church we're staying at around 2pm local time - same as you folks in CO.

We spent a little time getting oriented and then participated in an amazing service with the warm and welcoming people in this community. The entire service was in Spanish but so much of the message didn't require language to hit home. Especially the primary focus on community and how much better life is when done together. FCC folks ... sound familiar?? Most touching for many of us, literally, was having the members of this small but powerful congregation place hands on us and pray for our place in God's work here.

We spent some more time getting to know the community one on one after the service and otherwise, our time has been relatively relaxing since we arrived. If surviving this insane humidity could be described as relaxing by anyone! We're all struggling to adjust on that front.

We're in the process of blowing up air mattresses for our first night sleeping in the church and tomorrow, we begin demolishing a wall as our first project. Mornings will be spent working hard and afternoons will be spent with local kids - reinforcing God's great love in their lives.

More tomorrow but in the meantime, we miss and love you all!

The team

P.s. Hooray for authentic Mexican food prepared by the locals!!

Leavin' on Tuesday, 7.26.11

Well, it's less than a week away. Words to describe how we feel: anxious (a little nervous), excited (can't wait to see what God is going to do), and hairless. Yes, indeed. Many of the guys decided to shave their heads though Maddy and I (and a couple other dudes) still have hair, and more than one, I might add. Bonding? Preparing for the heat? Having strangers and non-strangers touch your scalp? For whatever reason, we just have six days to pack before we say, "Adiós, Colorado" and "Hola, Mazatlan."

We are leaving @ 8 a.m. and will arrive in Mazatlan @ 1:11 p.m. after a brief stop in Phoenix. We will be there for six days. We return on Sunday, 7.31.11, leaving @ 2:00 p.m. and arriving back at DIA @ 7:41 p.m. (via Phoenix again).

So please keep us in your prayers for good health, traveling mercies, and changed lives. We luv' ya!