Mama Bearable

Today was a day where being flexible was key. BCM put together another outreach for us in a community they've never been to, and with a Pastor they've never worked with before. The Pastor leads a Pentecostal church about 30 minutes from the house build site. The area is predominantly a squatter area, with the ramshackle homes we had become so familiar with in such a short time in Mexico. But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The day started with a wonderful breakfast at an ocean front restaurant that is one of Eric's (Director of BCM's) favorite spots. The restaurant was called Los Pelicanos, or as I'm sure you can gather from context The Pelicans. I had huevos con chorizo y pepas, eggs with chorizo and potatoes. The food was amazing, and the view was spectacular, the Pacific Ocean stretching as far as the eye could see. We stopped briefly on our way out, and there was a cowboy who was riding a beautiful buckskin colored horse down the beach doing maneuvers.  After ...

Thank you Lord for your provision today! I started the day not feeling optimistic at all about the day, I wasn't feeling well and the taste of yesterdays "Sabbath" was still in my mouth.  Delicious burrito's this morning supplied by Kevin and his wife Isabella. McDonald's cant even hold half a candle to these homemade burritos. Freshly made tortillas, fillings of sausage, bacon, or chorizo, with potatoes mixed in, cheese, and eggs, add in the freshly made conchas from a local bakery, we were fueled and ready to go!   After a filling and delicious breakfast we piled in the van to make a quick stop at the "bodega", the building where BCM stores all their tools and food supplies. We loaded up the necessary supplies and drove an hour to the Fiesta site. As we were leaving Rosarito the skies were sunny with a slight breeze. But the closer we got to the Fiesta site the skies began to turn grey and it started to rain. The van's atmosphere shifted from excit...

The sabbath day, our day of rest had finally arrived. We were just about halfway through our trip and the prospect of getting to throw the schedule out the window was something many of us were looking forward to. The thing about Sabbath days is they look different to different people and unfortunately for me it was by far the least restful day of the trip thus far. The travel day on Wednesday was more restful than this Sabbath day was.  The plan for the day was loosely based around 3 major things, sharing a good meal, traveling to a place with incredible views, and time at the open air markets again. We started our day at roughly the same time but after breakfast we were able to bum around until about 10:30AM when Eric (the director of BCM) was going to pick us up and drive us around.  Our destinations were Esanada and La Bufadora (The Blowhole). We would be traveling further south along the Mexican coast, which again was made challenging by the rains which had created even la...

My body must have needed the rest because I slept in until Lucia's alarm went off at 6:45AM, I lazed around in the morning and barely made it to breakfast after my morning stretch routine. Nachos for breakfast, what a great way to start the day!  We were then rushed to the van where we said a quick prayer, jumped in and began our trek to the jobsite. The weather was much more favorable which meant way more traffic on the roads, they had been empty just the day before. The trek that had taken and hour and a half yesterday took closer to 2. My motion sickness was in full gear but thankfully I was able to keep the nachos I had for breakfast down. As we were traveling, roadsides that had been barren not a day before, were filled with merchants pedaling their wares. Bags of chips, tamales, tacos, salsas, freshly picked coconuts, etc were all an option if you were feeling peckish.  The fact that these people can do so much with so little is humbling, and makes me ponder the excess I...

Check out the video I put together of the trip:  Baja Missions Trip 2023 Day Break I fell asleep last night to a chorus of feral street dogs, rooster's crowing at the oddest times, and the sound of rain pouring off the roof. But that didn't matter, with yesterday's travel day in the rear view I was ready to lay my head and get some much needed rest. It didn't matter the chorus going on outside or that the room lights were still on, I was out like a light. I awoke several times in the night to the aforementioned noise, made my way to the bathroom and back to bed again. I awoke for the final time unable to force myself back to sleep and mustered the strength to get out of bed and start my day at 4:30AM local time. If I was at home I would already be at work, so my body wouldn't let me rest any longer.  I find it helpful when traveling to try and keep some of the same rhythms, this helps ground my body in the present and keeps my shoulders from merging with my neck. Th...

Hello there! If you are reading this it probably means that you had some vested interested in my trip to Baja Mexico, whether that be as a prayer or a financial partner. Both of those roles played such a vital role in getting and sustaining the trip to Mexico this year. To put the trip to Mexico in a few words, eye opening, life changing, and spiritually challenging.  I was trying to figure out how to inform all the people who were a part of my sending team, and there is so much to say that a short 1-2 page update wouldn't be able to do justice to all the things this trip cultivated in me, and in the lives of the team I traveled with. So here's what I'm going to do. While I was on the trip I journaled faithfully about the daily activities that we had, and there are a few reasons why I did. One so I could remember all that God has done, two a way for me to process how I was affected throughout the day, and thirdly so I could come home and share with you all this life changin...