Well, I made it back from Mexico with no more than a few bruises and scrapes (due only to my clumsy self----well, that, and a wheelbarrow and big piece of metal.) :) For those interested, I'm going to try to journal the week we had on here--it may take me a bit, but I do type faster than I write...so enjoy :)

We had to be at the church at 4:00am on Wednesday (the 21st), and I ended up staying up all night (that's right...no nap, no rest, no nothin'!)...the Page's called me around 2:00 and said they were on the way to pick me up so we could get breakfast at Waffle House..I love Waffle House, but it doesn't love me at 3:00am. :) All made it to the church on time and we went on our way. No major traveling problems--none of the youth (except the pastor's kids) had ever flown, so that was an interesting sight when we took off and landed. All of them got a big kick out of the flight attendants having to show us how to buckle our safety belts.

We got to El Paso around 9:45, and waited for Brother Ridings....I called him and was informed that I was the first group in 18 years whose arrival time he had missed...Lucky for us he was in El Paso already and not still in Mexico (for future reference: it takes approximately 2 hours to get across the border from Bro. Ridings' house---the majority of that time is spent in the line waiting to actually cross the border). We all piled into two vans and took off; he instructed us that we were not to take pictures at the border or we would all be detained....hooray. I was expecting some big show of documentation, baggage, etc. at the border. Instead, Bro. Ridings told the guard that he had two groups of young people, asked if they wanted to inspect our luggage, and the guard replied, "no, go ahead."...that was it?!? All that worry for nothing! I guess that was God trying to teach me the first lesson of the trip.

We cooked out hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch and we all napped until church time (the church is about 45 minutes away from the place where we stayed). The service was great (well, it was for me..but then again, I speak Spanish.) At 5:15pm, the temperature in Juarez was 107 degrees. Farenheit. We sang "I have decided to follow Jesus" in Spanish and Preacher Brock preached (through an interrupter...I mean, an interpreter--Bro. Andy/Andrew/Andrés Wolfe). Supper was coldcut sandwiches and we all went to bed without complaint! Yippee! We all survived our first day in Mexico. Luckily we have an air conditioner upstairs....well, lucky for us until 4:15am when we all woke up freezing our tails off.....earlier that day every one of the girls had made the same comment..."there's no blankets, but in this weather, who'll need 'em?"....I guess the air conditioner really showed us. We're really all glad to be here at this point, and have been told that there's a lot of work to be done tomorrow....I'm thinking the girls will probably be helping the guys by bringing them water, maybe carrying off trash, or maybe even staying home and cooking...we'll see, I guess.