The Life of Liz

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. ~Anne Frank

Friday, August 1, 2008

Juarez Mission Trip - Pt 6

Last one, I SWEAR!!!! Good thing I only picked out the pictures I really liked........

This is the world most horriblest picture of me, but I HAD to put up at least one picture of card playing. We played hundreds of millions (it seemed like anyway!) games of rummy and egyptian rat screw/slap/race (it had many names). I don't think I won a single game. I ESPECIALLY did not win egyptian rat screw because I decided discretion was the greater part of valor and it was an especially vicious slapping game. We nicknamed it Doom and Terror. HOWEVER, all the practice served me well as I then went to my family reunion and creamed everyone! hahahahahaha!My girls...passed out on the floor! It was definitely a tiring week and a half.
The Hike of Death. The district supervisor, Pastor Mauricio, led the group on a 3 hour hike in the blazing hot sun to the top of a rather steep mountain. Sadly (or happily actually...) I had hurt my knee and declined. Hike of Death....Nap in the Air Conditioned Bus.....yeah, that was a tough decision.
At the top of the mountain. From the pictures, you can see both the whole vast city of Juarez as well as most of El Paso. The group went up there to pray for the city. They look tired, little did they know the worst of the hike was going down.
Kate, Amber and Jeff. Jeffy had the most alarming backpack sweat line which was both awesome and nasty beyond all reason.
We stayed and worked in fairly middle class (for Juarez) areas. But this is the real Juarez. So many people live in appalling poverty less than a mile away from the United States.
There are so many hilarious stories and inside jokes and amazing friendships that came out of this trip. I met wonderful people that live in Juarez, and also wonderful people who live in the Denver Metro Area as well as Santa Cruz, CA. On the way there, we drove through a poor part of El Paso and came out in Mexico in a middle class part of Juarez. They weren't all that different. But on the way back we drove from a poorer part of Juarez to an upper middle class part of El Paso. The contrast was jarring. It really made me think on a lot of things I take for granted. I thought of the near ton of food (1950 lbs) we gave away and how little it really cost. It's hard to look at fancy building facades and fountains in the hotel lobby while you know that a stone's throw away human beings are going hungry.
But I really don't want to end this on a bummer note! The trip was amazing. The 14 hours in the bus to come home was NOT amazing. God did awesome stuff in us and through us. He was all over the whole thing, beginning to end. What we did seems small and insignificant in the face of such need, but that's ok. Because as Mother Theresa famously said, "You can do no great things. Only small things with great love."
Amen.

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A brand new mom trying to navigate the crazy world of mixed families, babies, and working full time. Phew! Just writing that makes me want to lie down.

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