Day 2 Here We Come!

Well, right now we're hanging in the kitchen of Primera Iglesia Bautista del Sur (First Southern Baptist Church of Stockton). The guys have been diligently laboring to create for us the finest pancakes in the land since 7:20 this morning.
The first day of VBS is now behind us. So the last update you recieved was yesterday morning during breakfast time- so let me attempt to fill you in on the past 24 hours.
Erin Dibble took some of the gang to Costco to stock up on food necessities while Nate Williams took the rest of us to the migrant french camp (that's what it's called- they're not french. :) ) Basically, at the camp, Nate divided us into 3 groups and we knocked on doors and tried to interact with the migrant families and find out the following information: apartment number, names of children, age of children, shoe size of children, shirt size of children, and pant size of children (because at the end of this week, we will be presenting them with these free articles of clothing). It was definitely a profitable time- even though we quickly became scorched by the blazing sun. As we walked along, we noticed that many doors boldly proclaimed "We are Catholic. We do not accept literature or propaganda of other religions." Dauntlessly, the Lord gave us the grace to converse with these families as well, families who are so entrenched in the religion of Catholicism. I must say my favorite story of the morning involved my good old friend Zach Edwards. As his group went door to door, they encountered a group of mothers taking a break in the midst of their day underneath the shade of a large tree. As the spanish speaker of the group (Dina Medina) began to converse with the group, the women's attention fell upon Zach (or as Nate Williams calls him "Good Look'in"). They asked him his name and if he spoke spanish. He replied "No, but I speak Russian." Just to prove it, Zach rattled off an impressive phrase in Russian- "No Ya dumayoo shto vui nye govoryitye po Russkiy" (But I don't think you speak Russian) Then the women went ballistic, in awe of his bilingual skills...and told him in their native language that they thought he was attractive...then one of them went inside and presented the group with apples. They offered one to Zach first (of course) and he took it right away... a new-found friendship had just been forged. :)
After we talked with the migrant families, we got to see some of the adorable Hispanic kids at a playground and we talked to them through a chain-link fence.
After the kids were called inside of the daycare, our group returned to the church. It was lunch time! Kudos to Erin Dibble, we enjoyed sandwhiches for lunch. After lunch, Carolina and Mollie worked on tallying up the sizes of the kids while a lot of the other students worked on their VBS lesson (creation!) for the day. After lunch but before the soccer camp, Nate sat us down for a meeting and explained how VBS was going to go and divided us into elementary teams: The Monkeys (Josh Tejada, Tim Awad & Franklin Hernandez), The Giraffes (JuEunhae Snyder, Emily Karsik, and Graham Kelly) and the Zebras (Mollie Mehringer and David Eller). The older kids (about 5th grade and up) were placed in the Lions (Natalie Mouron, David Devaney & Zach Edwards), the Elephants (Carolina Peluffo, Dina Medina, & Dara Eller), the Tigers (Austin Yurica, Lauren Roward, & Sean Guyle).
Soon after our debrief, we headed back to the migrant homes for the soccer camp we were going to host.
Meanwhile, the sun was still radiating ubearable warmth. A few older kids showed up, and what started as a soccer game soon turned into the boys shooting some hoops with the kids. The girls did stick around, and played with the little kids (like cute little Josue, Michael and Gorge) as Nate sent Franklin Hernandez, Sean Guyle, and Mollie Mehringer back to the houses we hadn't gotten any responses from earlier. This group was able to find out more sizes of children and even had an interesting conversation with one man who said he and his family didn't want to accept charity and that they were Catholic. He said we were "brothers" and basically believe the same things, but that our religions are different too- he said because of this, he wouldn't send his kids to the VBS. Stunned and a bit unprepared, Sean, Franklin and Mollie said "OK- well thank you for your time" and moved on. Later on though, we were burdened for this man and his family and regretted that we had not said "Well, we disagree with you that we are "brothers" and the Bible would disagree with you too on this, but you were right when you said our religions have fundamental differences- this is why the Bible says they're different." So, Franklin, Sean, and Mollie prayed for the man and were just going to walk back to his home with a Bible, when Nate said we had to get home and eat dinner before heading back to VBS. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS MAN AND HIS FAMILY AND THAT WE WOULD HAVE A CHANCE TO SHARE WITH HIM THE ONLY HOPE OF SALVATION! We came back to the church and scarfed down pizza before loading back up in the car with all of our VBS supplies. When we got back to the migrant french camp, we began the arduous process of registration. I must say the Lord taught me a lot during this process- I was in charge of registration, & things ended up not being what we thought they were going to be like- and just the way I though of doing registration turned out to be pretty disorganized. Thankfully, Nate was very gracious and it ended up OK in the end...but the Lord reminded me to "go with the flow" and that preaching the Gospel is the most important thing!! During VBS we had singing time (thanks Josh!)- Lord I Lift your Name on High and Nothing but the Blood (they definitely have a lot to learn when it comes to the hymn department and we are excited to teach them!), craft time- we decorated bags with glitter glue (thanks to the hard work and preparation of the Roward sisters), we also had game time/snack time for the kids (Red Light/Green Light- courtesy of Nate Williams!) and we had teaching time- the individuals who taught their team yesterday was- JuEunhae Snyder, Josh Tejada, Mollie Mehringer, Lauren Roward, Zach Edwards, & Carolina Peluffo. Even though the time allotment was brief, God's Word was spoken and we can only hope and pray that He will draw sinners to himself this week. After VBS we made an interesting stop at Peter's Market- where we bought some normal things and one I-can't-believe-we-bought-this thing (a tuna avocado sandwhich....it was bleccccch, that's all we have to say). We came home- talked, hung out, had a debrief- Abel and his wife (church members here) came over and brought cake (because it was their son's and daughter's birthday) and we got to sing to little Daniel and Naomi. It has been neat to observe the openness and hospitality of the Hispanic community here- we know that God is faithful to call those who aware that they need a Physician to Himself- and in this mindset we press on.

Thanks for your prayers and your encouragement- we look forward to filling you in later on our second full day here in the San Joaquin Valley!

-The San Joaquin Valley Missions Trip

"Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45