At the top/edge of the canyon "get away from the edge!"


Posing for the cover of a CD? Some of the boys on the top lookout


An elderly Tarahumara lady weaving her baskets



Those awesome falls (Casada Cusarare) we keep talking about


Papa Rob supervising some of us playing around at the base


Amanda shopping from one of the Tarahumara vendors at the canyon


Climbing around at the canyon


All of us posing at the base of the falls.

Wrap Up

Well hello folks, this is Rob here and I'm going to wrap things up a bit and bring this chapter to a close. After Wednesday night we prepared to head out again on the road and set course for home. We didn't leave until noon, which allowed us time for a "despedida" (goodbye) with our hosts from the ranch. They encouraged us with the work we had done and the way our group functioned and the attitudes of the group. They were very happy with the contributions we had made by way of work and expressed their thanks. They also gave us little Coke bottles with mini sombreros as a "recuerdo" (memory). We did some clean up, finished a few odd jobs, packed up, said our goodbyes to Manny, Beth, Monte, Gail and Lisa, and then left.

We (I) had postponed the decision of exactly what the going home plan was until that morning. We had thought of maybe stopping in Colorado Springs to look around as it is an interesting place, but it was hard to make the driving schedule work for it and we had experienced plenty already so I decided to drive through the night and camp in Miles City, MT. That leg of the journey took about 26 hours, giving us an easy 12 hour drive to Meadow the next day. We had a great time relaxing at the KOA, swimming in the pool, exploring, and having a time of singing and prayer around the campfire. The night of rest was good for all as we'd had a few sick people on the way until that point. Most were pretty happy to not sit in the van any longer, that's for sure. The trip was uneventful although we had a blowout on the trailer tire in the same construction zone as on the way done. Weird, but we were back in the van in less than 15 minutes, we were getting pretty fast at changing tires by then.

All in all we had a very positive experience. The contributions we made to the ranch were real and significant, as students moved into the rooms we prepared just days after we left. The local missionaries were encouraged by us, and we learned a ton about tribal missions and Chihuahua culture.

A big thank you to all who supported and prayed for us, and we wish we could have updated this blog every day, but as the girls explained it wasn't always possible. Thank you for your interest though!

Weekend in Creel and the Past Few Days

Note: This blog was meant for last night, except the internet failed and we couldn't put it on. It seems to be working this morning so we'll try post what we were able to save last night. We'll be leaving in under two hours probably, so again please pray and we'll see you guys when we get home!!!

Creel (crrrrrrreel) was AMAZING! We travelled about 4 hours into the mountians on some pretty windy roads; we were very thankful no one got sick and that we had the MacDonalds with us to help us fix our flat tire. The scenery up there was pretty amazing and when we arrived at our hostle and got settled in we took another crazy trip high up and in to Copper Canyon, which by the way, is DEEPER and LONGER and WIDER than the Grand Canyon! We bought Tarahumara indian souvieners and climbed up all around the canyon and were VERY high up. Yes moms, we were climbing on the edge and jumping down to other ledges in one of the deepest canyons in North America. After our canyon explorations were finished we headed back to Creel for supper and a night out on the town. It was like a very mexican Jasper with all the little souvenier shops and such so the girls picked some big strong guys to protect them and out we went!

Haha okay time for a nice little grown up embarrasing story:
A few group members were in a crowded little souvenier shop and were each minding their own business, once in awhile going to another group member to show an item or to see what was going on. Rob sauntered over to Ben to look at little trinkets. He noted that Gill and Lana were by the cash register, and wanted to make sure that everything was going okay. He put his hand on Ben's shoulder so that Ben wouldn't back up into him, and became engrossed in Gill and Lana's counter transaction. He totally forgot that it was Ben's shoulder he was holding onto. Now let also mention that Amanda was in the store the whole time, and that her and Rob are very much in love, not caring about PDA whatsoever (to a point). Anyway! Rob began rubbing Ben's shoulder, and then Ben's back, and then began moving towards Ben's lower back. Don't worry, feel free to sympathize with Ben here. Ben stepped away from Rob and exclaimed "What are you doing?!" and Rob was like "Whaaaaatt?!" and thought to himself ("Amanda, you look different!") Suddenly Amanda walked out of a souvenier aisle and Rob saw the light, realizing the error of his ways. We really do hate to say it, but Ben is now scarred for life and it's not even his fault. Sorry Rob.....

After that we went to bed and were woken by the many sounds of mountain life. Examples: roosters, trains, church bells, and a LOT of dogs. We had some mexican brekky consisting of delicious refried beans, some mini tortillas, some kind of sweet eggs, and the oh so lovely papaya yogurt! Soon after, we headed to some Cascada falls (that's not the right name, if you want a rain check for it just ask). The road getting in was absolutely ridiculous and we had to pay a toll for each person that went in, (we were hoping, for others' sake, that the toll was for road improvement). We eventually stopped the van, changed into our swimsuits in the bush, and all but Ruth and Lana rode the rest of the way in the MacDonald's truck...uhhh, well, for most of the rest of the way. We ended up walking about a km anyway, most of the group touring in and amongst boulders down a river and whatnot...it was absolutely incredible and was only by God's grace and protection that no one was injured that whole day.

EVENTUALLY, everyone got to the bottom of the falls and most of us haven't seen many more gorgeous settings in our lives. We literally jumped right into the water, but were climbing all around the waterfall and exploring it as well. It was so beautiful, praise the Lord. You could just look up and see the sun shining over your head but through the sparkling water and wow, it was amazing. At the top of the 245 concrete steps that we climbed we had a rest.

At the top of the 245 concrete steps that we climbed to get back to the top, we had a rest and kept going. We had a small bite to eat in Creel and later on the highway got ice cream and some burritos. We kept on driving, stopped to pick up some corn, and attempted to go around the town of Cuatemoc (sp?) but it didn't go so well and we ended up in traffic anyway. Finally we made it home to Chihuahua, and ate at Papa Rob's and Rob's Mom's place. Wow. It was such a tasty meal and everyone was pretty wiped out when we got home. Monday came sooner than most wanted, but we were up and working.

We switched up a few jobs and I guess right now we can do personal updates:

Amanda: Kept on tiling and being an AWESOME cook!!!
Rob: Frame and door master, all the while being our fearless leader!!!
Ruth: Drywalling QUEEN and professional teenage impersonator all in one!!!
Dale: Drywalling king and super curve swerving drive master!!!
Kirsten: Stain and varnish rookie and professional shower slipper (she might show you her cuts and bruised if you're lucky!!!)
Ben: Professional FARTER (Dis-gust-ing! No lies) and drywalling trainee!!!
Gill: Cleaner of the week! She singlehandedly knew how to drywall, scrub, tape, and fix up student dorms, all the while managing to lose one or two of HER OWN mud trays in the process!!!
Ian: The odd job go to guy who even did his own laundry...he's even been practicing his dish duties, so keep him up with it mom and dad!!!
Jessica: Professional Art-eest of staining and varnishing, making everything look pretty. Don't forget to ask her what a dinosaur sounds like!!!
Brennan: Obtained the Carpenter Of The Year Award (sorry Rob) and will be coming home with at least one extra hole in his body than he left with!!! (All carpenters don't HAVE to know how to use drills do they?)
Lana: Varnishing PRINCESS and horseshoe QUEEN!!! Ohhhh yeahhhh......
Steven: Go to guy whose laid-back personality helped the group to not become too wired. He loved, and we mean loved, the CHEESE soup at lunch today!!!
Aaron: Definitely the cutest red-headed electrician we've ever seen!!! (It's girls writing this don't worry.) But really, someone totally made a mess of the electrical wires before we came and Aaron was amazing at figuring most of it out!

Monday night we were privileged enough to hear Jose and Dona's testimony. They were students here at Siloe but are originally from Honduras. It was such an amazing story of God's incredible faithfulness and provision, and was a great encouragement to all of us, seeing the joy and trust that Hosea and his family had in Jesus. They have 5 children and after their testimony we had a soccer game where most everyone got nice and sweaty! Brennan really stank...but so did Rob and definitely Monte, but all combined had nothing on Ben and his gaseous explosions. Some of us took the family home into Chihuahua and were able to visit with the kids, it was such a blessing!

Tuesday was another work day, but the definite kicker was going to Beth and Manny's for a discada (BBQ) that evening. B&M made some of the best burritos that any of us have ever had, and it was a great time to just sit around and relax or play frisbee or horseshoes and to visit. OH! We saw a HORNED TOAD!!! It was soooooo cool! It really hurt if you touched it the wrong way because, as the name implies, there are tonnes of sharp little horns and spikes all over the toad's body! Man it was so neat! Later that night we had a time of sharing and of prayer and it was really encouraging to hear everyone's thoughts. We specifically prayed for laborers and the "reaping of the harvest" internationally, and for the students that will be arriving here at Siloe.

Today we had brekky with Kevin and Lisa, (two missionaries that are here with their two sons), and Lisa made us cinnamon "rolls" that were excellente. We got to work and in the afternoon the girls learned how to make tortillas with Beth and really enjoyed showing off our Mexican womanhood with our "round" (yeah right) tortillas. We cleaned up most of our work places, had a quick shower (Kirsten packed out and a plastic roofpiece tried to attack Gill and slice her head off) and headed to some close friends of the MacDonalds' for a real Mexican Discada! It was really tasty and we had grilled onions, chiles, "steaks", pop, tortillas and chips. We got to hear a real Mexican birthday song (to Rob's mom Deb), and Lana got her lips covered in icing when she bit off a piece of the cake. In Mexico for birthdays the birthday-person, after the song, always takes a bite out of the cake, and someone always pushes their face into it.

Now poor little Lana, in all her innocent La Ronge-ism, got tricked into taking Deb's place for biting the cake. She had no idea what it entailed, but when told to take some of the cake she used her fingers and started grabbing a piece. All of the fluent-spanish speakers freaked out and little Lana didn't know what to do! They explained to bite it and so she did while Deb lightly pushed her head into the cake. It was for Lana's protection, because Rob was waiting to shove her face in but thought that Katie (Rob's sister) would do it. Meanwhile, Katie thought that if she messed with Lana she would get thrown into the algae-inhabited pool so she refrained. Yes folks, Lana was lucky tonight to get away with only a little icing around her mouth. So much for Mexican culture!

Dale turned out to be the 21 (basketball game for those of you who may not know) champion, and the boys had fun playing frisbee. The rest of the group chilled out and visited and relaxed, all except for Kirsten. Now lets give her some credit. She SLAVED away at those steaks, and we mean SLAVED! She peppered and seasoned them ALL! That's like almost 30 people! That's like salting and seasoning a whole cow! She should become a rancher.
Once home, everyone did whatever they wanted/cleaned. The boys were very much occupied with another black widow that they found last night. They were throwing prey into it's web and were watching the evil female attack and devour whatever came her way. There was one massive vicious bug she was contending with when we came to write this, and so we can't tell you how the interaction went. On Monday the boys had again been occupied with desert wildlife. They found this huge frog under a yardlight and spent well over an hour feeding it different bugs and seeing what it's favorites were. It was quite and interesting and entertaining event and sight to see.

Tomorrow we're going to clean and pack up and debrief and eat and hit the road, not exactly knowing where we'll end up along the way. We're still planning on being home Saturday night, Lord willing, but prayers always seem to make things go smoother so please think of us and talk to God awhile on our behalf. We all miss our family and friends and can't hardly wait to see you guys, but not all of us are ready to leave this incredible place either and wish we could stay longer. God has taught each of us a lot and we'll be happy to share with you what He's been doing if you'll come and ask us. We're planning on sharing what He's done the sunday one week after we've been back...the 26th maybe?
We're terribly sorry about the pictures, we've tried different inputs and this evening almost got some loaded except they showed up as little "X's" on here. Soon enough after we get home we should each have a set of pictures though and would be happy to share them with you as well. It's getting awfully warm and late in this little room, and so we're off to bed. Thank you guys again, so much, for your prayers and support. We love you, buenos noches!!!

Creel

In two minutes we are leaving to go to the mountains for the weekend so don't expect any updates for a while, but we're thinking of you and there will be longer updates on the team instead of just Lana; it was the first thing written before we went into town last night. We went to a coffee shop where there was some live music. It was a good time. Everyone is pretty tired. Alright, please keep praying, and especially that we'll get the maximum cultural exposure in Creel that we can handle. Also for God's incredible safety and protection; how faithful and amazing He is and has been! Later! :)

OK! So no writing in awhile...sorry guys. We've been awfully busy, but it's been such a good time and God has blessed and protected us the whole way. On the 6th or 7th we went to the "Brickyard" which is a very poor area outside of Chihuahua where they make bricks. They're people from a tribe(s?) who came to the city thinking it would be better but are making 1 peso per brick that they produce, half of that profit going to production costs. It was extremely poor over there but we went and met up with a local missionary named Allison and helped put screens on a church building. We also cleaned it up a bit and bought some stuff from a local woman. There were a few children that we got to see but we never interacted with them much, they were very shy. The day after we got to hear Monte (Monty) and Gail's (Gale?) testimony. It was interesting and fun at the same time. They then showed us an old NTM video and it was really good, it was one about tribal missions and wasn't very long.

On Wednesday we went downtown and saw some murals in a building that portrayed the history of Mexico. It was very interesting, and Monte was an incredible guide! After the mural tour we went shopping at a couple of different Artisan shops and checked out an old church. We ate supper in town and had some crazy good tortillas and lemonade, and went to Wal Mart. Now maybe it's just some of us that are weird, but this Wal Mart had seafood and some of us were just dumbfounded! There was some disgusting squid and crabs and octopus and a section of tenticles and who knew that there would be ocean food this far inland that wasn't in a can!!!



The NEXT day was again an "up and out at 6:15 work day" but we got to quit at 4 and have a bit of personal time...praise the Lord. Dale was almost killed by Lana, just as the work day was finishing. Lana was attempting to help Ruth and Dale finish up some jyprocking, and as she pushed the scaffolding that Dale was on, one of the legs didn't really move with the others but stayed in place and bent at the weld. God was working and everything was fine, we put some cinder blocks under the one side and Dale was fine. After Monte found out about the situation, Lana was officially told that "there are two types of people in the world, the breakers and the fixers; you're definitely a breaker," but Lana was able to accept the facts, as she was one of three who had gotten stain on a white wall. Shame shame shame.



That evening Manny and Beth (a couple that help out here...from Canada!) did a Pima skit (Pima is a mountain tribe near here), and taught us the Pima alphabet and helped us learn some animal words. It was very cool and once again portrayed how ridiculus and illogical the english language is.



Last night Brennan, Aaron, Jessica and Ben found a black widow spider in the boys dorm. They trapped it so everyone could look at it and then killed it. Today Jessica found another black widow on a door she was carrying. It was about three feet from her face. She is not dead though. She also didn't even get bitten.



Today no one had to get up early because the trench was done!!!!!! We got a whole extra hour of sleep. Lana and Jess worked hard staining/sanding/varnishing some more doors and trim type stuff. Aaron kept on being the master electrician. Dale, Ruth, Ben, Gill, and Kirsten finished drywalling one apartment...and moved on to another. They were amazing. As a reward for their hard work Gill and Kirsten got promoted to cleaning grease stains off the walls. Brennan and Rob framed doors and installed cabinets and countertops. Now we are leaving. The End.

Siloe, Lunch and Exploring picutes :)

SAND DUNES!!! Wooh wooh! We went up on the top of that first hill you see and jumped and whatnot.

On the right side is the spider bug Ruth attacked Lana with last night...it was intense and Lana screamed like a little girl without meaning to...














Above is our lunch spot, SOOOO GOOD!!!

To the right is the pool, just one of the
many that we won't be going to while we're in Mexico...






This was at the park, in a nice little tree, and then it's Aaron and Brennan along with this guy named Lee back home at Siloe (see-low-ay).











Okay...well sorry that the pictures are smaller, but we were able to upload them by doing that so now here we are and here's the pictures for today!!! Night!!!

Siloe and 3 Hours of Church/Visiting!!!

What's up guys? So we're all doing fine and are at Siloe, the NTM ranch training center near Chihuahua. This morning we had orientation of the whole place and learned what to do if we came across rattlesnakes or some kind of other type of rattlesnake that's like 17 times worse than the regular ones. Don't worry, God's protecting us!

We went to church and the trilingual Korean guy who was speaking went an hour more than the church's pastors usually do, making the message an hour and half. The singing was good and there was one hymn that some of our guys new and one or two other main songs that we recognized. Church started at 11:30 and we were out around 2:30. After church we went to this street lunch spot and had tortas (bun-like sandwiches that were ohhhh so tasty) with fries and pops. No one is sick. Yet.

Oh! Yesterday on our way to Chihuahua from El Paso we stopped at these kickin' sand dunes! They were sweet, but Dale probably has the best pictures of them, the rest of us that ventured over there from the road left our cameras by the van. Gee...we've been trying to upload some pictures for like the past 5 minutes, uno photo actually, and it's not working yet...so pictures might be pretty slack for this issue until we rig up a better system...if there is one.

What else? We went to this love-jammed park today, and split up into groups. Most of the boys were surrounded by some chicos (little boys) as soon as they broke out the soccer ball, and Lana had her long board along and had some fun with that. After all of that adventure we headed back to the rancho, and most relaxed while some kicked a soccer ball around until we had a delicious supper.

Now it's after supper and everyone is just chilling out, or attempting to chill out with the humidity. There's a whole bunch of lightning outside but we haven't heard any thunder yet. That's all for today. Everyone is still safe and healthy. Love you guys, and thanks so much for your prayers!!!

P.S---The pictures aren't working so we'll mabe try on another post. Okay...take care up there!