Friday Night in Cuba

VBS has now come to a close. We had family night last night and then darted out of town. We had a pretty good turnout, about 100 parents showed up. Everyone did their individual songs and we did a couple of group songs. All the kids did a great job. The pre-school went first and then they were allowed to go to their parents. Then our kids went (kindergarten) and they were not dismissed and keeping them quiet for the rest of the program was quite a chore. I am sure my video of the even will be full of me whispering “sit down”, “be quiet”, “give me that”, etc. We only had about 8 kids from our class show up for the night. After it was over, we said our goodbyes and gave hugs to everyone and hit the road. We headed straight for Cracker Barrel and some sweet tea. Randall and the girls left early this morning, got up around 5 am. They will make it home before we even step on the plane. I have been very sick at my stomach since last night and didn’t sleep at all. I am eating some pretzels right now, the only food I’ve had today. We are sitting at gate A11 for another hour before we get on the plane. Can’t wait to get home.

“Glad to see children I taught last year and their families. Went great!” – Deborah

“The Lord was there cause there were so many decisions made.” – Nancy

“All the children learned the music well. Did a very good job for Family night” – Michelle

Mikayla’s Family

Friday in Cuba

Well, we are done with VBS for the most part. We had our last class this morning and we are waiting around for Family Night. We are all packed up and ready to go. There are storms moving in so it looks like we will be driving back in the rain. We had 117 students in class today, which is back up from yesterday. So either yesterday’s numbers were wrong or today’s were. We only had 12 in kindergarten. We put portraits of the kids on their packets and put it in their bags. I had to go get kitchen garbage bags to put all their stuff in. I bought them a box of markers each last night and a coloring book today. They also got a Bible from the church after I asked about it. I was about to go buy about 16 Bibles as well. Nancy gave Shellie her red Bible as a birthday present (she turned 8 today). Don’t know if her and Shanna will be here tonight since they are having a birthday party. I gave Shellie a piggy-back ride as we walked to class which made all the other kids jealous, but I said it was only for birthday girls. Today we were teaching on the Good Samaritan and we let the kids bandage each other and I wrapped some heads with guaze. They had a good time with that as you can see.

After our final rally, we took a bunch of pictures in front of the church and then had lunch (taco salad, I’m ready for Cracker Barrel). We then checked out of the hotel and then went back to the church to help setup for tonight. I hope the rain doesn’t keep everyone away.

The Pastor and his wife have not been able to say enough how much they appreciate us being here and that they couldn’t have done it without us. Debbie said during the rally as they were getting everyone to show appreciation to us that we felt like family. It does seem like an extended family here and I will miss them all, especially the kids (once I get rested that is).

Thursday in Cuba

Thursday has been a long day, I’m late getting this post up. Randall came back to the land of the living and made it to bible school. We had 98 children total, with 13 in kindergarten, 15 in pre-school and 8 in Deborah’s class. Today was the day that the children were given the opportunity to make a decision to follow Christ and we had 18 decisions from 1st grade up. We had a separate time for just the kindergarten back in our room and there were 8 more decisions as best we could tell. It has been a great week.

I was able to meet with Mikayla’s mom after school today and show her a picture of our Mikayla wearing her Mikayla’s dress she sent us. I then gave Mikayla a necklace I picked up and she gave me her aquarium craft she made in school today and gave me a hug. She is such a sweet little girl and so bright.

Afterwards, the group split up with Randall and his nieces going horseback riding with some Cuba church members and the rest of us including Helen drove down towards Bernalillo.

Notice how real cowboys wear sandalls…..

We drove through the Pueblo Indian Village and did some shopping at the visitor center and then drove towards the Gilman tunnels. It was a beautiful drive and we had to stop many times for me to jump out and take pictures.

We finished the day off with a drive back to Cuba all the while enjoying another beautiful sunset.

It has been a long week, 6 days away from home so far. I think everyone is ready to get home though it will be tough to say goodbye tommorow. We have the last bible class in the morning and then Family Night at 6 pm, after which we will head towards the airport for one last night in a hotel.

Wednesday in Cuba

Wednesday in Cuba happened without Randall Jackson. Randall spent 2 hours in the clinic this morning to get some medicine for his throat and sinuses and spent the rest of the day sleeping. He is out now getting some burritos from the local Chevron station, yes the gas station. His nieces managed without him and we got Brother Jack to do the bible study. They also got some help from one of the mothers, they had 18 kids. We had 120 children today (up 3 from yesterday) and we had all the same 14 children again in kindergarten.  I found out Deborah, who only has 8 kids, has 3 helpers. I am stealing one of her helpers tommorow (April).

All of the kids are starting to get attached, wanting to play and hug, cling, or tease. At one point walking to the front with the kids in a line, I had about 6 of them holding on to me trying to take me down. They are getting very good at their song they are to do on family night (see video). Today was the salvation lesson, that Jesus is the only way. I hope it went over well.

We had an excellent lunch at the church, some homemade Mexican food with enchiladas, tamales, tacos, beans, and rice. After that, all but Deborah and Randall rode out to the Circle A Ranch/Hostel to check it out and see if we could do some horseback riding. The place is about 100 years old and is being used by the other mission group that is at the church doing some roof work. The people with the horses were not there so we didn’t get to do that, but we got to tour the place and I played football with Ethan and Shawn. It’s a cool place, not sure if I would want to stay there or not with the community bathrooms and the squeaky floors.

After that we drove out to the Continental Divide so some could see it for the first time.

Tonight there is a cookout at the church and a one-night revival. The local Navajo church is coming down for it. It should be a good time of food, music, and message.

Lord, please don’t let me get sick….

Tuesday in Cuba

First of all, correction for yesterday….we had 101 children not 77. They had some clerical issues that got sorted out. Today we had 117 children, out of which we had 14 in the kindergarten class (a pickup of 6). Sebastian’s father wanted him to move to the first grade class on the second day and he didn’t want to go, he wanted to stay with us. He would hold my hand as we walked between activities. Ethan was better today, probably because I dropped the hammer on him in the opening rally when he was dancing “inappropriately” (think pelvic thrusts). He was good after that and actually hugged me a couple of times.

Coylynn is a handful but very sweet, she will want to swing on you or just play. Overall, I think things went better today than yesterday even though more kids. When we got out to recreation, no one was there so I made up a game and had them all catch as many crickets as they could and put in the bucket. We’ll probably do that again tommorow.

After a BBQ sandwhich lunch, some of us took a drive up to Lake Gregorio and to Blue Bird Mesa. We hiked out to the lake dodging rain drops along the way.

Don’t know what’s for dinner tonight, running out of options. Randall is laying down, he is not feeling well (may have a cold). That’s all for now.

Monday Night in Cuba

We went out driving looking for critters after pizza. We still didn’t see any, but we saw a spectacular sunset. “I know my God is real!”

Monday in Cuba

Well the first day is over and it went very well. We had a total of 77 children, 8 of them in kindergarten (20 if you count Ethan 12 times lol). Of course there is always that one child you would like to exchange but we made it through.  When it was over, I rode on the bus to take some kids home even though I was ready for the quiet to begin. I am glad to know what kind of homes these children come from, it makes me want to work that much harder to reach them and care for them in the short time we have together. It is obvious that these kids don’t have much, but what they can have is the love of Jesus Christ which will take them further than anything.

Got to see my other Mikayla today, she claims she remembers me. She is always smiling.

Don’t know where everyone is at, I am at the hotel by myself after a 3 hour nap. Randall went out driving, he’s just gonna bust if he doesn’t see a deer soon. It may be pizza for dinner if anyone ever comes to pick me up.

Sunday in Cuba

Sunday, July 6, 2008 I am back in Cuba, NM for another VBS mission trip. I am here with Randall Jackson, Michelle and Ashley Wilhoite, Deborah Ramsour, Nancy Smith, and Randall’s nieces Holly and Julianne. We came in yesterday and ate dinner with Helen Garrett. It is so awesome to be here again and trigger four year old memories. The weather should be nice all week; not too hot. I will be helping Nancy teach kindergarten. We are going to church today where Randall will preach and then we will have pot luck dinner. Then we will setup rooms.

Fast forward: we have finally gotten back to the room after a full day at church of setting up rooms, eating, and lots of praying. We did a prayer walk this evening where we walked to every room used for VBS and prayed for the kids that will be in there. All the rooms look great and we are ready to get up early for pancakes at Helen’s and then off for registration.