TFE MEXICO

Woohoo

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 22:41:23 +0000

The vans arrived

On the ground!!!

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:05:38 +0000

In Philly!!!!

Final leg

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:17:40 +0000

On the plane to Philly!!!

Trip home

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:16:18 +0000

On the ground in Houston…still in the plane more pics and updates coming soon

Final day

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:30:46 +0000

Our final full day in Mexico is almost in the books, and we had a great one! Spent the day at the Costa Club in Progresso, shopped til we wanted to drop and now resting before the finale where we will eat with the whole church, do our drama, and fiesta til the wee hours of the morning…and yes we have to be up at 4:00 am to head to the airport:). Please pray for continued health and safety and we will see you tomorrow…Lord willing !!!!

Tuesday update by Jamie

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:21:26 +0000

TUESDAY flew by. Instead of doing our usual VBS show in the morning at La Roca, we made up for lost free time by going to visit “cenotes” for the morning. Cenotes are underground swimming holes that can be found all over Merida. It took us about an hour to get to our cenote, and once we did we found that the only visible part from aboveground was a tiny building that housed some very steep cement stairs that led down into the ground. It was funny to watch because as each person descended into the abyss that would lead us to our cenote, fear would register on their faces for about 10 steps as they realized exactly how steep and scary the steps were – but without fail, as soon as you reached the point where you could actually see the underground cave, everyone got really excited and immediately forgot how scared they were because this cenote was absolutely beautiful inside. There was a big garden in the center of the cave with plants growing, a big hole in the ceiling for light to come through, and beautiful clear water to swim in. We swam for almost two hours, just enjoying the cool water, good company, and various fish swimming around us. After the cenote we returned to Merida and went to a restaurant. The food was great, the service was friendly and quick, and the bathrooms were clean (a delightful change from the norm). Choosing from the menu was somewhat risky because we didn’t really know what the options were or what they meant — I’ll admit, I accidentally told Ashley to order a large onion stuffed with mushrooms and cheese as her main meal. Oops… it really was an accident The whole team went to Villa Magna for VBS Day 6 after that and had a good time puppeting, making crafts, jump roping, and singing songs. The final highlight of the day was that dinner was finally something other than chicken sandwiches (which we had been fed for breakfast lunch and dinner because it was easy on our stomachs ) — quesadillas!! We’re really enjoying the time we get to spend with the teens at La Roca church, we’ve certainly made friends for life and had some really great laughs. It’s hard to believe that we only have 2 days left in Mexico but we all really appreciate your prayers and support to get us here. We can’t wait to share all of our stories, and we have loved the opportunity to have this experience and to serve God this way.

From Abby Frisch

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:46:59 +0000

GOOD MORNING PENNSYLVANIA! My name is Abby Frisch and here is your Monday update.
I woke up in my bed after having a good night sleep and I was super pumped for another 3 days of V.B.S. My mom here (Veronica) made Danielle and I some eggs with hot dogs and some totally delicious bread.Following breakfast we quickly got ready to head out to the church for another fantastic day of V.B.S. The morning seemed like forever at some moments because everyone, including me, was tired. Thankfully the 16 kids at the morning V.B.S were also tired, so everyone was moving in slow motion together. Overall everything went really well, we played lots of games and got to finger-paint today with their hands and toes. hahaha. The kids painted backdrops for their skits and the paintings turned out awesome! During after V.B.S game time the kids would most likely play soccer because that is like the game of champions here but due to the lack of energy in the kids we jumped some rope in the shade and shot water balloons. Oh! I forgot but the two teams here were split, so while the Merida team had V.B.S in the morning the Villa Magna team had a descansar time in preparation for their show in the evening. I heard they watched some “Megamind”. After everything was finished we all headed to lunch!! woohoo!
Following our chicken and tortillas at lunch both teams got to chill with each other for a little bit. We played some cards and you know spoke some spanish. Around 3:00 the Villa Magna team got to head out for their V.B.S. That means that the Mermaids (or Merida Team) gets to have descansar time. So Danielle, Jamie,Lydia, Sarah and I were told that we could sleep on the small nursery next to the church. Cool thing about the nursery is that it has air conditioning. woohoo. The nursery was set up for us with 3 hammocks and a mattress to sleep on. Let’s just say we didn’t really sleep but we did talk in resting position. After some “napping” we colored a little bit with the teens. Dinner time came and we got to see our Villa Magnan buddies. I heard from the other team that their V.B.S went really well, A lot of kids came and everything went very well. I am very thankful that everything went especially good today. I pray for good health and safety for these last few days. Also for sleep and energy for the last few days of V.B.S. Overall thank you for praying and please continue to pray for these last few days. I am very very excited to see what God has in store for us these last few days in Mexico.
I miss my family so much, like a lot. Oh! I didn’t forget about everyone else there too. I miss seeing all your faces too “Shout out from Jenn to her mom, She bought a hammock.”
To finish my blog post it is highly important that I tell you that last night i experienced one of the scariest things of my life. During my shower which i thought would be nice, I got visited from a tarantula crawling out from the shower drain towards me. Ia m now scared for life. I miss Pennsylvania but even though this happened I still absolutely love it here.

Descansar where you are

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:55:36 +0000

Rhyming Spanish and English words is fun

From John Wolf

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:48:21 +0000

Yesterday started out as any other day. I woke up in my hammock, in an absolutely ridiculous position, as always. The next few moments were spent contemplating how I got my leg twisted behind my head, and how my arm got wrapped around my chest like a boa constrictor. Tyler and I got dressed quickly and ran out to eat breakfast. Since neither us were feeling 100%, we had a very exciting breakfast of apples, grapes, and tea. Afterward, we jumped in the van to race through the streets of Merida to make it to Church on time. Church was excellent, although the fact that everything was in Spanish made it rather hard to understand. I can just see the Pastor looking out at his smiling congregation, and then seeing a group of white “gringoes” grimacing and squinting, trying to listen for anything that might help us understand. At least we’re trying. After Church, we jumped in the van and drove for about an hour until we reached Santa Elena. Once in Santa Elena, we walked the paths of the Mayans through the ruins of Uxmal. There we stepped back to a simpler time, where apparently no one was afraid of heights. Let me tell you, standing at the top of that Pyramid was really cool. You could see everything from up there! It was crazy! I mean, I was afraid the fall the entire time, but still, it was awesome. It was super duper hot, and we had to stop every 10 minutes to take “mandatory drink and rest breaks.” The coolest part was that there were iguanas everywhere. In the rocks. On the pyramids. In the trees. In your pockets. On your head. Everywhere! I wanted to catch one, but they were just too fast, and I didn’t want to look stupid chasing them. My method was to walk like I was going towards something else, and then try to scoop the lizard up on the way. If my plan failed, I would just shrug it off and act as if nothing happened. My plan never worked.
It began to storm as we were leaving the park, and man, when it rains, it RAINS!!!! The lightning was super bright, and the thunder was super loud. The thunder sounded just like the loud “Bwaaaaa” sounds in the movie “Inception”. After checking to make sure I wasn’t in a dream, we began the long trek home. When I arrived back at my house, I ate a big old bowl of Frosted Flakes (Here they are called “Zuccus”) and went to bed.
Things are pretty awesome here. Everybody is feeling a lot better, and we’re all excited to be back to work. I miss my family a whole lot. Mom and Dad, Dios le Bendiga! Haha. Hope all is going well! Steve and Ange, the waffles are in the toaster! Hahaha. Well, everything’s going great. We’re all having fun, and we can’t wait to see what God has in store for us!

The WHOLE team!!

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:18:25 +0000

We are finally back together again…please continue to pray that each day we all gain strength!