Let the Tears Begin!

We have arrived! After coming for 3 years, this place is starting to feel like home. The EOC staff was SO thrilled to see us, excited to see familiar faces and eager to meet new ones, and welcomed us back like kings and queens. 

As I mentioned in my blog last night, when grumbling started about sharing beds, I encouraged the team to remember WHY we are here - to build a house for a family who has none. As the photo below attests, some team members took this to heart more than others. Haha! Ryan wanted to "see what it was like". What a guy!

Ryan in his Harry Potter room.

We gathered this morning for the first time as a complete team - 15 of us, which is the max for one house. One of my favorite verses from Scripture is from John 14, where Jesus talks about how we, his followers, will do greater things than him. That's pretty crazy! So we chatted about that before heading out for Mexico, because, to me, it challenges us to engage with imaginative ways to make this world a better place.

First FULL team meeting!

LUNCH break before the border!

Before crossing the border, the team got a small glimpse of "the bigger picture" we are part of. At "In & Out", we bumped into 5 or 6 other teams of people who were heading to different parts of Mexico to build houses! It was just SO inspiring to everyone to realize that there are hundreds of people being mobilized for the sake of others.

Our first stop on the drive was our usual lookout spot, except this year, there was a whale! So we got to spend some time watching this young whale swimming in the ocean. Amazing!

We finally arrived at the campus and settled in. People have been AMAZED at our team unity already, with many EOC staff mentioning just how great of a week we will have. There is one other group here this week - a team of 35 people of all ages from White Rock! 

A highlight for most today was finally meeting our family face to face. Tears were flowing as stories were shared. And we haven't even started yet! All together, we shared a delicious meal of burritos and ice cream. Mmm mm mmmm.

Tomorrow, we start building!!!!

Ideas for prayer: love love love. We talked about things we want to leave behind this week - pray that we'd be able to really be present here. Also, really, my biggest desire is for God to just explode all over the place!!!! Transformation, revelation, surrender, resurrection - these are just SOME of the amazing things God does. These are some of my hopes for this team this year. 

It's getting eerily quiet in the guys' room, which I think is my cue to turn off the lights. Thank you for your prayers! Cant WAIT to get started tomorrow. God is good!

The stuff houses are built with. ;)

Praying for the family!

Aaron, the 2 year old we will be building for. :D Such a cutie.

Ryan and Lee bonded with the kids right away.

The lookout where we spotted the whale!

At the EOC campus.

WVUC Team 2013! What a great looking bunch. ;)