Holly Shermer and Gail Spradley: Well today we completed our 3 day project of painting 22 bunk beds for the girls floor. When we began we never imagined the flexibility it would require but we can now say we are experts at painting metal bunk beds with lots and lots of curly cues. As we began the project of the  black beds the girls excitedly asked us what the color would be. When we showed them the color “purple passion” a buzz went throughout the dorm as one girl proudly displayed the paint chip color.

We became the afternoon entertainment—Emmanuel Ministries version of HGTV.
As we worked in each girls room we saw the pride and importance each girl took in their special treasures. Pictures, crafts and momentos were carefully placed in their room.
What a blessing to be able to do this small task for these girls and see it bring them such joy. We leave in two days but we pray God’s hands on these precious girls that will be sleeping in these beds.  We pray they will know Jesus better and understand His love for them more deeply.

John Benner: I have often heard the expression that ‘90% of life is showing up, standing up and speaking up’ As this was my first mission trip, I really didn’t know what this trip would mean beyond the ‘showing up’ part. However, my heart was open and I decided to leave the rest in  God’s hands. What I have found are many opportunities to ‘stand up’ (by volunteering), and  help ‘speaking up’ in ways I never anticipated. Let me tell you about three experiences.

1. I led a team of children competing in our Wacky Olympics. Four older boys and a younger girl were on my team. As we ran around to our different events, I needed help telling everyone where we needed to go and keeping everyone together in all the excitement. Somehow, the younger girl picked up on this. She figured out what needed to happen in spite of my very, very basic Spanish. She told the older boys where we were going and brought everyone back together at several points. Without her help, I wouldn’t have gotten there.
2. I saw the children (girls and boys) liked to jump rope. As I walked up to join in, I relied on lots of smiles, pointing and a liberal dose of ‘I don’t understand’ in Spanish to make my way through. We got the rope going and I started to count in Spanish how many times they jumped. As it turned out, only knowing the numbers up to 20 was all I needed. And, one of the children started counting in English. At the end, we all had a great time counting, laughing, and perfecting our jump roping technique.
3. Last night I helped get a group of the younger boys ready for bed. It would be impossible to fully describe getting 20 boys showered in 30 minutes. Whirlwind comes to mind. I was in charge of shampoo and handing them a small sponge soaked with soap. I finally figured out near the end that the incredibly efficient room mother meant ‘leave the shower’ rather than ‘wash up more’. I probably put a lot of extra soap and shampoo on those precious boys. When we finished, I felt like I helped in at least a small way.

And what do these three experiences have in common? I have learned in an irrefutable, first hand way (I can be pretty stubborn) that if I show up and have my heart in the right place, God will help me with the  ‘standing up’ and ‘speaking up’ in unexpected, amazing ways.

Eric Triassi, Scott McKibbin: So, we shall start out with a 55 gallon barrel that has dried Yellow Goop caked along the inside and outside. After twenty minutes of pounding and scraping this barrel, our new found friend, Cesar, helped us in our quest to achieve the first patch of “Yellow Goop.” The next step; to take the freshly beaten barrel to the local ravine to be cleansed with a hose. Despues, we took it to the area where all the materials were. 30-35 gallons of water later, he started to pour in “GAN,” and all the surrounding children yelled “GAN” and skedaddled. Scott and I looked at each other and probably both thought the same thing, this stuff is not good to be inhaling right now. Cesar also added to the drum a pint size bag of powdered detergent, to add the mustard color to the “Yellow Goop” in progress. Cesar grabbed a 5 gallon bucket of industrial strength glue, the kind that you don’t find in the Elmer’s bottles.  As we stirred this mustard-looking paint concoction, Cesar took another bag of “GAN” and dumped it in, along with more mustard detergent. Cesar commandeered the stick and tested the thickness. A man of few words, he decided to get a Del Monte Small White Corn can and tested out the paint. The result was a failure so we went back to the bucket and more “GAN” and glue and yellow detergent was added. This whole batch of mustard colored paint cost about $15. Cesar made another the next day without Scott and I, we were called to perform other tasks. The mystery “Yellow Goop” is now no longer a mystery, as I have successfully revealed it to you successfully. It’s a long boring process to make that could possibly be pretty bad for your health if you breathe in the “GAN”, but it’s cheap and God isn’t going to let anything happen that he hasn’t already planned out. Scott and I are still alive, for all you concerned readers at home.

Josh: Today… Today was a new “high” day. Paul B. and I were on the tremendous roof. It was fun and sometimes scary. Very scary. Mostly the roof was somewhat enclosed because of multiple additions by groups just like us. But the 30 foot ladder was all open, all of it. So Paul and I were hanging network cable, for all the geeks reading this it’s CAT 5 cable. Anyway on the ladder parts I fed wire through the zip tie that Ritch and I hung 2 days ago. But the ladder was not the best. I would be perfectly fine if the 30 mph wind hadn’t started every time I tried going up. But it was fun lots of fun. So when I wasn’t on the ladder Paul and I were on the roofs running the wire. It wasn’t scary then but the ladder was not fun. By the way Paul does not always like heights, so sometimes he had to take some deep breaths before he would go up and down a lot but it worked out. Any way I don’t have any pictures because of well my mommy might be a little worried. I seriously can’t wait until tomorrow morning when we go on the mountain walk. The mountain walk is when our group are going up the mountain a couple miles away, with the big cross on top. I think it will be fun, and don’t worry I’ll bring the camera. Anyway if any of you are wondering how close we are to the border, every day and night we can easily see the lights of the border and can see downtown El Paso. Its really cool, but I can just think how all the children looking out at America and just wishing or thinking. Well I hope all is going well back in Amer-eeeee-kkka.