Pastor Idelfonso and Lizbia

Pastor Idelfonso and his wife Lizbia

VBS kids

The kids were divided into five groups, one for each color of the wordless book that tells the gospel story. This is my (Cindy) group, white, and they demonstrated how our sins are washed clean when we accept Jesus' sacrifice on the cross on our behalf. Aren't they cute? They were so excited.

Cipriano smoothing out the last section of concrete on the sanctuary floor in Progreso.

Setting up...

Pierre the paintor (Lucio) and Lizbia

Ivelisse leads a VBS session

Don leading the white group

Emily lowered through 'roof' for skit - with Shawn and Steve

All the kids on stage at the end, singing Colareame de Cristiano. Nine colored stage lights made by our team (thanks to Steve and Shawn) light them up. There were over 100 kids presenting and lots of parents and other relatives watching. It was packed and loud!

A great day!

Starting this morning, i got to the shower and turned the knob all the way open, and absolutely nothing came out (this is jake by the way). I thought i was gonna have to take a ice cold shower until, after about 5 minutes, the water finally started to flow. Breakfast was great as usual, although they did change something abiut the sweets they set out on the table. Anyway, we got to Progresso and started to lay down concrete with a large elephant trunk like tube that was connected to the mixer. Once we got most of the concrete laid out, Nicole, Randi, Emily, Ive and I left for the school to invite more children to come to the VBS at Progreso. (Nicole).. When we got there, we met the director. He was very nice. He invited the group of us into his office. We continued to talk about the purpose of our trips to Culiacán. After that explanation, he said to us "Go ahead and do anything if it's for God!" He let us go to every single classroom. He informed us that if the kids got their homework done right away at school, then the director would allow them to leave school early for the VBS. When it came time for the VBS, we sang songs, puppets and a pretty sweet bible story re-enactment. It was the story of the paralytic man getting lowered through the roof. Me(Nicole), Jake and Emily all climbed onto the roof of the church. Ive was the narrorator. As she explained the part where they break the whole in the roof, Jake and I jumped as high and as hard as we could to make it look like we were breaking the roof. Then, we picked up Emily, who was wrapped in a blanket and lowered her down to Shawn and Steve. Pete played the role of Jesus. Overall, the skit went fantastic!!! We finished the VBS and the men finished the second half of themovie courageous. I was told that the mens meeting went well. After that, we all had dinner at the Bellos house. It was delicious! Now, it is time for bed!! Prayer Requests: 1. A friend of Emily had his grandma die this afternoon. Pray for the comfort of the family. 2. Vanita is feeling much better, but Josiah is now getting sick. Pray for good health throughout the whole team. 3. Driving around tonight, we saw a guy who was hit by a car. The man was on a bicycle. Pray that God lays his hand over him and that he is ok. Goodnight!! Nicole and Jake! (:

God is a funny God!

Heyy guys!! Sorry it's been so long for the update. We have hadsome technical difficulties with the wifi in the hotel! Anyways, it should be working now... Late saturday night, we arrived at the hotel. The ride from Mazatlan was a blast with Ildefonso driving and the youth (Nicole, Jake, Randi and Emily) in the car with him. We had a short roof-top meeting and headed to bed. On sunday, we woke up and got ready for church! It was great getting to visit with everyone after a long time. We ate lunch at the church with some more visitations. After lunch, we went out to Progreso for their service. There were about 10 adults and a bunch of little kids from the neighborhood who were attending the service. After the service our group went to PAPAS LOCAS!!! Yes, be jealous!! (: As usual, it was delicious. That leads up to today.. We arrived in Progreso at 9 am this morning. When we got there, we immidiately started spreading out a huge pile of dirt. We spread the dirt so it could be compacted down. Me (Nicole), Jake, Emily and Enrique (one of the dads) shoveled probably 103 wheel barrow loads.. Give or take 7.. Lovely words of Jake! After it was all spread out, we used a rented compactor to press the dirt. By lunch time, we were filthy. The rest of the women led the womens bible study group. They went around the neighborhood inviting the women to come. In their group today, they taught the women the bible school songs, so they could lead the actions later in the afternoon. After lunch, Me (Nicole), Jake, Randi, Emily and Shawn ran to Home Depot to get a few things for a project we were working on. With all of us combined, we knew a little spanish. We were looking for big colored flood light bulbs. None of the employees knew english. All of a sudden a guy named Ruben came up to us and said "Heyy.. How can I help you guys?" We were shocked! Ruben came out of no where. After talking to him for a little while, we found out that he lived in many different areas of the U.S. for 25 years. He was a missionary based out of somewhere in Miami. He told us if we needed anything, we could just ask someone for Ruben. He was a great help. Then after talking to him, we realized that we need a small rubber maid tote the size of a shoe box. We walked all over the store looking for one. It was not found. We decided to go to a different store to get the rest of the materials. As we walked up to the check-out, Shawn looked up and said "Oh my gosh you guys!! Look at this!" He held up the exact rubber maid tote that we had just been looking for. We decided that God was playing jokes on us now!! The customer in front of us in lineturned around and asked in perfect english, "where are you from?".. We had barely been talking to her for 30 seconds, and she decided that she wanted to give us her name and email. She told us that if we ever needed anything while we were here, we could send her a message. Walking out of the store, we were amazed at how God worked with us through the complete strangers in Home Depot of all places. We returned to Progreso and went to go to the school to invite the kids to the VBS this week. They were all very welcoming to us in their classrooms. The VBS started at 4 o'clock. It included lots of songs, puppets, games and of course Pierre the painter(Lucio). Things have gone very well so far this week! We are very excited to see what other tricks God has up his sleeve. Prayer Request: Vanita, Glynae, Ulisses and Ildefonso are all sick right now! Please pray for them to recover quickly with no complications. Buenas Noches! Nicole and Jake

Today we saw God work in more than one way! Our morning started out the same as every other. We worked on the benches while the women did their ministry. Then, before we left to go to lunch, Lucia, Emily, Shawn, Alex (The one from Culiacan) and my self all went down to the school to invite the teenagers. We originally thought we would have about 10 kids show up, but we had about 50 join us. 15 of those kids were from the school. Pray that tonight starts a movement of the youth in the church. At the same time as we were having our youth event, the men had theirs. From what I could tell, it was a great turn out. There were about fifteen or twenty men from Progreso that showed up. Amongst all of this happening, we held a HUGE meal for the town of Progreso. We cooked hamburgers and hotdogs. We planned on serving approximately 150 people, so we got a ton of extra food. If any of you know my dad, you know how he can't cook for small groups of people. When we were done with the night, we realized that we had served well over 200 people. It was probably closer to 250 or 300 people. God was deffinately great today! Once again, we are all very tired, so I'm going to end with the prayer requests now!

Prayer Requests:
1. Jim is not feeling the greatest right now. Pray that he is strong and healthy tomorrow morning!
2. Don and Carols house was broken into today, and they have had a lot of police going in and out of their house to find some finger prints. Pray that everything will be okay and that things will be taken care of at home.

Praises:
1. Arnoldos mom was going in for a biopsy today because she had a lump on her breast. When we arrived at the church we all prayed for her because she was in surgery at that moment. Not even a half an hour later, we got great news that there was nothing there. Praise God!
2. Also, praise God for a great turn out for dinner tonight, and that there was enough food for so many people.

I am positive that there are many more prayer requests and praises for God, but if I typed them all out, I would be here for days! I guess you will have to wait until we get back to hear the marvelous works of God!!

Nicole Renee and Emily June

Today was another fantastic day here in Culiacan! We are all very tired so I'm going to try to keep this fairly short tonight! Our morning was very similar to every other day so far. We continued to work on benches. This afternoon we did the third day of VBS! We did the story of Jonah! Steve Jervis played the role of Jonah in the skit! I must say that he did a fantastic job! We created the boat out of bricks and an old play house that they had at the church. We also had a big blue tarp that was the waves. When Jonah was thrown out of the boat, the big fish (Shawn) swallowed steve up! When the whale spit him up after three days, Jonah was soaked! The skit seemed to be a great thing to keep the kids focused! We then went to the church for another fantastic meal of carne asada!! mmmmmmmmmmmmm :)

The women from our group went to the little girls house who caused the fight yesterday, just to see what her home life was like. While they were there, Egla came across a man who was possessed by a demon, watched pornography, and was an alcoholic! She started to pray for him, and through that process, both the man and his nephew came to know the Lord! Praise God!!

Prayer Requests:
-There are three different ministries going on tomorrow! The boys are meeting with the men from Progreso to play cards and just fellowship. Me, Emily and Lucia are planning to get together with the teenagers from Progreso to start a relationship with them. Please pray that we get a good turn out in both of those. We are also holding a dinner tomorrow for the whole town of Progreso. We are eating hotdogs and hamburgers. We are expecting approximately 200 people to attend the meal.
-Pete was no longer able to join us on the trip! He had to bring Debbie to the ER in the middle of the night yesterday. Pray that she will be healed and healthy as soon as possible.
-Lastly, please pray for health. More people have been getting sick. Pray for health for all of us, so that we can continue to minister to others.

Thanks for all the prayers!!
Buenas Noches!

Nicole Renee and Emily June

Let's just say that today was a long day for us, Emily and Nicole. We built every single part of the benches this morning. Don't feel bad, we let the boys use the mini hammers to pound the nails into the benches. We only let them help after continuous begging. While we and the pestering boys built the benches, the rest of the women went out into the neighborhood of Progreso to minister. We haven't heard much about it, but it sounds like it all went well. After a short pit-stop at the hotel, we headed back to Progreso. While the boys attempted to build a bench all by themselves, the women held the second day of VBS.

We went to the Bello house for dinner and they served a two course meal, which was WAY too much for us, as usual, but it was delicious. Then to top that, they served four different desserts. And yes, we all ate some of all of it! Then we went back to the hotel for a short roof-top meeting and bed time! And now I (Nicole) am here typing this.

There seem to be more and more prayer requests adding up! So what better way to share those with more people than on here? :)
Prayer Requests:
- The little boy who was diagnosed with Terminal Brain Cancer. Pray that he and his family have comfort even though it is complete chaos in their lives right now.
-Many of the children in Progreso have been fighting a lot lately. Tonight, I, Nicole again, had to break up a fight of about six kids tonight during the bible story. They were fighting over such a simple thing as a chair. Pray that they will get along and pay attention to the story tomorrow and not what chair they're sitting in!
-Pray for Lucia. As I told you before, we all ate too much food tonight. It got to Lucia. Pray that she will be healthy by morning.
-Finally, please pray for the Beruman family. They just added the next member to their family today! Josiah Antonio Beruman. Pray for great health for both mom and baby.

I almost forgot to add something! Pete should be joining us tomorrow evening. Debbie is now home and stable. Debbie encouraged him to join the group! YAYY!!

Hasta Manana! (Insert tilde above the 'N')

Nicole Renee and Emily June

So today was another good day here in Culiacan!

This morning, the men (or the boys as we called them)went to Progresso to start the process of building about ten benches for the sanctuary. While the men were doing that, the women stayed back to sort through all the suitcases full of clothes and VBS supplies. We then met back at Emmanuel to eat lunch. Then we started the journey to Progresso to hold the first VBS of the week. There were 50+ kids there today.

After holding the VBS, we were all VERY hungry! So we went back to the church and had an extremely filling meal of Carne Asada!! Be jealous!! ;)After eating, we had the opportunity to go to a families house who has a ten year old son. The young boy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer this past summer. The tumor has been growing, causing him to be bed bound. He can no longer talk or move. Our group had the chance to go in and pray over him and his parents. His dad is not a christian, but desperate for any hope left, asked us to come pray for them. The boy however, has a very strong faith. Please pray for him and his family.

We also ask that you pray for a woman in Progresso who had eye surgery a few days ago. We don't know what caused her blindness, but we hope that this surgery helps give her sight again. Also, please continue to pray for Pete and Debbie. Pray for Pete as he has to make the difficult decision to come here or stay home with Debbie.

It's getting late, so we're going to hit the hay!

Buenas Noches!!

Nicole Renee and Emily June

La Primera Dia

I know you were all so worried that we wouldn't make it through the church service, but we did. It was amazing what God did in the eight testimonies of our team members. Pam, Steve, Shawn, Cindy, Paul, Ive and Don spoke about why they come here to Culiacan. Emmanuel is in between pastors at the moment so our team provided the sermon. Almost all of our team members got very emotional when talking about how God works in such great ways and the relationships we have with these people. Yes, even the big, tough (adorable) men cried. At that time, I, Emily, turned to Nicole and Lucia and said "I love our team." Those testimonies really made me realize what the ministry has grown to and the impact it makes on any person involved.

A woman named Carol at Emmanuel had said to Carol Buckhout that the congregation is really discouraged at this time with no pastor and they need confirmation that they can make a difference. When Carol Buckhout asked  if our service had helped with that at all, Carol said that without a doubt it inspired the congregation.

After lunch at the church, we had a meeting with the women of Emmanuel about the crafts for VBS this week. The men played Cribbage. We then stopped at Walmart and went to the Templo Bautista Sion to celebrate the aniversary of the church. Many of our team members expressed how awesome it was to see people from multiple different churches all worshiping together and in one church. There were poeple from North Haven, Sion, Emmanuel, the church from Renato Vega, and few other ones that we didn't know.

We arrived at Papas Locas as the team from Worthington was finishing their meal. The new members on our team enjoyed the meal and almost everyone, as always, overate. We tried a new drink called Sorbada made with wheat and vanilla. It tastes like chocolate and caramel. It is delicious!

While at Papas Locas, Ulises told us that he, Lalo, Julio, Abram and some other men from  Emmanuel were going to play a game of futbol at a field a block down on the church rec team. We stopped by and watched the game for about 45 minutes. When we left, the score was 3-2, us.

When we got back to the hotel, we discussed the day during our daily rooftop meeting along with cathing up with some of the Worthington team. We had some major prayer requests and very good reportings of the days.

Prayer requests:

A women at Emmanuel told Cindy that her 10 year-old nephew was diagnosed with brain cancer last summer. He is not confined to his bed, not being able to speak. The woman said he has much faith and believes he will be healed. This father, however is not a christian and is compeletely devistated. She asked that we come to see her son and give the family encouragement and pray for a miracle.

After our morning service at Emmanuel, a women came in off of the streets asking for help and money for her "medicine" we were informed that she is addicted to drugs. Egla, from Puenta de Vida, he this women on her mind all day and requests that we pray for her, as she is imprisoned with this addiction.

Nicole Renee and Emily June

Warning: Satire Ahead

So the old folks want this to be a serious matter, but we're teenagers, so expect some slight exaggeration.
After nearly dying seven times and losing all of our bags, we finally fought off the customs officials and boarded our dilapidated rental bus. Hours later, when we arrived at the hotel, our reservations were nowhere to be found. As the team waited for Don and Steve to clear up the sleeping arrangements, Buddy got involved in an old-fashioned gang shootout. Let's just say Shawn doesn't have a roommate tonight. We were only able to snag two tiny rooms. One for the women and one for the men. So the ol' wise ones want us to go to sleep, so we will update you tomorrow, if we make it through the church service. ;)


Ok. Ok. So we were joking, but you probably believed every word of that, right? We arrived perfectly safe and transportation and customs went fine. Cipriano, Arnoldo, Dani, Ulises, and Gadiel met us at the airport in Mazatlan and rode with us in our very nice bus here to Culiacan. We stopped at a grocery store on the way and picked up stuff to make bologna and cheese sandwiches. Once we got to the hotel, we got settled in our rooms, had a short meeting on the rooftop and are now heading to bed to savor the few hours of sleep before church in the morning.


Please pray for a good nights rest and that God will work in marvelous ways in the week to come. Also, pray for Pete's wife, Debbie, who is still in the hospital for pneumonia. Pete is expecting to join us on Tuesday after getting Debbie settled back at their home.


Emily June and Nicole Renee

Adios!

Well, we leave for Culiacan tomorrow afternoon, Saturday Feb 4, 2012. The plane doesn't leave MSP until 4:10, which is nice, but it means we won't get to our hotel until about 11:00 pm.  The plan for Sunday is for Don Buckhout to give a short sermon and than several of the team will say something short about what this ministry means to us and why we go.  Then we'll have a meeting with members of Emmanuel church to plan the week in more detail. The team members from North Haven Church are Emily Johnson, Nicole Treague, Lucia Alle, Steve Jervis, Paul Christianson, Shawn Treague, Buddy Anderson, Cindy Johnson, Carol buckhout, Jim Tjernlund, Pete Marcaccini, Don Buckhout, and Pam Jervis.  Ive Guzman and Egla Martinez are going from Puente de Vida church and there are small teams from Worthington and Hastings also going to work at their sister churches in Culiacan.  We'd sure appreciate prayers for our trip and especially for Pete's wife Debbie who is hospitalized with pneumonia in TX the last I heard so I don't know the status of Pete going. Nor do I have the other churches' team members' names at my fingertips.  Sorry about that.
Thank you all for your support for this mission!!!
Cindy, for the team