Arrived in El Paso

Praise God we all made it to El Paso. Our flights were all on time and other than a little bit of turbulence that upset a few bellies, everyone is great though tired.

Mark Pryor spotted me as we were headed to baggage claim and introduced himself. We gathered all of our luggage and got on a bus to head to Fabens, TX. As we were heading southeast toward Fabens, we could see Juarez off in the distance. On a mountain side, is a message that all of Juarez can see as well as much of El Paso. It said: " La Biblia es la verdad. Leela" - the Bible is the truth, read it.

As we drove along the way, Mark and Candi talked about many different things. They said that the area we were in (south of I-10 as we drove) is called the border area. They said a long time ago, Juarez and El Paso were one city. As the U.S. and Mexico agreed on the border, it was split in two often times splitting families that had to decide on what side they would live. El Paso is 85% hispanic (wow! I had no idea) and its legacy with Juarez makes it very unique. The border area is neither a U.S. or Mexican culture but it's a culture that is very unique.

One of the things Candi said was to "let go of any expectations you have". Really at the heart of what she's saying is that we all need to not come with our agenda of what we want to do but be open to the God's plan. Mark also talked about how excited he was that we are here. Our trip was "on again/off again" because of the high level of violence and that fact that we are here has Mark excite beacuse he knows our team has really sought the Lord or as he put it, "Done business with God". I've very excited to see what He has in mind this week.

We've spent the afternoon at the House of Cornelius (our home base for the week) in some training. One of the things we were asked to do is pick an adjective that describes what we want from the week. Here's what everyone came up with (grouped by families since there are some common first names): Transformed Tami and Carefree Kent; Touch-hearts Vern and Caring Karen; Watchful Mike, Commissioned Cara ("adopted" by Mike and Karen this week),
Contentment Karen; Phlexible Phil, Joyful Jan, Awesome Amanda, Marvelous Melissa, Fearless Jessica (Christina wasn't feeling well so hasn't done this yet - please pray for her); Empathetic Russell, Courageous Emma, and Surrendered Sara; Lyrical Laura, and Superman Sarah; Compassionate Calvin and Courageous Cameron; Shinning Sunny; Amazed Annie; Less Lorna, Cheerful Channing, Trustin’ Justin, and Caring Charise; Expectant Mark and Anticipating Candi.

We're taking a break now, will eat dinner soon and then will do some planning for our first day tomorrow at the orphanage. I'll try to give another update later and maybe share a few pictures.