Friday part 2 and Saturday departure

We got back to the HOC, had dinner at about 8:30 PM (very late given we were scheduled to have dinner at 7:30 PM) and then had a de-briefing meeting at 9:30 PM. First we said goodby to several people - Jose Luis and his family had come to have dinner with us and say goodbye. We prayed for him and then we said goodbye to Elvita and prayed for her. Saying goodbye to her brought tears to my eyes. She was a lovely grandmother type lady who had a heart for the Lord and her Mexican people. I'll miss Elvita.

During the meeting, we had our "angels and mortals" reveal. I don't think I've mentioned angels and mortals before so here's what it was: we each were secretly assigned to be someones angel. Our job was to write notes of encouragement or give someone a small gift (like candy or a soda). My angel was Jessica and she guessed me. Just after breakfast, I had put a Skittles candy bag into an envelope and left if for Jessica. She came in and saw me near the box we used for the letters and immediately said "you're my angel". I told her I wasn't and could prove it with a handwritting sample. I asked her to wait a minute and I got Jerimiah to write "This is a sample of my handwriting." When I showed it to her she seemed convinced it wasn't my writing but during the de-brief she guess it was me. My angel was Justin who had wrote several encouraging notes and left me an M&M's; Cameron's angel was Russell and he also got several encouraging notes from him.

After the angel reveal, we talked about things to look out for as we return home. They included:
Seeing the materialism of our culture will likely be difficult for a bit. Candi talked about how difficult it was for her to go to a grocery store after returning from her first short-term mission trip into Juarez.

• The risk of us being critical about our local church - after such a rich experience, we're at risk to return home and be critical of our church.
• Don't try to get people to complete understand what we just went through - it's nearly impossible to explain what we've lived for the last week. Candi mentioned that most of the people we'll talk to had a "normal week". While we had a week we'll never forget, people back home went on with a normal week. No amount of words or sharing pictures can make someone understand all that we experienced.
• There were a few of us that didn't come with our spouses. Candi's advice was that spouses who didn't come need to be very understanding.
• It could take 3 days to a few weeks to get back to "normal". It's often very difficult for someone to transition from a week like we had to the normal grind.
  

It was a lot of great information and much of it resonated with me as I had experienced much of it when I returned from Vanuatu back in 1993. We wrapped up the meeting at about 11 PM. I was still trying to burn DVD's as I wanted to be sure Karen had them not only as a backup but so she could have her photos as she returned to Boise and Cameron and I went on to Dallas for the weekend. Something appears to be wrong with my DVD burning software as it gave me a blue screen several times. About this time, Josh B arrived from Michigan with Shannah. Josh is Mike and Karen's son who is working for New Tribes Missions and Shannah is Mark and Candi's daughter. I think she's going to school not far from Josh but I wasn't clear about that. Anyway, it was good to see Josh - he has a HUGE heart for the Lord and serving Him.

I also needed to get us packed and our room that we stayed in cleaned up. There were a few people that talked about staying up all night since we had to get up around 4 AM to leave for the airport to catch our flights. I was going to stay up but when I finished getting all packed , it was 2:30 and I decided getting a bit of sleep was a better option than staying up all night.

We all loaded onto the bus at around 4:55 AM and headed off to the airport. We said our goodbye's to Mark and Candi as well as the junior staff that was returning home and headed through security. Since Cameron and I were going to Dallas, most of the rest of the team had their gate in the other concourse so we said goodbye to our team and headed to our gate.

Cameron and I got to our gate and I started a movie for him to watch - he hadn't seen any TV in a week and we had a good two hours to wait before our flight. Shortly after arriving, Lorna came with Channing and Charise. Lorna and I talked about a lot of things - about the week in Mexico, how she and Justin met, how Carlotta and I met, and many other things. What was really cool is that she really likes to listen to Chuck Missler - I told her about how I became a Christian and that my friend Rich Stones had given me Christian music tapes along with a series by Chuck about messianic prophesy. It was fun to talk to her.

It was time for Cameron and I to get on our airplane and head to Dallas. As our plane took off, we got one last look at Juarez. We could see the sign on the mountain that read "La Biblia es verdad; leela" - the Bible is true, read it. Indeed we believe the Bible is true and I believe it had a big impact on the people of Juarez this last week. I know our team will never forget this week and I'm guessing that more than a few of us are thinking about when we'll go back to Juarez.

While the trip is done, I really haven't posted many pictures of the trip. Over the next several days, I'll post a some pictures. While I know I can't get you to totally understand what God did through us in Juarez, I think pictures will help a bit so please stop back over the coming week to see some of the pictures. (NOTE: I'm flying back to Boise tomorrow and won't be posting anything until Tuesday at the earliest).

Gloria a Dios!