Tuesday 2017

First some wonderful news - I have received word that everyone has made it across the border safely and without incident!
Praise the Lord!

The semis with all of the stuff, however, will not be crossing the border until tomorrow. This means that luggage and other supplies will not be at the school until sometime next week.
Please keep an eye on your email and/or this site for updates on when the semis should arrive back at the school.

Tuesday is perhaps the hardest of the days. All of the hard work, the heat of the sun, and the lack of sleep are beginning to take a toll. One of the beneficial side effects of emphasizing relationship building is that it also encourages the people on the work site to take lots of breaks (and hopefully drink some water on those breaks). This is but one of many ways site leaders can help to make Tuesdays easier.

I have almost too many photos to go through for the Final work day and the key ceremonies, so look for that post to go up on Monday. In the meantime, I will try to post some additional student reflections.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!
God Bless!

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Student Reflection

This is my second year in Mexico, so I sort of knew what I was getting into, but I didn’t think I would get to know Maria, the person we are building a house for, as well as I have. Maria is an elderly woman, who has raised several children and is now living on her own. She is so sweet, and has been working just as hard as everyone else on the worksite. With my limited Spanish skills, and the help of some translators, I was able to learn more about her family and how most of them are Christians.

On Monday, Maria and a few of her friends were kind enough to prepare food for my site, as well as two others. A friend of Maria’s brought to our site taquitos, pineapple juice, and a bunch of fresh fruit. Everyone was really excited to try real Mexican food, especially since they made it for us. I really appreciated how they took the time to cook and prepare the food for us.

Wednesday is our last day working in Tecate, and I can honestly say I will miss Maria and all the other people I have gotten to know in Mexico.


Tuesday 2017 Photo Album

Technical Difficulties

Well, it appears to have happened again.

Either I am uploading too many pictures, or we need to get beefier wifi hotspots, because the ones we have now will no longer allow us to connect to the internet.

Fortunately, I have enough of a signal that I can upload this from my phone, but it's not strong enough for any pictures.

Look for Tuesday and Wednesday's updates tomorrow night when we get back over the border.

Thank you!

Monday 2017

Thank you all so much for your prayers on our behalf!
We found out yesterday (Tuesday) that most of the supplies we were missing were picked up from the border by the trucking company! Everything they picked up was then delivered to our camp!
Praise the Lord!

Monday in Tecate is when the real work begins on the houses. Sites were able to make good progress on Sunday, but the day is shorter and you're often working out of the excitement of being here and starting work. Monday is the first of the longer days, and some of the excitement has been lost. Despite that, though, every site I have visited has been in good spirits and appear to be enjoying the work. One of the things that helps keep morale high around the sites, and one of the things I cherish about this trip, is the emphasis, not on building the house, but on building relationships. Students are building relationships with each other, with the families for whom we're building houses, but most of all, with Christ.

I wish I could share all the stories with you, but hopefully these student reflections will provide a glimpse into the many ways God is making His presence known in Tecate this week.

One house keeping note, it was brought to my attention that there has been some confusion about how to see the pictures (which is understandable since I never explained it, and it wasn't obvious). For each day, I choose a single photo and make it a link to that day's photo album. To help, I will also be including text links directly before the photo link. I have also gone back and done this for each of the previous days.

Thank you all, again, for your prayers and support!

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Student Reflection

     I know no Spanish. Tecate is the only time of year where I feel that my French education is useless. I can guess the meaning of most signs, because of the similar Latin roots to French, but verbal communication (the only kind that matters) is nonexistent. “Hola,” “gracias,” and “lo siento” are my limit; I don’t even know numbers to ten. So even though this is my second time in Tecate, I felt just as out of place when I arrived on Friday.

     After a productive day on Site 13, we crammed ourselves into cars and the caravan drove back to camp on a typical Tecate road – super steep, super bumpy. As we were coming to the bottom of a particularly tall and bumpy hill, we saw a woman pulling a makeshift wooden cart about the size of a truck bed up the hill. None of the wheels matched the other, the axles weren’t straight, and it was filled with random tools and pieces of plastic. The woman was bent over at an almost 45-degree angle pulling the cart, both legs and back pulling the cart slowly up the hill.

     Almost as soon as we saw her, the driver slowed the car down, and almost before he could ask, the two boys nearest the doors jumped out of the car and ran to help her. They pushed the cart up the rest of the way with her, ran back down, and jumped in the car. The whole operation took barely five minutes with their combined effort.

     Two things about this struck me. First, it wasn’t a huge deal. The boys didn’t sacrifice much to do this, maybe a few more minutes without a Mexican Coke. The only reason why I didn’t jump out with them was because I was stuck in the back. Second, I don’t think they spoke to her at all. Maybe hello, but their action was self-explanatory. Even my Spanish abilities (or lack thereof) could do that.

     In Acts, the disciples spoke in many tongues through the Holy Spirit, and that happened today, even if there wasn’t any actual speaking involved.

     -Emily Starke, 10^th grade

Monday 2017 Photo Album

Sunday 2017

Sunday is the first full day for everyone on the Tecate service trip.
Different groups have made their way down to Camp over the course of the previous week and now it is time to begin the good work that God has planned for this week.

We began the day with worship and a brief message from Pastor Starke, and then each of the groups went out to find their respective sites and begin to build. As you'll see in the pictures, they were all able to make considerable progress on their sites. I am continually amazed by how much gets done in such little time.

A couple of housekeeping notes.

First, I was unable to connect with the student bloggers for Sunday, but I will upload their reflections as soon as I have them.

Second, people will bring their photos to me throughout the trip, and sometimes they will include pictures from previous days. Since most cameras provide the date the pictures were taken, I will be adding those pictures to the appropriate days. This will also allow me, going forward, to update the blog and provide a link to the next photo album while I'm still uploading pictures from that day.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!!
Please know that we can feel them as we continue our work here!

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Student Reflection

Sunday, the first day that we see everyone work together. I came to Tecate not knowing too many seniors that would go, so on my site, I wasn’t expecting much. However, I bonded and made new friends through painting and working together.

As my 4^th year coming to Mexico, I didn’t expect much considering that I knew almost no one going on the trip. I’ve noticed that each year I come to Tecate, I always make new friends and create a bond together. The bonds I make have allowed me to stretch beyond my comfort zone and continually reach out to those who may not have someone to talk to. Going on this trip without my friends made me nervous to come at first, but as the days and weeks went by, I started to create new friendships.

On Monday, we saw a shooting star near the end of night chapel. The star was so bright that it lit up the entire audience, and a roar of excitement and emotion filled the community. My friends kept saying how beautiful it was and how rare it is to see shooting stars. This particular shooting star was pretty close to the Earth because we could all see it with our naked eye. Against the black starry night, the shooting star looked extremely picturesque. It shows how God’s creation is prominent in even the darkest places.

Since we are his masterpiece and His creation shows his magnificent work, we, as Christians, are made the way he planned, and his plan is just as wonderful as the shooting star.

Sunday 2017 Photo Album

Caravans and Culture

Greetings everyone!
Welcome to the blog for The King's Academy service trip to Tecate Mexico.

Everyone has made it to camp safe and sound!!
I did not hear any reports of any caravans having difficulty crossing the border, so that is a tremendous blessing.

Unfortunately, some of the supplies we loaded into trucks appear to have been confiscated at the border. While I wasn't given specific details on exactly what was taken, it seems to have been non-essential items. We still have plenty of supplies to support everything we are hoping to accomplish here in Tecate.

This year for the blog we're trying something new. We have asked members of the SL (or Spiritual Life) team to share reflections for each day. The hope is that you might get to hear stories about some of the amazing things that happen here from the students experiencing them. Each day, two students will write a short reflection and I will post them there. I have edited these posts very little -- only to fix glaring grammar issues and to help with understanding.

And as always - links to pictures at the end.

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Reflection 1

I've been at Tecate before, but, of those years, I've never seen what the Mexican culture was really like as I did today. When the SL team (Spiritual Life) arrived at camp, we were greeted by Pastor Eric who told us all about the culture at Tecate. He told us to about how the culture is in great need for prayer because the families there aren't always perfect. These families really needed Jesus in their culture, and it's gonna take time. It is overwhelming to realize that we are only here for less than a week, but for Pastor Eric, it is an ongoing mission.
   Afterwards, we drove around to various sites like the school. soccer fields, and to the families themselves. While driving, I couldn't help but breathe in the beauty of Tecate. Unlike the Bay Area, there were mountains on all sides; sometimes I spotted some of last year's houses on them and wondered how the families in them are doing. We went around each site and prayed for the children, the community, and the Tecate culture. The last site we went to was site 6. When we arrived at the slab foundation, we saw an entire family and their tent on top of it. Soon there would be a house where they stood. We went to greet them and asked,

"Could we pray for your family?" (Puedes orar para tu familia?)

"Yes, Yes!" (Si, Si!)

Some of our SL team members were fluent in Spanish, and I have to say it is quite a profound experience when we used our 3+ years of Spanish to actually translate and pray for the family. As the Spiritual Life team, I hope God reaches out to every family and that throughout this week, we not only change lives afar, but in our own hearts as well.

-Matthew Leung

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Reflection 2
4/8/17
7:12 p.m.

Typing a typical blog is one thing, being part of a group to help those in need is another.

As many of you are reading these blogs, you may also know that there is not only people here in Tecate, but other places around the world, getting ready to deliver the truth about God. Building homes, ministering out on the streets, going to busy metropolitan cities, or even going into a rain forest, those are just a few of the things we do. For most trips, many have left on Friday of the 7th, while today is the day when all the people arrive to Tecate, ready to work hard while having fun.

This year, I have joined the SL team, believing that it was the same thing as the L team, where we would help people in our work groups with any struggles they had. However, being part of the SL team meant more than that. Not only were we helping our work groups, but we were also in charge of helping others with their spiritual needs.

I'm pretty sure most would figure out what I mean by "spiritual needs", but for those who don't, it's basically like helping others perhaps find God in some way.

Today as members of the SL team, we went around looking at the sites where everyone was going to work for the next couple days. We prayed for families and over the work sites that people will work at. We also met with other fascinating people that would help continue to evangelize to the people such as Pastors Eric and Francisco. During our meeting with Pastor Eric, we were exposed to the main problem of Tecate that we would have to overcome. We had to change the mentalities of these people of our mission to Tecate in order to see progress.

Pastor Eric told us that there are some people that will only continue to rely on us, seeing us as the saviors who bring them comforts. This means that we have to somehow prove or show that it is not us Americans bringing gifts, but God.

To be honest, even though I believe that I am a Christian, I realized that I was nothing but the same as our fellow brothers and sisters in Mexico; lost sheep that need to be guided.

All I can hope is that through our actions here in Tecate, our fellow brothers and sisters would be able to change their mentalities, fully allowing them to acknowledge and believe that their is a loving God, waiting for us to answer the door when he knocks.

I believe that as the King's community and through the help of those fighting alongside us, we will eventually light a spark of God's love here, making the spark into a beacon of life. guiding others to Christ as well.

- D

Saturday 2017 Photo Album