mexico.

i spent last weekend in mexico with ipc. i was really unsure if i should go- the apartment at school needed unpacking and there were things to do at my irvine house as well. but after some sound advice from a friend, i decided to go.
we spent the morning with the ipc families delivering backpacks to our sponsored kids. so cute! then we had a carnival for them. it was craaaaayyyzzaaayyy! i've never seen people so excited for our little homemade booths- even the parents were participating!

kate face painting! she was an expert.

college students rocking the carnivalll!

after the carnival, we went and visited a house the high schoolers had built for during their spring break the year before. it was really fun to meet them, and see how well they'd been taking care of their home. we prayed for them, and played with them. then we went to the market and got them some groceries. we each got to spend $5 on whatever we wanted for them- it was so fun! and crazy to see how far our money went. kent and i decided that since everyone was getting them good food that would last, we'd get them some desserts and stuff. so great! and it was a dream to spend some good shopping time with my kent.

yeah, kent, jeanine and i matched on purpose!

outside the local market!

after delivering the groceries, we went to the church we stayed at, and talked with pastor daniel. he's an old friend (after over 30 nights in a country, the locals become "old friends") and he invited us to their mission service that night. something that caught me off guard was the fact that they were having a mission service at all- all their offering went to building new churches and supporting their church plants. it was crazy to me how giving they are. i mean, we're supporting them with our mission services. they're barely making it. but they want to take everythiiiing they have that isn't completely necessary and do work with it in jesus' name. so rad. i mean, we're all called to do that. but why do the people who have so little do it so much better than i do? it was really convicting, and that was so good for me.
we hung out, made dinner, and went to the worship service for a while. then we played with some of the kids who were also getting bored and hot at the service (imagine at least a hundred people jumping around in a small room with no air conditioning, and you'll kind of understand what was going on)
i was particularly impressed with one of our high schoolers. i want to share her with you.

this is taylor, my love. and one of her friends she played some mean soccer with!

taylor signed up to go to mexico without talking to any of her friends first. she didn't want their decision to go or not go to affect her's. and she knew she wanted to go. taylor had never been to mexico on a mission trip. she had no idea what she was getting herself into. and she rocked it. i mean, this girl threw her whole self into the kids, the families, and the experience. as an almost-senior-in-high-school, tay could've been doing a thousand other things with her weekend. but she voluntarily choose to love on our el nino family. and she made new friends. what a girl! i'm so proud!
the next morning we had some good time with jesus and enjoyed watching the community wake up. then we continued our journey of hanging out with our old families and just loving on them. 

krissy and i just hanging out!

standing on the curb of el nino's major freeway. hah!

it was a great weekend. i loved being with some of my friends, and still getting to spend time with my high schoolers. i'd been missing them! and of course my favorite leading couple, eric and jeanine. i'm so thankful for the community we've developed in el nino, and the opportunities i get to be there and be with them!

god is so good- our boarder wait time was less than 10 minutes but we still managed to get our churros! and make friends with the mexican boarder patrol!!

these sweet faces. they're why we go!