Last Day Pics

Today was our last day in Cancun.  :(  Of course, once again, our team is too busy playing mafia to bother themselves with letting you know what happened today, so I'll fill you in!!  Today we had a super productive morning at Oti's house.  Oti is a widow with 8 children.  She lost her husband about 2 years ago to HIV after a blood transfusion and she was left with no job and no way to support her kids.  Back2Back has come along side of Oti and have tried to prevent her losing her kids.  It's amazing to see the progress a year makes.  We walked into her house this morning and those who came last year were blown away that she had some new walls, a door, and  it was actually looking closer to sufficient living quarters.  Today we were able to bless her by painting the inside courtyard, putting up some ceiling fans in the inside of her house and also installing exhaust fans .  The team worked super hard to put together the fans and get them hung and working.  It was a huge blessing to us as we recognized that just those fans would completely change their living environment.  When we walked inside we were all sweating within minutes because of the heat.  Knowing that she and her kids will have a way to cool down makes us all smile :) 

We then took a trip to the beach to have our quiet times, small groups, and a little fun time...then to the market for a little shopping (yes, your kids may or may not be bringing you something home) and to dinner at a local food court.  Yum.  

Worship tonight was awesome as Brant (our worship leader for the week) led us in some great time just enjoying God.  Lots of singing and prayer time which was extremely moving.  All in all it's been an awesome trip!!  See you soon!

Day 4 as Seen Through the Eyes of Julie Loock

Happy 4th of July!

We had a busy day today. It started with getting up a half hour early (I really enjoyed that), so around 7:45am, and traveling to a government-run children's home called the DIF around 10:00am. We did VBS with the kids there and then ate lunch at "PDA park" across the street, appropriately named for the public displays of affection that go on there, although I never saw any. Maybe Jamie and Lucy a little...just kidding. Anyways, after that we went to a Delila's house. She's a widow that Back2Back has been serving and ministering to. We split into 3 groups to work on her house. One group painted, another (my group) dug a trench, and the 3rd did some electrical work. We were probably there for 3 hours or so, although it felt like a week for those of us who were out in that sun. Man! After that we came back to the house to eat dinner - the most amazing tacos ever - and were surprised with a mariachi band! (is that spelled right?) The trumpets were a little to loud for my taste, but it was awesome to see/hear one in person. Then we debriefed and, of course, played some Mafia. For those who don't know, it's a group game where players are assigned specific roles and are expected to lie, deceive, and manipulate one another to win.  Just ask us about it when we're back..we'd love to explain. And don't worry parents, it's a widely accepted game at Christian colleges/organizations, and church youth groups. It was a great day altogether. I've never seen anyone work so hard in my life. The 4 men in my group who dug the trench with me (Dr. Jay, Jonathan, Austin, and Alex) worked themselves to the bone, and never complained once. Not even when we hit about 3 feet of rock stretching across where we needed to dig towards the end. We ended up having to dig out of the way a little to make a new path but they just continued digging as if it didn't even annoy them the slightest. Even Amy Rudge came over towards the end and started to dig...with her broken back! So cool to work with such hard-working brothers and sisters in Christ.

Hope you all lit off a firework for us! See you soon!

Tuesday/Wed pics

You have concrete WHERE?? - by everyone

Hola Diary-

What a relaxing day in Cancun.  We didn't faint from dehydration, and that was nice.  Today we built a church in a very impoverished neighborhood. John and Austin conquered their fear of heights on a rather shaky scaffolding.  Drenched in sweat, we all persevered through the lifting and shoveling of concrete. We really switched up the lunchtime cuisine by enjoying pb&j or turkey sandwiches...as opposed to pb&j or turkey sandwiches.  Allie surprised us all with her relentless determination to lift entirely too heavy buckets of concrete (for the average girl).  La di dah there was some other really awesome stuff too, we love Jesus a lot and all his people too.  Let's all drink Tang (our new fave Mexican beverage) and be merry.


"Party and pray"

Adios

Monday Pics

Unfortunately 

Day 2 - Sean Hollowood

Day Two in Mexico.
We started the day off the devotions that back two back called "He is Before all Things and in Him all things Hold Together." Today we discussed EPIC moments in once life, we talked about how Miriam brought along a tambourine as she left Egypt.  When they crossed the Red Sea Miriam took out her tambourine and lead the people in song. A tambourine??? out of every thing that you could grab to take with she grabs a musical instrument in her rush to leave slavery?  Its all about being ready to praise God when those EPIC moments come our way.

After our devotions we went down to a church called Vida Life where they had the service in both spanish and english.  It was one of the most amazing church services.  Hearing people singing in both spanish and english praising the Lord was life changing.  

We spent the afternoon at the B2B house where 3 widows brought their 18 children over for pizza, vacation bible school, and swimming.  At VBS it was a huge afternoon as Lizy (Mexican B2B staff) shared the gospel with the kids during story time.  It was a blessing to be a part of the life change in these children.  We all also learned that the language barrier really isn't an issue when you pour love out onto a child and are willing to engage with them.  We had a blast and while there were over 30 people in one pool (probably not legal in the states), it was amazing to see the kids smile and enjoy the afternoon.

After some great worship and debrief time we are now settling in to a rousing game of mafia...
 

Sunday Pics

Great First Day

Estamos en Cancun!  Truth is, I don't have a clue if this is grammatically correct Spanish.  This is one of many examples of pathetic, yet courageous attempts at the Spanish language that several of us have already committed.  Though we, at times, hung our heads in embarrassment, all attempts have already proven beneficial with the friends we've made!  Right off the bus (superb flight experience), we were put to work. Mission #1: Babysitting.  A pool full of kids greeted us and immediately extracted the playful side of each of our hearts!  These kids belonged to a beloved widow that was recovering from surgery performed on the previous day.  None of these kids knew a bit of English, which led the way for Luci's poor Spanish explanation of the game Marco Polo.  Once we realized that none of these kids were catching on from this explanation, we ditched it and tossed footballs in the water.  This simple game gave a such a humble thrill to these kids!  Not long after, and feeling the drag of the morning's early rise, we all got dressed and went off to the next mission. Dinner tonight took place at a government operated Children's home, where we celebrated two birthdays with cake, balloons, tacos, watermelon, and energetic worship songs!  It was the perfect night to get us in the swing of mission work and illustrate to us what it means to serve.

It's 9:45 pm, and we're all exhausted, but already feel so much of the Lord's touch in each of us as we go to bed in Cancun.  And it's only the first day!

Tomorrow we're off to Mexican church in the morning, I'm sure there will be quite the blog post about that experience for you all to enjoy.

Luci Carl

A Thankful Return by Sara Lance

     Now that the exhaustion finally has been offset, I've finally had time to reflect on the amazing experience I had in Cancun. The first thing I began to feel upon my return, was thankfulness for my family. Listening to the comical dinner conversations on Saturday night made me appreciate my family and all they do to support everyone in it. I found myself fully appreciating a "bed making lesson" from my grandma, and had I not visited Cancun, I don't know what I would have been thinking about. Not only do I appreciate my family, but my house and church. I know I am extremely blessed in that I have more than just a "roof over my head." We are extremely blessed to have a church with huge spaces to worship and learn about our God.
     After being in an environment such as Cancun where it was easy to hear, see, and feel God in almost every situation by being outside of our comfort zones, it is often difficult to come back to our homes, where we live in a secure bubble. The bubble we live in, however, is full of distractions, which we were free of down in Cancun. Coming back home has made me value the importance of "quiet time," where I can become more familiar with the voice of God and the whispers of the Holy Spirit. In Cancun, it was strange for someone not to notice God's work in every moment of the day. Back home, however, it is easier to ignore the effects of all the distractions in our lives, and consequently overlook God's work that still remains in every moment of the day. It is when I am quiet and studying His word where I notice how  perfectly He intertwines things in my life so I may become closer to him. Overall, this trip has taught me how to see, hear, and feel God at home, and to be thankful for everything I have, including trials and tests. 

And then we came home...

Well, mission trips are always an adventure.  We had one of those days where for the most part we had to be flexible and to trust God with our every step.  Because of terrible weather in Philly, we had quite an experience.  

 I wanted to share with you a few ways we saw God show up and increase our faith in the midst of an uncontrollable situation.  I had flown into Philly on a separate flight because I was booked separately (long story).  I was waiting for our team at our next gate when we got the news the flight to CVG had been canceled.  Apparently with the storms last night many planes couldn't get in, and so they were thinning out the outbound flights to accommodate.  The team had just arrived in Philly and began to pray.  I called the 1-800 number for US Airways as they were praying.  There were 3 seats to Dayton and 2 seats to Louisville open, but I just felt like we shouldn't split our team up.  The next thing I know, the woman on the other end sounded startled and said, "wait a minute, I see around 20 seats open on a flight to Indy at 8:55".  So I asked her to book as many as possible on that plane and we would deal with the 3 or 4 possibly left behind (much easier than the 23 we had with us).  At the end of the call she had gotten every one of us on the plane saying "ok, I just booked the last person in the last seat available"!  At that point I began thanking God for having gone before us.  In what reality would there be 23 seats open on a flight in 2012 when all the airlines are cutting back their schedules and budgets?  In God's reality for sure. 

Of course, then we went through the pain of waiting and our flight continuing to get delayed.  I asked the gate agent what the issue was and he said it was that we didn't have a crew to fly us.  They were looking for a crew but every flight was fighting for the crews available and we hadn't won a battle yet.  At that, our group circled up and began to pray for a crew.  Not 2 minutes later, I saw the agent pick up the phone and nod.  He then announced "we have a crew!"  God truly answers prayers.  Unfortunately for us, we didn't pray specifically enough because we should have prayed "God, please send us a crew that is already in the airport!!!" :)  Instead, we got the crew coming from Portland, Maine and we had to wait for the thunderstorm to pass there before they could take off to come get us.  As providence would have it, they had enough hours left to get to Philly and get us to Indy, where most of us got home right around 6am!  Long day!  But it was an amazing day of building faith in a God that really does care about the details of our lives.  

Our kids handled it with amazing grace and patience.  Between card games, conversations, and a little bit of "ninja", we were all able to stay busy and enjoy each other's company for a few more hours.  Thank you to the parents who came to Indy to get us at 3am.  Today has been a day of reflection for me as I have been thinking a ton on how we can and must trust God with our every step and He will be faithful and give us peace in the midst of chaos!  

I will write more about the trip as a whole as I've had time to process :)  Next Saturday we leave (again at 4:30 in the morning...I need to do a better job scheduling flights lol) with our college students for another week down in Cancun.  Stay tuned to the blog for more amazing stories and experiences!!! 

Amy

Joanne and Martha

Hello world! It is us, Hannah and Lauren letting you all know that we are safe after what sounded like explosions, we were in midst of throughout the previous evening.  Well, okay, they were not necessarily explosions...however the thunder was absolutely ridiculous.  After waking up multiple times throughout the night, 7:20 finally came around because we had the luxury of  being on breakfast crew.  Although breakfast crew usually only has to wake up at 8 o'clock, we had a bright and early breakfast so that we would be able to leave for the beach and play in the sun...or so we thought.  After the on and off rain storms throughout the morning, postponing our departure, our leaders finally decided on going to the beach, regardless of the weather.  With anticipation building and hope that the sun would break through the barren, dark clouds and allow us to have a lovely day in the sunshine, we headed off to the beach.  Although what we thought was an unanswered prayer turned into a really great bonding and faith building experience.  Even though we didn't get to go to the beach for longer than five minutes, we realized that we can't always be in control of everything, and that God has the best plan.  So instead of pouting at the house about not being able to bask in the Mexican sun, we created a "musical story telling session," in which we took turns telling a variation of stories to instrumental guitar songs (Hannah starting it off with her "scary scorpion story," which was non-existant).  As the afternoon continued our story time had to end when we took the kids of CAT to "Men in Black III."  The somewhat violent and extremely hard to understand (due to the two hours of Spanish dialog), film was all worth it in the end when we got to bond with the children from CAT and even take four bathroom breaks with your child throughout the movie if you are Shay.  With heavy hearts, we said goodbye to the aforementioned kids and hugged the living daylights out of them as they walked away.  Hopefully, the impact we made on them throughout the two days we were with them gave them the confidence that they are loved by others, and more importantly, their heavenly Father.  Following the movie, we went to the market to shop, barter (...not so much), and navigate our way through the jungle of over priced cedar wood (ask Hans).  The final shopping bags consisted of: fake Ray Bans, MANY woven bracelets, a soccer jersey, cross necklaces, and other sorts of jewelry (guess what gender bought more?!).  Due to the intense shopping, our stomachs were absolutely empty.  To fill them up, we ventured over to nearby restaurants for a delicious dinner.  After stuffing our faces with tacos, empanadas, salbutes, tostadas, churros, and marquesitas, we needed to burn off some serious calories.  Therefore, being the generous, sympathetic leaders they are, we were taken to the beach to play in the water for a short bit.  Although the sun was still not out, the rain had condensed to a small sprinkle and we were all able to enjoy the still water and cotton candy colored sky.  While taking pictures, frolicking in the sand, and playing "big kid leap frog," we bonded more than we had all week with one another.  So as this trip comes to an end, we are happy and blessed to say that this has been one of the most eye opening and inspiring experiences we have had in our lives so far.  Even though today did not exactly as planned, we had one of the best days this week, regardless of the weather.  

LAUREN 

To my family, I miss you all and can't wait to see those of you who are in town tomorrow :)

HANNAH

I love you all so much and can't wait to see you all tomorrow <3

MacKenzie's Post

So, yesterday we went to a place called the CAT. We did VBS in the morning and then went outside for lunch. After lunch we split into groups one to help improve the CAT and the other played with the kids. I was in the group that played with the kids. I sat down at a table with all the coloring books and this girl came and sat next to me. After watching her color for a while I started talking to her. She said that her name was Maria. I asked her how old she was, but I guess my Spanish was a little off and so she told me five dollars. I'm still not really sure what I asked, but I asked someone else to ask her how old she was. She is seventeen, two years older then me. I couldn't believe how youthful she was still. She was nothing like the youth in America. She found enjoyment in the simplest things, like coloring.  Every time she had a picture to color she would ask me what color she should use to color it. We ended up with purple trees and pink faces. A while later I found out she had a two year old daughter named Miriam. Miriam was in the CAT as well. She was my age when she had a baby. I talked to Maria about her daughter for a while and she said that she didn't get to see her very often. In that moment I thought about all the horrid things that may have happened to her for her to be in the CAT. In the CAT most kids were abused in some way. She was young to have already had a baby. We played for about three hours. She had to go and shower because the parents were coming to visit the kids. After she had showered she came back in and gave me a hug. Maria cannot spell her own name let alone her daughters. I can't help thinking what will happen to her. I know going away from that experience I gained something. I hope that by spending hours coloring with her she did too.

P.S. It is summer so please excuse my writing. My brain shut down the moment we were down with school.



~MacKenzie Kaschalk

More Pics on Web

If you are interested in seeing more pictures of our experience and are active on facebook you can go to http://www.facebook.com/back2backministries and see the "official" back2back pictures of most of our week.  Unfortunately we did not take any pics at the CAT because it is a government shelter and those kiddos can't be photographed.  Thanks for understanding :)

The Best Blog Post in the World by Caty and Bekah

How does one begin a blog post?

...Chapter 1?      Well, we went to the CAT today... Meooow.

Just kidding, it's not a real cat. It's a government organization acronym which is the Mexican equivalent to: The US children and family services. Hans wore a really smelly shirt, we got to play with the kiddies, stain the play-set (and our clothes), and install a few fans (4 to be exact)..  And Amy held a small screaming child, which is not unlike the screaming teenagers she had to deal with after the game of mafia last night. Anyway, once we arrived at the CAT, we discovered an intruder (scorpion) had snuck its way into B2B's trailer. Once we entered the CAT's property, we were greeted by the many excited young Mexican children. Then we split into 4 groups and provided the kids with VBS (Vacation Bible School). We entertained the kids with a beautiful song, assisted them in the creation of goggles, exploded canisters of lemonade flavored tablets, and enjoyed a pleasant reenactment of the story of Lazarus.

     After lunch, some of us stained a playset, some assembled and installed fans, and everyone else spent time with the kids. While attempting to completely stain the play set, we had many surprise visits from kids trying to climb onto the wet structure but we had to shoo them away, which got us a couple of death stares. The kids enjoyed coloring books, puzzles (which were actually pretty challenging), and pretty colored chalk which Shay was nice enough to share from his own secret collection today. The kids enjoyed time with their parents, who arrived once we began our departure. 

     When we came back home we were surprised by a mariachi band and an authentic Mexican dinner, which was really spicy but super tasty. And now we are playing a nice, loving game of mafia. Adios!

Shout out to Hannah Tytus (because she asked us to)...

Hi mom and daddy (and Alex) I miss you and I love you both! I hope the house isn't too quiet without me there and I promise we can have a TV marathon as soon as I get home. See you Friday! Love, Caty <3

Hey Mom and Dad and Sam and Caleb, and I guess Josh. Jkjk. Uhhh, Sam, You are probs dying without me, I'm definitely dying without you :). Caleb, keep playing those videogames. Josh, I be good. Mom and Dad, miss you and you're welcome for writing a blog :)... Love, Bekah!

Sarah and Jenny go to Mexico

Hola amigos! Today we journeyed to the Casa Hogar San Jose, a children's home where we constructed an epic playground and played with many small Mexican children. The men and a few brave ladies helped Mau, Andrew, and Matt build the aforementioned epic playground for the children at the home. Sarah and her fellow ladies painted the epic playground with a lovely wooden stain for everyone's viewing pleasure. Meanwhile, Jenny, her fellow amigas, and Ryan helped the B2B staff entertain the rowdy children at VBS. We enjoyed a wonderful Bible lesson, even though the majority of us could not understand much more than the word "Jesus." The children also enjoyed a fun game involving a parachute and sponges as well as exploding canisters. Next we enjoyed a marvelous lunch consisting of sandwiches, various snack foods, and British accents. Shout out to our lunch crew for being awesome. We also came upon two adorable, rambunctious puppies in crates which we immediately released and showered with love. We would like to mention that Shay challenged his mother to a not-so-friendly game of basketball, which turned out to be a poor decision, as Nancy became extremely competitive and in the zone and unfortunately injured her knee. But no worries, she has returned to the game. After a short-lived game of signs, a new group of children returned to the house while the previous group ventured off to school. We spent many hours playing with the many small Mexican children, who were quite adorable. Their activities included the gathering of brightly-colored pebbles, jumping joyfully on a pogo stick, and kicking a soccer ball in others' faces. After these festivities, the TMX group helped teach the children how to identify various shapes and geometrical figures. Next, it was once again time to engage in VBS. The children enjoyed their activities and lessons immensely, as did the group of awesome teenagers assisting the B2B staff. Many shenanigans occurred following the lesson, such as chalk drawing on both pavement and bodies (not all willing bodies), running with hula hoops, and more pogo sticking. Few will forget the hilarious moment when Shay asked his dear mother not to share his chalk with the others, and she responded, "Shay, we have more at home!" The laughter following this moment was infectious. Before a delicious authentic Mexican meal prepared by the nuns at the home, the children enjoyed a religious song and dance performed by Mau. The food was amazing and surely unforgettable. After dinner, the group enjoyed an intense game of futbol with the very competitive children. Too soon, it was time to say goodbye and return to our casa. We debriefed together and are currently enjoying much-needed showers and a late-night swim. We look forward to another amazing day tomorrow at the CAT. Buenos noches!!

SHOUT OUTS:
Hi Mom, Dad, and Katie!!!! I miss you guys and hope you are all surviving without me! Katie, don't get too lonely!! I'll be home to have a Criminal Minds marathon soon!! Say hi to Midnight for me!! Love you all!!!!
-Jenny

Hey Mom! Oh and I miss you too Adam, but you probably don't care. As I'm writing this I realize that I don't have much to say soooo yeah....this is awkward. Love you! Adios mi familia!
-Sarah

Hannah DOESNT want her wand and premiere t-shirt to be packed for Harry Potter World, she DOESNT want all copies of the books brought to her next week, and she DOESNT want a giant Caribbean Way smoothie. (And by that I mean if those things are not in Orlando waiting for yours truly....there WILL be consequences)
Mucho Amor?
-Hannah (Tytus)

I looove you Jennay'

Today, I woke up and there was no power! Shay stole all the hot water before anyone could get in. So, Matt and Hans were stinky. Then, we all ate breakfast and the power came back on! Woohoo. Next, we had quiet time and small groups. Today we went to Pastor Victor's church and hand mixed concrete, bringing buckets of sand and gravel from outside to the inside, then pouring them into a mixer , then hand carried the buckets of cement to the roof. We're pretty sure we made a new record for the fastest cement pour at the church! An aforementioned (in the last post) young blond male says the neighborhood smelled like poop. However, Pastor Victor's story was really inspiring. He came from a background of drugs, alcohol, and stealing. When he went to rob a woman's purse, he was infuriated to find only one thing in that purse- a Christian book. At first he threw it on the ground, but eventually he read it and was touched by God, completely turning his life around.

This is Matt speaking right now. I was stationed on the roof of the the church. We had a three man crew consisting of Lucas, Nick, and myself. One person would hoist the buckets to the roof, then someone would carry and poor the buckets where they were needed, and the third person would toss the buckets down to Amy and Sierra. We never went down until there wasn't enough room on the roof for all of us and the buckets. We kinda had a break working the tosser station, but other than that we didn't really take any breaks. Once I finally had to get down I went and kicked a soccer ball with some of the kids that were with us.


This is Annie! Caty, Meg, Hannah T., and I were on cement duty. There were a lot of difficulties with the cement mixer, so we often had to mix the sand, rocks, cement mix, and water together by hand which was quite a hassle. Then, we filled up buckets with the concrete and Chris or Erick lifted them up to the boys to bring to the roof. It was actually extremely fun even though we were lifting heavy concrete in the heat for three whole hours. Oddly enough, my headache, which has been constant for the last five months from my concussion, went away almost completely for those three hours! Of course it came back, but it was incredible that it even went away for a minute. 


Back to Matt and Annie!!! During the time we were working, there was 3 women kneeling at the alter of the church. They were praying for us almost the entire time we worked. To be honest we have no idea what they were saying at all, but God heard and that was enough. He worked soooooo many miracles during this time from Annies headache going away, to Amy's back pain disappearing, to Sierras knee not bothering her, and Lauren not feeling any pain either. He was with us all as we worked, and let me tell you IT WAS SOME HARD WORK. Once we had finished and washed all of our tools and such, we took a prayer walk for about a mile. We didn't talk to each other, we were simply praying to god for all the people in the village, and for whatever was on our hearts. In Shay's case, not to be chopped to death by some random guy walking behind him with a machete :). 


At the end of the prayer walk was a woman named Gloria's house. We had met her earlier and seeing her at her home, and hearing her story there was truly amazing. She had nothing and now she had a home with a roof and a kitchen on the way! She was very nice and so were her kids. One of which, Ansoni, had become friends with Matt on the first day. At the end of the day, we finished with some delicious chicken fajitas, an extra long worship, and a great devotional from Amy.


From Matt-
Mom and Dad guess what, I apparently brought some poison ivy with me from the states to Mexico! Haha its fine we've got plenty of Benadryl with us. also how is George, cause you guys have to deal with him so HA. I love you guys a ton and hope your all getting on fine without me. Give a shout out to SEan and Shannon for me, and of course Malaney. Love you guys. :)
From Annie-
Hi Mom and Dad!! I miss you both. And I REALLY miss the cats... By the way, my shoes are 98% concrete so I think they're dead. Have a good week and I'll see you friday!

Adios amigos!

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