by jeannie | Nov 8, 2008 | buildingaboat, Uncategorized |
I went out for dinner and club last night at TBarM. Very fun, and eventful, including a wrong turn or two in the dark met with constant laughter about seriously getting lost in the middle of nowhere. I was met with lots of hugs, and dropped off my care package, speakers for the girls’ ipods that I later learned was against the rules. oops. Live music started and lots of jumping and dancing followed by us all. The girls were having fun, and it was very hard to leave. Can’t wait to hear all the details when they get back tomorrow. Here’s one of the group, some candids of our group, and one of me and...
by jeannie | Nov 3, 2008 | buildingaboat, Uncategorized |
I was reading today in Summer’s blog (Ella’s former teacher who is now in Peace Corps.) and was reminded how thankful I am for the simple things. Water, electricity, and I’ve also decided that 80-90 degrees in October isn’t so bad, even as I remember rumbling about it somewhat at the soccer game last weekend. Summer is teaching English to kids a world away, in Mauritania, where the heat is in triple digits, there is no running water, no real bathroom and a huge difference in customs and culture. However, she is smiling in every picture and excited about what she’s contributing. Love it. Here’s a picture of Ella’s teacher having just henna’d her hands. Notice the Longhorn on the right. I bet she hasn’t heard about last night’s game yet, and I’m not going to tell her! Go Red...
by jeannie | Jun 24, 2008 | buildingaboat, Uncategorized |
It was just yesterday that Jim got some sad news. News of his Mexico Mission trip friend came Sunday about 3 p.m. Here is Jim’s note he sent out in email to a few folks. I have some sad news to share and wanted to request that you all pray this week for the friends and family of one of my mission trip friends. Yesterday, he and his entire family including his wife, and three children were killed in a car crash leaving Custer Road Methodist church in Plano. He was very active in the Mission Trips to Mexico and his wife very active in the church in Plano. Below is a link to the article in the Dallas paper and a nice look at the great people they were. No doubt God has greater plans for them. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/plano/stories/DN-fivedead_23met.ART.State.Edition2.4d6f138.html God bless and thank you. If you’re like me, you’re constantly thinking on how we could be doing more and learning more and making some difference while we’re here. With Jim’s latest news, it makes me remember how fragile it all really is, and at the same time how consistent our joy can actually remain if we stay focused on why we’re here, Who we’re serving and remembering that there’s a purpose we can live out each day. It really is all about the journey, and not where we’re trying to ‘wind up.’ Jim and I have more clarity each day how blessed we are and our level of gratitude continues to magnify. Some weekday mornings, but every Saturday morning, almost without exception, Jim plays this song first before any other… “Thank You” by 33 Miles. The...
by jimmy | May 11, 2008 | buildingaboat, missions, Uncategorized |
Mexico Video. You will need windows media player. Sorry mac folks. http://www.hamptonranch.com/mexicomissiontrip2008.wmv Well I am on the plane headed back to Austin. I am sitting with a couple of the guys and we are all very sore and ready to see our families. We are still in laughing and having a great time. I know I have said this before but this is a really great group of guys. We went into Mexico again this morning to do more work on the school. My career as an electrician never materialized. I decided inside the school was for sissys. Only kidding, I needed to get my sore muscles cranking soooo…….for about three hours I wielded a pick axe and shovel alternating pretty much between the two. Funny though, I do not feel the same hateful passion for the pick axe as I do for the dirt tamper. That thing is a killer. I did take a few more pictures of the kids and gave Hirwin, one of the boys living at the school a 1 gig memory card for his camera. I told him he could take muchas muchas photos. Not sure his computer can handle it but great to see he and his mom’s reaction. We did have some fun. Larry our guide had a watergun fight with some of the kids. Mike is the reason I am on the trip. Our friendship began many years ago when he worked for CBS and he was my sales rep. Now we are great friends and although we do not still do work together we are very close...
by jimmy | May 10, 2008 | buildingaboat, missions, Uncategorized |
Well I believe I have completed the study of strange and often unused muscles of the human body. I know I passed because I am back home in my bunk safe and sound. We took some back of the envelop calculations on how much concrete we moved today and here is what I can remember: 20 wheelbarrows of rock, 20 sand, 10 fifty lbs bags of concrete and a bunch of water. That equals 160 wheelbarrows of concrete. Or about 12000 cubic yards. these calculations were made by my hombres down here and even though a couple are aggies it seems about right based on my back. We have also handed out more candy than the dentist I know would approve of. The estimates for yesterday were about the same so put us 11 hombres down for 16 tons of concrete. Yikes. What a great and satisfying day. Here are some notess from today. We had a dog deliver 8 puppies under the vanwe drove down in. Some kids brought over the biggest scorpion I have seen. wayne on our team bought a soccer ball last night and he played some soccer in the streets. When he should have been working just kidding. Today was Mothers day in Mexico so everyone was dressed up in their best clothes. Amazing that even in this very poor place people still take time to do the family things. Being here has meant a lot to me. I have met some great guys he have laughed quite a bit about so many things. We work with three guys Fredrico...
by jimmy | May 9, 2008 | buildingaboat, missions, Uncategorized |
Please excuse my typing I am writing this on my blackberry. Plus my english is not so good anymore. Things are going great down here and I am really enjoying being around the people down here. Just wish I knew what they were saying. We finished our first full day of work today and got two floors put in the schoolhouse. There are no concrete mixers or concrete trucks we did it old school. We wheelbarrow 8 loads of concrete throw it on the ground then shovel on top 8 loads of rock like the stuff they use around railroad tracks. Add water, wait then the hard work begins. Turn over mix until you get concrete then load it back in the wheelbarrows and run it up a ramp and into the school. It is tough work but there a bunch of great guys from dallas down here and with the exception of the aggies most like to work. Only kidding. One of the aggies is good friends with rick bonner who is a kid out of corpus and his sister and jennifer were very tight in high school. Rick was his best man in his wedding. Small world. There is another red raider on the trip and a guy out of colorado. Around lunch time we started handing out candy to kids in the area and they were coming from everywhere. I took a bunch of pictures that we will post on a site and I will send you all a link. Another cool thing I saw today was a family sitting in front of...
