Door of Hope Team in Oaxaca, Mexico

Tom & Wendy: After leaving Fairbanks in the evening of January 15, flying to Anchorage then to Portland all night, blearily meeting up with Jim and Vicki (who actually got a good nights sleep in Portland, the bums!) to get on the Alaska flight (now the 16th) to Mexico City at 7:00 a.m, trying to sleep, stopping in Los Angeles (had to get off the plane on a "non-stop" flight?!), back on plane, trying to sleep again, Mexico City at 4:00'ish, making our way to the bus station, get on bus at 5:00'ish, trying to sleep....again, finally getting to Oaxaca at 11:30 at night where Esau (works with the Oaxaca YWAM base) picked us up and drove us to where we would be staying...starving so we then went to get something to eat, back to base and FINALLY (now the 17th) to bed at 1:30 a.m. Let's see...that makes it 40+ hours we were up. All of this with dragging around 8 check-in bags (between the 4 of us) and several carry on bags as well. Yes, we do know how to travel lightly, but we were hauling Vacation Bible school materials, stuffed animals, a guitar to give away, Forward Edge stuff.

We survived, and woke up to a beautiful and sunny day...yes indeedy...no snow in sight!!!!

So what is a frozen group from Fairbanks, Alaska going all the way to Oaxaca, Mexico for? I mean, other than the "duh" reason of Alaska...snow, cold...Mexico...sun, warmth!

This will be the 5th trip to Oaxaca that Tom and Wendy have done. This one has the specific purpose as Forward Edge International group Facilitators and the goal of meeting with pastors and churches in the area. Oaxaca will be the city that Tom and Wendy will be based out of when they move to Mexico in September. So the connecting and building of relationships will be a primary thing for them to accomplish while they are here.

As a group, we will be pouring some cement floors for families who have built homes on the garbage dump areas in Oaxaca. Secondary to that we will be teaching a Vacation Bible school with a local church all week long. The expenses, which include cement, gravel, sand, housing, food, gas, van rental, are all covered by our individual group fees.

We also will be working at Manos de Ayuda, a medical clinic / hospital that provides care for the poor in the Oaxacan area. Last year the group that came did a bunch of painting in the dorms, cleaned the commercial kitchen area, did some electrical upgrades, and built an outdoor fire pit. There's still a lot of work to be done!

The photos are of the YWAM facilities that we are staying at.

More to come ...