Lovewhitewater and YD Adventures Summer Staff Training

July 6 2009

LOVEWHITEWATER

That's my man! So we have been married over 36 years. Every now and then I realize how wonderful it is to be in love with this man. It has not always been fun for either of us, but we praise the God who gave us the power, worked the miracles...and gave us the gumption and vision to hang on.

It feels like we are living the rewards!

So not only do we head off to Oaxaca every year to work with an amazing group of brothers and sisters at Roca Blanca, but He has given us a great church AND an unbelievable bunch of crazy outdoorsy people to share life with as well. That crazy bunch is our Youth Dynamics Adventures family.

Eddie's email address is lovewhitewater@hotmail.com. Mine is lvlvwhitewater @hotmail.com..... do you get it? (I love lovewhitewater!)

At 62 1/2 years he has become one good lookin' guy!


In May we had a group from our church, the Gathering, join us on the river for the YDA Annual Fundraiser.

Eddie's crew

For Eddie to show you a good time you have to paddle hard. Wimps don't get to do the fun stuff, it just wouldn't be prudent...or safe!

Summer Staff Raft Training


Eddie and I went over to Stonewater Ranch the from the 6th to the 15th of June to help out with training the new summer staff on the river. Eddie brought his experience, and ability to don two wetsuits and stay in freezing water. I brought my ability to drive a van and trailer, my ability to tan well and The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill.

Staff was trained in all that they need to know and do to run the river, from inflating and rigging boats (we use electric blowers, and top the boats up with the hand pumps)...to keeping your clients safe, and giving the clients a fun time... as well as opportunity to reflect on the revelation of God experienced by the beauty of His creation and the ways of the river.


At the put in I do little things, like filling water bottles and helping collect stuff for rigging (cam straps, carbiners, paddles, etc).

On client days I help hand out equipment (wetsuits, splash jackets, PFD's), I also shuttle the drivers down to the take out, go and pick-up the lunch from Safeway and set up lunch. I follow the float down the river stopping at various places to watch them pass. I stay available with my cellphone for safety. I meet them at the take out and help with all the equipment.

We leave for the river at 7:30 AM and get back around 6:00 PM, and I do all the driving, I don't know why I get so tired.

Sizing up a client and giving him or her right size wetsuit...now that is a challenge. After they get off the river we wash the wetsuits....do you know how much work it is to wash and hang 40 soaking wetsuits?


I love working with these feminine, mighty women of God!


Shane was in charge of training

Rafts do capsize from time to time, and the guide has to know how to right the boat. Eddie must have been in the water for an hour here in a eddy helping the new guides practice flipping boats, climbing on to boats and unflipping them. This is not an easy task....just getting up on the upside down raft from the water is hard, hard work, especially for women. We do not have the upper body strength the guys do.


And then they had to be able to do it in the rapids...the most likely place where their boats would flip.


And of course, they need to know all about getting their clients back in the boat. This is called throw bag practice.


Can you say "recirculating"? It takes power to get out of some situations, and skill!

The Wenatchee River is all about skills.....reading the river, avoiding danger, keeping your clients safe....

and screaming like a girl!!!!!!!!!!!



oh, and getting wet


and bonding through challenging adventures!





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It is quite a privilege that God has given us to be out in the wilds with kids challenging them with life and knowing God. It is an amazing thing how God touches them. It takes "camping ministry" to a whole new level.

Now it is July and I am back home working....and Eddie has just headed back to the other side of the mountains to join an extended trip on the Lower Salmon River in Idaho. You might find a little about what he can expect to experience if you check our archives.

I on will be working, and also volunteering at some migrant camps with a local clinic. I look forward to being with Mexicans again!

Grandma and Grandpa Kelley...Catchin' up on things that matter

Damien Xavier
It has been a long time hasn't it. I have been busy not working. We returned from Oaxaca at the beginning of March just in time for the birth of our 7th grandchild, Damien Xavier Kelley. The first of our family to carry on the Kelley name!













Sorry but Grandma has to show off! The one with the vest and tie was taken the day after I watched a movie on Winston Churchill, I was amazed at the resemblance.

And even though his eyes may be bluer than his sisters, his hair is not red like hers as this picture suggests!















Auntie Faith and Damien

It was a thrill for the family that everyone was here in Mount Vernon to welcome the little guy. In the last couple months all the grandkids have had lots of time to get to know their cousins.

Busy not working

As we consider our next season in Oaxaca, we are also enjoying Washington. We have been delighting in the family, and establishing ourselves in the lives of our grandchildren.

As undoubtedly you have been touched by this recession, so has the medical industry in this nation. That means that even nurses have had their hours cut back. People are losing their health insurance and non essential care is not an option for many.

So even though I am still employed at Mira Vista, I haven't worked for a month, and am scheduled to work two days in June.

But as my daughter said, "Mom, I am so glad you aren't working. Every time I have asked you for help you have been right there!"

It has been a wonderful thing to be able to be Mom and Grandma. God is providing and we are blessed.


As you may remember Jay, Faith and their three children, who are full time missionaries in Nayarit, Mexico, have been on a 9 month furlough. They left yesterday to return to their work with the Coras, an indigenous group up in the mountains not too distant from where they have lived these nearly 14 years.

Before they left, Jay and Faith attended a language acquisition intensive in Colorado to help them gain tools to learn the Cora language. They left their three children with us and Marilyn and Josh.

So yes, three kids in a 31 foot 5th wheel was a bit tight, but we had a wonderful time...we live in a beautiful, ruggedly wooded park, which includes trails, playground and a pool!

He could climb and slide all day if you let him

Elisabeth indicating that Kai needed his diaper changed


One one of the many nurse logs in our woods


The Gathering Family Hike to Bowman's Bay and Rosario Point

One of the really wonderful parts of being back in Washington is being with our church family. What a great bunch of people. There are so many young families with a commitment to community. It is wonderful to know all the kids and parents in your church, to eat and play together. It is so much like what our kids grew up with in Poulsbo so many years ago.

Church family hike to Rosario point, that is Micah and Kaitlyn in the left forefront of the picture.

Pastor Josh with D.J. Grace and Sarah probably looking at bugs



Sand and water and sunscreen, Sarah Joy Kelley




Eddie carried Kai the whole way. I was so impressed with his patience. It was a long day and still, when Kai got cranky, Eddie was calm and gentle. His patience sure outlasted mine, fortunately I had Eddie and when I wore out, Eddie was still going strong. It felt like the roles were reversed, don't remember that he was that understanding when our kids were little. Grandpa's are amazing creatures!

Isaiah, Elisabeth and Kai TenBrink

My girls, Marilyn and Amanda Kelley. These gals are both very capable in women's ministry, as well as mothers. And they keep our sons happy. Oh, and they like to plan family get togethers. Who could ask for more?

Please Pray for Jay, Faith and the kids' travels back to Mexico. They are hauling a trailer, and have many miles to go.

Grandpas Kelley and TenBrink just before departure with Elisabeth and Isaiah


At our final family BBQ before the Ten Brinks returned to Mexico, it was work, but we got a photo of us with the grandkids!

But wait, there is more,

but it can wait a few days. I will be letting you know what God has us doing this summer and how you can pray for our ministry. But one more shot from Grandma's Brag Book...little red head Kaitlyn watering Grandma's flowers....




Carpe diem!

Working the soil

It has been a long time since I posted our blog on our work in Oaxaca. We have had a rough time with the Internet at the base. Now that we are home and we have Internet I can get caught up.

James River Assembly

In January, James Olson, a long time Roca Blanca associate brought us a construction, medical and dental team from Springfield MO. Our plan was for 3 days of medical/dental clinics and putting a concrete floor and tile roof on the church in El Mosco. If you look above the group smiling for the picture, you can see the expert Mexican abañiles working on the roof.

It is a long drive from Roca Blanca to El Mosco, only 85 miles, but we measure travel times in hours. It takes 5 hours depending on how many delays for construction or vehicle breakdowns. The sights have become very familiar as we pass through each little village, pass corn fields, herds of cattle and groups of people carrying firewood on their heads or burro. We travel over rutted roads and through several stream and a recently completed 10 km section of pavement. We climb up into the mountains, they are dry but beautiful, covered with fragrant pine trees. Often we find ourselves in the clouds.

As we come over the mountain ridge and then down into the Ixtayutla region things become dry and brown again. On this trip we found that something new was added to the usual sights ... it says "no to the hydroelectric project". (more on that next blog)

El Mosco

A surprising sight greeted us as we drove in to the gate at the El Mosco clinic, the bathrooms were torn down. There were men working in concrete to complete the replacements: brick toilets and showers. How wonderful, however incomplete! Hmm, bless Isidro, he dug a hole out behind the building for us to use that night, and bless Eddie who put up some sheets so we could have some privacy.

The next day we were able to use the facilities without doors. Bucket showers are wonderful under the black starry Oaxaca sky!

We unpacked all the gear, set up tents, washed all the dishes, swept the floors and Gris made the first of several amazing meals.

Laura is always last to get her food, she makes sure everyone else is taken care of first.

We start our mornings early in El Mosco. Coffee and Marias (cookies) at around 6:30, prayer and devotions before breakfast around 8:30.

David is very pleased experiencing his first atole! A hot beverage made with rice or oatmeal.

Construction project

The construction crew got right to work tearing up the hard pan that had served as the church floor and mixing cement the Mexican way.

One of the team members Dwayne, had been on the original construction of the building we have used as housing, clinic and kitchen since 2002. Tracey, Keith, Bruce, Dwayne and David sweat alongside the Mexican workers who had come up from Cacalote to help on the project.

Isidro and Angel take a break with one of the El Mosco kids, Martín.

Hermano Primo was the first baptized convert in El Mosco. It was he who gave us this land for the clinic. His son Miguel and daughter-in-law Andrea attended the Bible Institute at Roca Blanca and now pastor a growing congregation. Here Primo shows off the completed floor!

Medical and Dental outreach
Our medical team included the nursing students from ORU as well as Dr. Tom and Cynthia his wife and Dr. George, his wife Robbin, and Cathy and Crystal from his dental office.

Nursing student Hannah checking in patients

Dr. Tom, a specialist in internal medicine, found working in a mountain clinic without diagnostic studies like blood tests and MRIs an interesting challenge. He was fantastic, and we hope he joins us again soon! Do you see Elisabeth in the background? We were so blessed to have her with us for a couple weeks.

Nursing students Mary and Jenn worked with Cynthia, Tom's wife, who is a pharmacist! It was so wonderful working with her, besides her skills, she had such a desire to serve and expressed a great desire to return with her family. (yeah!)

You know Drs. Dave and Mary Kay. You can see in their faces why it is such a pleasure working with this couple. God has been so gracious to bring us together.

Me with a very able Mixteco-Spanish interpreter, Hermínia. Lupe, Laura's adopted daughter, a nurse, has taught her about medications and various medical procedures. For this reason I only gave her a few instructions on how I wanted her to teach the Mixteco patients who received prescriptions, and she was able to work independently. This freed me to do so many other things!

Dr. George with dental patient Jose Luis.

Cathy cleaning Pastor Miguel's teeth.

Dr. George teaching nursing student Brittany.

Infection control in the dusty dirty mountains, how wonderful that Dr. George brought his staff. Crystal sterilizing equipment.

Some closing shots

Helen worked wherever she was needed, taking temperatures or helping Gris and was a real blessing.

The food was remarkable, everything was fresh, beautifully presented and the salsas were just the right degree of spice and flavor and not too hot. When I asked Gris where she learned to cook for Gringo tastes she said that she watched cooking shows.

Whenever the Gringos come to the mountains the ladies gather to sell their woven servietas.

Llano Verde and prayer

Besides El Mosco we were scheduled to visit two other villages. However political situations, mixed with resistance to gospel often changes our plans. We were able to hold a very successful medical-dental outreach in Llano Verde, however. We were not permitted to take photos.

The evangelistic campaign was very successful as well. Over the 3 days we were in the mountains we saw over 325 patients and 77 responded to the gospel and prayed with brother Jesús our evangelist.

Later when we got the report from Jesús, Carmela, our missionary who works in this area and pastor the small church in Pueblo Viejo made an important commentary as she prayed. She said that the 77 people that responded were seeds. And that the soil must be worked in order to have a true harvest.,

I reflected on what Carmela prayed as we drove home. It brought to mind the parable of the sower, or as I prefer to call it, the parable of the soils. Some think of evangelism as broadcasting the seed, or planting seeds one by one. I have always felt it more important that I first work the soil through prayer, and friendship and through showing the love of Christ.

We are called to make disciples of all nations. It is not so much a call to make people like us. In truth our U.S. culture is separated from the light of the gospel as much as is the Mixteco. Indeed there is as much darkness in the U.S. as in the region of Ixtayutla and El Mosco. Still, that does not excuse us from going outside of our home territory, for Jesus told us to "Go!"

Sofia and Cathy with the children. The time we spend with the children, with each individual is working the soil. Every laugh and smile prepares the soil, as it restores life to neglected ground.

There are things in the Mixteco culture that Americans would call wrong and bad, things that are no longer culturally acceptable in the U.S., things like illiteracy, domestic violence and malnutrition. There are things that I have seen that I still find hard to process, let alone explain, but I will speak of those later.

Please pray that the Light of the Gospel spread through the land of the Mixteco. Pray that God's love will prepare the soil of every heart by our service and by God's revelation.