Travis' Mexico Website

My son, Travis, created a website all about Mexico as a school project. I think he did an awesome job. Go here to check it out:
http://sites.google.com/site/buenosdiasmexico/

Mexico Mission Trip- Extreme Home Makeover

Waiting for our plane to LA where we will rent vans, meet our Amor Ministry rep. and drive into Mexico!

The campground in Mexico.

We made our lunches first thing in the morning before breakfast.

Amor fed us well.

El banos.

Making our way to our worksites over the very, very rutted roads!

Our worksite and the home of Olga (42) and her children, Misael (20), Jorge (18), Beatriz (15), and Ana (5). They live in a community called 'Maclovio Rojas' in Tijuana. Olga and Misael work as factory workers. Jorge and Beatriz attend school. They all live in this house that is in bad condition. The roof as you can see is made of canvas and the floor is dirt. The walls are made of cement block, sheetrock and used lumber. The outhouse is almost unusable ( and guarded by a mean looking dog!). They do not have drinkable water, a telephone, stove, refrigerator or car. Despite these conditions they appear clean and happy. Ana is especially delightful. The others seem shy.

Dustin and Ana.

Pouring the new concrete floor.

Building the walls.

Shalayne- notice her cornrow braids.

Moving the walls into place.

Dallas and Dustin hard at work.

This is Ana, the youngest member of the family we built for. She was a sweetheart and kept up a constant jabber of Spanish- it didn't bother her that we couldn't understand!

These little girls loved the star sunglasses I gave them. They also found our van and lunches fascinating!

This is the house that Travis and his team (one of five) built.

The family lives up this steep street. The higher up the mountainside the lots are, the cheaper they are. They are still paying for the land, which may cost $50 to $60. The family (Mom Olga, with her two young adult sons and two school aged daughters) make about $160 a week. There is garbage everywhere, and on the first day when it rained we had to exit quickly because the roads become slick and impassible very quickly. The rain also seemed to uncover more debis- Kamar, our Amor rep said it is very possible that this used to be a landfill site. And to think that these people have to live in these conditions and the children play in this dirt!

Here you can see Olga and her family's old house and beside it the house that we built for them.

Our family in Mexico.

Mixing stucco- sand, cement and water.

Stuccoing the exterior. Hard work in the hot sun!

Inside the house we built. The family will finish the interior.

Our team (one of five) with Senora Olga in front of the finished house.

Handing over the keys, a Spanish Bible, a certificate for a water filtration system, and some housewarming gifts to our family. What a joy to see their gratitude! How blessed we feel to have made their life a little bit better!

This traffic jam caused us to loose the vans we were following out of Tijuana- thus we ended up lost. But God answered our prayers and sent us three Christian men, one whom spoke English, to give us directions to the border (were they angels?) It was a little tense~ but we made it through! Thank you, God!

Ahh, I love the ocean! (San Clemente, CA)

Beauty- God's way!

LAX Airport- on our way home!

Cactus Pass Jamboree

Shalayne has been involved in Kids on Broadway, a community musical theatre group, this year. Their big performance was this week and they did an awesome job! Shalayne played Madi from the Putnam family. There is a feud between the Putnams and the Ludlows over stolen prize money from a hog-calling contest 80 years ago.

Homeschool Showcase
Travis entertained us with "Inflated Language" and Shalayne played and sang. I'm proud of you two!

Mom (grandma) came out and showed the girls how to create icing flowers. Everyone enjoyed this, and the results were impressive!

Shalayne shows the quilt she made(!) at Contos' annual Valentine Tea. I'm so proud of her!

This was my latest project. I made this quilt for our upcoming fundraiser for those of us going on the Mission Trip to Mexico in March- it will be part of the silent auction. It's pretty cute, and soft; I may have to make another one, or two...

How Hollywood is Poisoning Our Daughters

While at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival we had the opportunity to hear Geoff Botkin present “How To Analyze a Hollywood Movie”. It was very enlightening! And oh, so important! This is definetely a skill I want to develop and teach my children. Here is a review by Adam McManus...

How Hollywood is Poisoning Our Daughters: A Review of Geoff Botkin’s Message “How To Analyze a Hollywood Movie”

Review by Adam McManus
Host of KSLR’s The Adam McManus Show

When Geoff Botkin warned the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival audience that the G-rated Walt Disney film entitled “Princess Diaries 2” was filled with toxic messages antithetical to a biblical worldview, you could have heard a pin drop.

But, in scene after scene, Mr. Botkin revealed how this seemingly innocuous movie wasn’t innocuous at all!

Indeed, in the very opening scene, Mia Thermopolis portrayed by Anne Hathaway — the Crown Princess of Genovia — is graduating from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Policy. Mr Botkin described Woodrow Wilson as the second most treasonous president in terms of constitutional fidelity — the one who instituted the income tax system and established the Federal Reserve Bank. We learned that in the world of film making, nothing is there by chance. It’s all scripted to a “t” - including the decision to honor Woodrow Wilson over Ronald Reagan.

Throughout the movie, we hear the Princess declare over and over again the politically correct mantra “This is the 21st century!” — a notion no doubt instilled in her in the classrooms of the Ivy League. The message? Throw off the constraints of family, tradition, and religion and find your own “truth.” While the servants are conducting a slide show of possible suitors in order to help to get married within 30 days and retain the crown, Anne Hathaway’s character and a friend, without pause, yell out approvingly when they discover that one young man has embraced the abomination of homosexual behavior. In other scenes, materialism, lust, rebelliousness, and rudeness are all exalted as character traits in keeping with a Princess who wants to rule the country of Genovia as Queen.

Honor is a concept far from her mind, as Mia sneaks out the window to meet the cute boy, despite the fact that she is not only engaged, but literally hours away from holy matrimony. From Disney Company’s perspective, I suppose, it’s totally innocent since they don’t engage in sex.

I believe Walt Disney himself would be horrified at how the good, masculine, and honorable guy is presented as boring, and the bad, effeminate, skirt-chasing guy is seen as desirable. What messages are we sending both our young girls and boys if we allow them to watch this movie without an immediate biblical critique, or watch it at all? And why would a Christian pastor claim that Princess Diaries 2 was “loaded with virtue”?

Isaiah 5:20 comes to mind: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.

For too long, parents and pastors alike who profess to follow Christ have allowed the pagan culture to desensitize them to the dangers in the world’s films, TV shows, and music, missing critical moments for Christ-like discipleship. If, as Geoff Botkin suggests, we are to “take every frame captive for Jesus Christ,” we all need to look at the world through a biblical lens, not at the Bible through the world’s lens.

You Must See This Moive!!

San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and Academy 2009

Our family had the privilege of attending the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and Academy in San Antonio, TX. It was fantastic! We are greatly inspired by the vision of creating films with a Christian worldview. In the pictures you will see the Von Trapp children performing, actor Kirk Cameron who starred in the amazing film Fireproof- which you MUST see, actor Dean Jones, the Duggar family of 20 (yes, 18 children!), and the winners of the largest cash prize for film festial in North America, $101.000, the Moore family for their film, The Widow's Might.

Historic Buildings of San Antonio

Oh, I would love to live in some of these beautiful houses- there were even a few for sale!

The Alamo

San Antonio's Beautiful River Walk

Our family spent a week in San Antonio while attending the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and Academy. What an inspiring week, rubbing shoulders with dedicated Christain people with a passion for making positive changes in our culture.

Christmas At Wasa

Every other year the Caspell Clan (Shauna's family) gets together for Christmas. We have taken to renting a house at Wasa in B.C. for a week... a week of such fun, relaxation, and enjoyment. Mom Verone and all four sisters and their families convene. We hadn't seen Twyla (Shauna's youngest sister) and her husband, Brad, since the last time we were together for Christmas two years ago. And we celebrated Tammy's 30th birthday (Shauna's 2nd sister). The big project of the week is to build a toboggan run in the back yard. We start with the snow in the yard, add snow shoveled off the roof, and God usually adds fresh snow as the week goes on. The run is pretty impressive by the end of the week and everyone takes their turns doing daring feats or seeing how far down they can go. But the most fun seems to come from the building of the hill itself!

Shalayne adds a new dump of snow while Dustin and Brett test the hill.

Travis takes a break...

Shalayne and her youngest cousin, Cole.

Uncle Scott shoveling the roof.

Dallas sees how much air he can garner on the jump.

Greg's turn!

Dustin and Brett.

Me and my hubbie.

Shauna, Tammy, Twyla, Verone (Mom), and Janelle

The girl cousins: Brooke, Shalayne, Kaitlin

The boy cousins: Dustin, Dallas, Brett, Travis. Connor, Cole