Esmerelda.

This is the adorable Esmerelda.

When she was three years old she fell and went into a coma. She developed a tumor in her head, and went through  chemotherapy. People thought she was going to die but others came and prayed for her. After a few weeks she woke up from her coma, and recovered well, but she lost complete eye sight in one her eye.

Saul and Amber met her through a friend Susan. Susan was worried about Esme and her health, so she brought Amber and Saul to meet her. After meeting her, a couple days later Amber took Esme to the clinic and also booked an eye appointment for her. She really needed glasses but simply could not afford them. Amber and Saul told me about their adventurous night and how their date night turned into meeting this girl. I said I would love to help this girl, I will buy her the glasses she needs.

She is just so adorable and I am so glad I had the chance to do something for her.

<3

A day at home.

Since I have been here I cannot say that I have been bored. There is always something to do, or get done. So, Monday I stayed home to get some stuff done,  and I had a really good day. Felt good, felt energetic, I was just in a really good mood.

I’m pretty sure I start off everyday with a hot cup of coffee.

And in my J mug I found at Globos(:

And some coloring before breaky.

And I was feeling so good that I did the morning dishes and swept the floor.

Got changed and started painting the walls boards for the shower we are building for Altagracia.

The color is a bit light but it’s ok.

 Started building the frames for the shower.

I even got my lovely mom to send me a few recipes.

I made haystacks, and they turned out pretty tasty even though I had to improvise on the ingredients.

 Banana bread turned out wonderfully. Nice color and beautiful taste, to bad I didn’t have any butter to eat it with ):

booo.

And it was my turn to cook so I whipped up some meet balls and potatoes with a creamy tomato kinda sauce.

Banana bread for an appetizer, then some broccoli and coli flower salad, then the main meal, and for desert hay stacks.

I think it went well.

And that is a day at home for mee.

Byee!

This is what I have been up to.

The past three weeks I have been going to work with Saul building houses. I really enjoy going even if it means early mornings and working all day long, but I’m doing it for the family and that is all that matters. They deserve it. The grandma takes care of her 6 grandchildren while the mom is in the States working in the fields. The dad is out of the picture because sadly he got murdered 9 years ago.  There is 2 boys and 4 girls, the oldest boy who is 12 is the one who bought the land for the house, with help from his teacher who had owned the land.

And that is why I love doing what I’m doing. I get to experience families taking care of each other, I get to see people who have so little be so happy. It really makes me feel grateful for what I have every time I see a smile. And what I love most is the last day when we get to hand over the keys and see them enter their home, and that moment leaves my heart at total complete peace.

This weeks group in from Canada, 15 of them, half adults and have teens, and lets just put it this way they build fast. They got a couple of good carpenters. Today was the first day we started building and we are really ahead. We got all the walls up, we got the middle wall up inside and the room divider wall up, plus all the outside walls painted, the roof boards up and ready for plywood, we even got started on drywall. It’s crazy!

Half of us working on the side walls, while the other half of us were working on the front and back walls on the street.

The walls were up in no time.

Grandma picked out this color, I like it too.

And some drywall.

This was my buddy Angel, he is 9 and he helped me out with hammering and painting. He is not one the kids that lives there but he lives down the street, good kid.

Checky out my sick farmers tan, hahaha jk its Saul.

Guess who.

Martinez Family

This is the beautiful Martinez family, Altagracia, the mom, her oldest Freddi, then Gabbi, and Balinda, and her youngest Martin.

Altagracia is such an amazing mom. She cares about her children so much, she walks to the highway to pick up her son from school just so he doesn’t have to walk home by him self in the dark. She is a single mom, and she works in the strawberry fields to feed her family. She is incredibly nice and always makes food for us when we go to visit.

This is the family that my Mission Team built a house for last year, well sent money for their house to be built, and since we couldn’t be there to build the house for them, Amber sent us pictures.

My parents and I finally got to meet her when we came here. It felt like we already knew her from all the pictures we got of her getting her house.

Freddi and the keys to the house.

A prayer before they enter.

By now looking at the pictures I had already started to cry (:

The kid’s room.

Mom’s room.

They love their house <3

Her living room.

Kitchen area.

Gracias.

I love this family so much!

Beautiful.

If your wanting to hear about something specific, just leave a comment or email me at janayleniuk@hotmail.com of what you want to see/read on one of my blog, and I will try my best to write about it.

Back it up.

Well, I guess I jumped a kinda big important part of my story. The story of  how I got here. How all this became possible and how I decided I wanted to come here.

It all started last year when I was in grade 9.  My school had this new group/club or what ever you want to call it. I call it the Mission Team.  You had to fill out a form to be in the group, telling a little about yourself and your relationship with God and why you want to do this. The Mission Team was to travel to Mexico and build a house, and only around 20 people or so could come.  I was really hoping I could go, I have always wanted to do something like that. After a long wait I found out that I got to be on the team. I was very happy and couldn’t wait to get started.

We started fun raising right away and thank God for my mom because she most defiantly helped me out, a lot. Just before Christmas we were finding out that we may not be able to go because they were not to sure if the boarder was safe enough for us, but we kept raising money just in case. Our team prayed every meeting that the boarder issue would get better, so we were able to go.  One meeting after Christmas we got the sad news that is was official, we were not able to go to Mexico, but our leaders felt bad for the family that already knew that she was receiving house, and they didn’t want to tell her that we could not anymore. So they made a plan to send the money and still have the house built for them. The leaders also felt bad for us that now we could not go so they decided that they would still take us somewhere, but in Canada, so it would be cheap and still get an experience.

On Easter break we drove down to Edmonton and Calgary for our mission trip. We were going to experience was it was like to be homeless. All of us had no idea was it was going to be like or anything. So that week we got to experience living in the homeless shelters. We got to eat with them, talk to them, learn from them. We helped cooked for them, and one day we even got to live like them. We got kicked out of our sleeping place early in the morning, we were not fed we had to go find a shelter that served breakfast, then we had to dig through garbage bins for bottles so that we could get something to eat. We dressed in are dirty clothes, and we had to find shelter when it rained. We experienced the looks that people give towards you when they see you. Honestly I can’t even explain the experience I had because it was just so unique, and I would defiantly recommend organizing a week trip there with your family or with a group because it really will change your perspective about happiness and will change you.

After that trip it really did change me and I really wanted to do more. Out team volunteered at the soup kitchen back home, and went to different schools and talked to teachers about our trip and how it changed us. I defiantly believe that God wanted us to do that instead of going to Mexico, because we really needed that eye opener and that kick start to our next missions.  That week inspired me, and I said to my self, I want to go to Mexico.

One random day my mom and I were in the kitchen, I looked at her and said, ” mom, can you send me away to Mexico for a semester please?” Thinking that she would say not a chance, but to my surprise she said sure, ok.  So that day we started talking to some people about me staying with them and he said ya sure I would to have to daughter come stay with me. We were telling some people about this and one person said no, no you should stay with the Machado’s, I will talk to them for you. So now I was going to stay with them instead.

Since this year I am only in grade 10, and I can’t really miss school, we had it organized that all the classes I need to have to pass grade 10 was to be in first semester. I had two maths, two ela, a science a social and Christian Ethics. Busy, busy, busy semester, but I managed to get it all done and pass every class.

So now, I have been living here in Mexico for one and half months and I absolutely love it here. This house feels like home, this family feels like my family, and to me everything in perfect. I am living my dream, and at such a young age. I feel so much closer to God. I go to church twice a week and read my Bible daily. We have family discussions about God, and they explain the answers to my questions. And I am blessed with the little siblings I have always wanted and an older sister. God has touched my heart in a way you couldn’t imagine, and I wish that everyone could experience what I am experiencing. I hope that friends and family back home take a step back, open there hearts and welcome God in their lives, they have no idea what His power can do to them.  How it could change them, their lives would be greatly easier if they knew God was there for them.

Las Aves

So every Wednesday Amber, Gloria, and I make up bags of clothes for families in Las Aves.  Amber and Gloria interview the family, ask them the ages, names and size preferences, while I watch close by since my Spanish is not the best, but I’m getting there. (: All the little kids keep me company, and help each other keep warm with hugs (:

Once we have the information that we need, we go next door to the clothing room and we make up bags for each and every person in the family. Usually we put about 5 clothing items in each bag, and for the babies we through in a couple of blankets.

I enjoy making up bags, especially when there is a baby I have to make one for. It’s like shopping for your child, it’s great, it feels like I have a kid, but I don’t, to young (:

Las Aves in a quick 10 minute drive from the town I live in. The area that we go to is small, but the rest of Las Aves is defiantly bigger than it seams. The houses here are obviously not like houses in Canada. They find what ever they can and build with it.

The fences are much the same.

We usually do 3 families each time, and talk to them and get to know a little about them.

They usually all have a decent sized family living in the one home. Including grandma, and any other kind of family member.

I love seeing the smiles.

About Me

My name is Janay, and I come from a family of 5. I have two older brothers, Sean and Jordan. My parents, Janine and Rod are two beautiful, one of a kind parents. They are very supportive of me, and there hearts are huge. At the moment my family is back home in Canada while I am in Mexico living with another family.

I love sports and I play as much as I can. I play volleyball, basketball, golf, fastball and I am also a cheerleader. Going camping and fishing is always fun for me, and being with my family and God is the best.

Yea, it was hard leaving my friends and family, but I belong here. I was meant to be here.

 As my favorite verse says…

“I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” 

- Philippians 4:13