Day 1 of our 2 full day missions trip.
We were driven to our house build site, about a 10 minute
drive through the Colonias outside the city of Juarez. I cannot
recall the Spanish name for the Colonia we were in, but translated,
it contained the word, Hope!
Behind these three cuties is the cement slab that had already been
laid for us to begin our building work.
Here we are waiting to see if we have all of our building supplies..wood!
Benton
The fence that will be behind the new house.
Here we go....first we need to pull out all of the wood to
begin building the sides of the house.
First we have to build the frame to the side of the house.
It was hard driving those nails in straight!
Jesus (Construction foreman) who is behind Deveraux was our hammer hero..
besides many other things. He would just take a few whacks and his nail
was in!
Then we brought out these siding pieces and nailed those in.
My sister and Carter
This is Marta...the proud new owner of this soon to be home.
I loved getting to know her in the two days we had...
Now we are getting a bit cold...it was really cold!
Raising the sides!
We did not even realize we were working with the local pastor,
Francisco, until Jesus instructed us to raise the walls as high
as his waist. He is to the left of me and Roy, my brother in law
is to the right (this was Roy's 4th trip).
And we have a wall!
Marta holding up her house.
Next we began to put up the insulation.
A room with a view!
A new friend, Missy!
The story behind this picture is funny. We had to frame each window
with wood. I saw Marta standing on the side, so I asked her to
come help me hold the wood while I hammered. I was having a
hard time hammering the nails in. So I kinda shrugged and handed
her the hammer. She took the hammer and nailed those nails
in faster and better....it was pretty great. So I held the boards for her.
One of Marta's daughter's trying to stay warm.
Our little guy trying to get some ladder time.
The roof was put on while we were installing the insulation and
framing the windows. Besides our crew of 4 families there were
about 5 Mexican male workers....and Marta.
Once I saw Drew working on the roof, I knew
I had to get up there.
Bobo would stand below just staring at the roof while standing on his ladder,
so at the end, I grabbed him and brought him up in the roof.
God is Love was written in tar in the roof.
The sun came out and the kids warmed up playing games.
We had to nail metal discs every few inches so the roof would not blow off!
Our work was completed for the day. Tomorrow we will come back
and finish. I feel I have met a friend even though we cannot speak
much to each other.
\We met back for lunch and the I went to help Roy,
my brother in law in the clinic. I was hoping to go
on the afternoon tour but felt I needed to stay in the
clinic to help. So I gave my family my camera and these
are the pictures they brought back......
School yard. Stef told me there are many children who do not attend school,
only about 25 percemt.
One of the school rooms
catching a quick nap...
The library
Some play time
The streets
Last stop...the orphanage. Here they played in the gym
a soccer game. Drew said Bobo really wanted to play goalie.
One of the women on the trip was so affected by the
conditions at the orphanage. I sat with her at dinner
to find out what she had seen. That was one place I had
wanted to visit and she told about how dirty the bathrooms
were, with no toilet paper and overall she just felt
so sad about the conditions. We began to talk and
we decided we could do something the next day.
I so wanted to see the orphanage and even though it
was not on the schedule, we asked to be taken to the
orphanage to bring them some toys and toilet paper.
We wanted to clean their bathrooms but the director said
we would not have time. He suggested raising funds for the staff
who works for Missions Ministry to go and clean.
It felt so exciting and hopeful to begin making plans.
Dinner bell!
This was our clinic crew for the afternoon. Dr. Roy saw
all 24 patients and we had a pharmacists, a lab tech,
and two crazy women doing intake.
These are the two crazies....we laughed so hard!
We have funny stories involving taking blood pressure
and temperatures. So I was able to meet another new friend, Amy, who
helped organize our trip. Such a great blessing to meet some new
Colorado friends with similar hearts!
It was good to interact with the Mexican families through an interpreter.
They were so grateful to have the clinic open, which had not been
opened since October.
Working to make 125 bracelets to give to the Orphans
the following day.
This evening Leo came to talk to us. Leo is the Mexican
liason for Missions Ministries in Mexico, his home. His wife
is the one who has developed the school and library.
His heart is with the orphanage as he grew up in an
orphanage. Stef told me he had a very difficult past and
was involved in a Mexican gang,, While serving time in
prison, he was rolling cigarettes from the pages of a Bible and found
Jesus. Now he has been serving for over 20 years in Missions Ministry..
His wife runs the education ministry, they are generous and lovely!
He will also be heading with his family in December to the
Tarahumara Indians in Mexico who have even less than the Mexican people
to deliver Christmas boxes.
When we told Leo we wanted to go to the orphanage the
next day. He said that the children had asked why we
had not brought anything to them, he said, pray and ask
God. Well, there we were making bracelets for them.
Bobo had fallen asleep in the dining room and Drew carried
him back to our room.
I came in from our room to see these two sleepy heads.
I felt some feelings I had not felt in awhile, my head
buzzing with the days activities. I had not stopped and it
felt good. It felt familiar to make plans, to have my heart
feel compassion, to want to help, to do something on
behalf of those who have so little.
These girls worked hard to make those bracelets happen!
Ready for tomorrow.
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