howdy folks :)
have i ever mentioned how much i love my house? my bed is soooo comfortable, and the house is so quiet. we slept like logs last night.
i told you i would write again if anything weird happened, well i didn't have time because so much happened! we didn't go to the brazilian steakhouse . . . i may need therapy for this! but we ate at a nice place and we were together.
as you know this was a mission trip, so it would be remiss of me to not share some of the spiritual aspect of our journey. let me start with the beginning. this trip was like the others, in that we had more work to accomplish than would be humanly possible. but we commited ourselves to staying focused on building relationships and being open to what God wanted us to do, or who he wanted us to meet. that's tough to do when there's a long list of structural issues needing attention, but we did it!
in san diego, when dan and the group picked up the rental car, an employee asked them to pray for him. so they said okay . . . there is no time like the present. they circled together and prayed with him right there in the parking lot. the man was really moved.
at walmart (yes i go to walmart, but only in mexico) a man came and asked us if we were christians, and then asked us for a bible. this is the 3rd time he's asked americans, and not recieved one. he is bilingual, so when we got back to the hotel i pulled out the bilingual bible josiah had given me to give away. he also wanted to know about fransisco's church, so i included a little calender with the church address on it. the next day we gave it to him. he was pretty emotional about it.
martin, the man i told you about, worked again the next day and he asked us to come to his home because his mother wanted to make tortillas for us (translation = huge meal of chicken and rice). because they are so poor, it took several households on the street to prepare the feast for the american "missionaries". he was so excited and proud to see us actually show up that he broke down and cried with pastor dan. we got him hooked up with the hotel we stayed at for a possible job and gave references for him (which was important because he'd just arrived in town with his mom a month earlier). it turns out he'd worked at 2 different hotels in the states, so he had experience.
the little lady at the hotel, who oversees the free breakfast, joined us on the last day in prayer and bible study (standing quietly off to the side). when we left, we all hugged her and gave her all of our pesos.
jose and daisy were our greatest joy. we drew so much closer to them and he opened his heart to us in a really big way. it turns out he had been a pastor and the pain of not being one anymore was almost unbearable. he shed a few tears with us and hugs went around. they asked us to come out to their new home in the country. in mexico, they build as they have money for supplies. it can take 10 years to build a home, but it's theirs when it's done (it's called a mexican mortgage). so off we went to the outskirts of the city to their little plot of land and we went inside for a tour. inside we wrote blessings and notes on the sheet-rock, and then jose asked dan to pray a bessing over the home. it was a powerful moment for us all. we have become so close to this little family who have commited their lives to God and His will. their financial and physical sacrifice to keep the homeless elderly clean and fed is tremendous.
AND we got the future chapel/ storeroom cleaned out, the lady's room painted and cleaned, the men's room's linens all changed and new blankets put on, 2 walls stuccoed, repaired and patched all the leaks on the roof of two buildings, pedicures and manicures for every resident (sebastian, juan, raphiel, el pietro, manuel, francisca, maggie, and jose's grandma), and we even had the baby shower. AND we stayed in budget!
GOD IS GOOD
joe and heidi
have i ever mentioned how much i love my house? my bed is soooo comfortable, and the house is so quiet. we slept like logs last night.
i told you i would write again if anything weird happened, well i didn't have time because so much happened! we didn't go to the brazilian steakhouse . . . i may need therapy for this! but we ate at a nice place and we were together.
as you know this was a mission trip, so it would be remiss of me to not share some of the spiritual aspect of our journey. let me start with the beginning. this trip was like the others, in that we had more work to accomplish than would be humanly possible. but we commited ourselves to staying focused on building relationships and being open to what God wanted us to do, or who he wanted us to meet. that's tough to do when there's a long list of structural issues needing attention, but we did it!
in san diego, when dan and the group picked up the rental car, an employee asked them to pray for him. so they said okay . . . there is no time like the present. they circled together and prayed with him right there in the parking lot. the man was really moved.
at walmart (yes i go to walmart, but only in mexico) a man came and asked us if we were christians, and then asked us for a bible. this is the 3rd time he's asked americans, and not recieved one. he is bilingual, so when we got back to the hotel i pulled out the bilingual bible josiah had given me to give away. he also wanted to know about fransisco's church, so i included a little calender with the church address on it. the next day we gave it to him. he was pretty emotional about it.
martin, the man i told you about, worked again the next day and he asked us to come to his home because his mother wanted to make tortillas for us (translation = huge meal of chicken and rice). because they are so poor, it took several households on the street to prepare the feast for the american "missionaries". he was so excited and proud to see us actually show up that he broke down and cried with pastor dan. we got him hooked up with the hotel we stayed at for a possible job and gave references for him (which was important because he'd just arrived in town with his mom a month earlier). it turns out he'd worked at 2 different hotels in the states, so he had experience.
the little lady at the hotel, who oversees the free breakfast, joined us on the last day in prayer and bible study (standing quietly off to the side). when we left, we all hugged her and gave her all of our pesos.
jose and daisy were our greatest joy. we drew so much closer to them and he opened his heart to us in a really big way. it turns out he had been a pastor and the pain of not being one anymore was almost unbearable. he shed a few tears with us and hugs went around. they asked us to come out to their new home in the country. in mexico, they build as they have money for supplies. it can take 10 years to build a home, but it's theirs when it's done (it's called a mexican mortgage). so off we went to the outskirts of the city to their little plot of land and we went inside for a tour. inside we wrote blessings and notes on the sheet-rock, and then jose asked dan to pray a bessing over the home. it was a powerful moment for us all. we have become so close to this little family who have commited their lives to God and His will. their financial and physical sacrifice to keep the homeless elderly clean and fed is tremendous.
AND we got the future chapel/ storeroom cleaned out, the lady's room painted and cleaned, the men's room's linens all changed and new blankets put on, 2 walls stuccoed, repaired and patched all the leaks on the roof of two buildings, pedicures and manicures for every resident (sebastian, juan, raphiel, el pietro, manuel, francisca, maggie, and jose's grandma), and we even had the baby shower. AND we stayed in budget!
GOD IS GOOD
joe and heidi
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