As one team left last Saturday, we started preparing for the men with the POWER MINISTRY representing 12 different states coming to build the community center in the colonia. Power stands for Purposeful Outreach With Eternal Results. Most of them hail from Southern California, but the word has spread to several states that men need to join this team for a week of intense building and ministry along the Mexico/ U.S. border. They bring two groups of about 90 men to do many projects from Acuna, Mx to Matamoras, Mx. They split up into teams and blitz the building sites and get a lot of work done in just a few days. They arrived Thursday as Paula, Alan, Lynnea and I were busy trying to get Arturos and Carlas house that we bought them done so they could move out of the house where the new building will stand. The Power team had all four walls up in just a few hours while another team built the trusses.
The Power team had two different shifts come, one in the morning and a different team in the afternoon. They are all such nice guys and real hard workers. The ages of the men ranged from 18 up to one hard working man that was 95 years old. So I guess that gives me at least another 40 years serving our Lord in the mission field. Can't even imagine that, but Lord willing!!! They came back yesterday and put up all the siding, finished the truss work, and installed all the purlins for the roofing. While they were changing shifts at another build site, we put in all the windows and started getting ready to hoist the 52 foot laminated beam they made up onto the 4x4 posts 10 feet in the air. That was fun, and we gotter done.
Carmelo and Eliazar were busy pouring a foundation for the family the Carpenters Crew will build for starting tomorrow. The wood is there and the family has it all painted and we are ready for another busy week. The couple they are building for lived in a pretty big but nasty house that leaked every time it rained. They are elderly and really needed a better home to live in. They worked real hard dismantling their house and painting all the wood.
I sum up the last several weeks as nothing short of miraculous. Since Christmas, we have built 5 homes. distributed hundreds of gifts for the families in the colonia, torn down one house, poured another two foundations, unloaded a truck load of beans into the warehouse, gave out 10 thousand pounds of beans and rice, started building the community center, had five dedication ceremonies, had 46 different people stay at our house, been the airport six times, went through 400 bottles of water, witnessed two young men accept Christ as their Savior, crossed the international bridge into Mexico 32 times in 40 days and still found time to get one golf game in!!!! We love this life and the partners that make it all possible THANK YOU!!!
Again problems getting pictures on the blog, stay tuned
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