well I think I only made one building mistake (that I'm aware of anyways) in cutting the rolls of chicken wire into 12foot strips like we did with the tar paper... apparently you want to wrap the entire house in contiguous rolls of chicken wire.... well at least we were able to get more chicken wire!
wow my mind is still overwhelmed (in a good way) processing what we experienced. really a life changing experience.
we fell in love with this family and their neighbours. Didier (the father) is a man who loves God deeply and is keenly aware of his role in this community. it was such a pleasure to give to this family and as Didier expressed, he knows that everything he has and has ever received is a gift and blessing from God and is to be used for caring for others.
one of the things I was most struck by is how many locals were building with us.
sometimes more Mexican locals on the site than Americans. One Mission (
www.onemission.us) is having a great impact in these neighborhoods by helping these families be inspired by building each others homes and helping each other.
I was absolutely humbled though by Didier's focus on others when I kept thinking if I were him I'm afraid I might be thinking about myself and what I needed to do to improve my own living conditions. Rob in our group noted that it seems that Didier's contentment and thankfulness must be what frees him up to have such care for those around him. I think that's it.
Gilberto (one of Didier's neighbor
s, seen here on the right with Dave N from New Valley) was one of the hardest workers on Didier's home and has built many others. Gilberto was graceful to me when I would (most of the time) try to pound a nail and the nail would bend off in failure... Gilberto would say it must be that my hammer is broken, let him try with his 'rojo' red one. it would pound straight and he would smile and we would say 'yeah rojo!'
Didier was deeply concerned that Gilberto may not be able to have his home built because he needed to prove he had title to the land and needed $200 for that proof. I mentioned that in church in Rocky Point and a dear family wanted to share their blessings and meet that need. Sandy, our best spanish speaker on our team, expressed to Gilberto and Ellena that God was providing this gift through His church, and was brought about because of Didier's deep love for them and appreciation for all they are doing to help others have homes. both families wept for joy and Didier was praising God even more, knowing this may be what God uses to draw Gilberto closer to a personal faith and relationship with God.
this picture is of Jose Luis.
Jose Luis doesn't have his biological father around so Didier has adopted him in terms of caring for him and trying to help raise and direct him. In our conversation about this I told Didier that by loving him as an earthly father he was demonstrating to Jose Luis the love of the 'padre principal' our heavenly father. with tears in his gentle and yet fiercely strong eyes he nodded yes. when our group gave him a cash gift as we said goodbye, I could only understand pieces of the spanish Didier poured out to us, but I heard him describing among other needs how this would be helping a medical need that Jose Luis has.
as many in our group including me have been feeling we have received far more from this experience than what we gave, it has re-affirmed the paradox of following Christ that "whoever wants to store up his own life will lose it, but whoever pours out his life for me and for the gospel will find real life." Mark 8:35 paraphrase
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