New Valley Mexico Mission Trip

Day 2 (Thursday)

2010-01-01T21:58:00.001-08:00

We met at the base camp for some breakfast.
Jason: It was like a hug for our tummies!

We headed over to the worksite. Here's our entire group:

A group from another church joined us later that afternoon, but for the morning it was just us and our hand-mixed one-hundred and fifty wheelbarrow-fuls of heavy concrete. Because of the size of the two groups combined, we were able to give the family a double-wide home!

Karl stove-piped a hat.

In some downtime, Drew played futbol with some of the kids in the area.

Those boys (and girls!) are definitely talented with the pelota! Here, Cael bounces one of them off his head... they pretty much smited us.

Feliz ano nuevo! On New Year's Eve, we sat down at the condo to celebrate and break open the bubblies. We promise this isn't what it looks like.

Day 1

2010-01-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

Hola! This is the New Valley youth group, here to bring you news from the second Mexico adventure! After some trouble at the border (some of the presents from heaven became presents for the Mexican government), we finally arrived at the Nottis' Mexican villa. While the adults stayed there, the youth group and their amazing leaders are sleeping in a rented condo across the street (ocean view, but no heater... oven?)

Our first stop in Mexico was, of course, the One Mission base camp.

The rest of the day filled with setting up in our abodes, exploring the local beach (very rocky indeed), and ending in a dinner at a small restaurant in town.

Mexico II

2009-12-30T07:52:00.000-08:00

Group number two is preparing to leave for One-Mission today.
19 intrepid souls have raised support, learned about culture, prayed, and packed their bags. Hopefully we can also figure out how to build a house......in 3 days.
We eagerly look forward to what God will teach us and the new people we will encounter along the way.

otras cosas

2009-11-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

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 neighbors, 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

Mas Picturas

2009-11-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

Head over to flickr to check out more pics!

Fin...

2009-11-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

The house is done and everyone loved it!
Day One we poured a beautiful slab and framed all of the walls and covered them in plywood. it was a full days work but cloudy most of the day which really helped the temperature stay nice.
Day Two the wall went up with ease the rood went on; joists, plywood, tar paper, and rolled asphalt! The rest of the house was wrapped in tar paper and chicken wire and the stucco went on. well most of it stayed on the walls and some of us newbies has trouble getting it to stick and it ended up mostly in the dirt. oops.
Day Three a final coat of stucco, finishing touches, and a 'porch.' The family put there handprints in the wet cement and the house keys were given to them. happy faces everywhere!
This trip has been a blast and i hope to do it again. I've really enjoyed lerning the process of building a house from the ground up including the major components of framing walls and laying stucco to the finite points of trim, windows and the door.

Pics at flickr

2009-11-06T20:12:00.001-08:00

Our first round of pics is up on a flickr account. Go check them out at our flickr page!

Long but fulfilling day.

Nakagawaras checking in...finally

2009-11-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

Hi - This is Dave Nakagawara - I am joining this team with my 11 year old daughter Claire - to help share God's love with a family in Rocky Point by - gasp - helping to build the family a new home in 3 days(?). I recently returned from Uganda back in July on a two week trip where my wife, Marcelle and I helped to build latrines for a primary school. They didn't let me get near a hammer until day 5, but I hauled a lot of water, rocks, bags of cement...kind of a glorified mule. Anyway, we are excited about this trip...its going to be a unique father-daughter experience. Bye now...

FAMILIA DE RANGEL SANCHEZ

2009-11-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

The Perez Rangel family has been living in their current home for about a year and a half now. The family, consisting of Didier and Laura, the parents, and their three children, Emmanuel (15), Estaban (12) and Denisse (5) live on about $150 a month. Didier, was in a severe car accident in 2006, greatly injuring his lower spine. After having surgery to correct the damage to his back, he lost all feeling and movement in his right leg. When there was no improvement, after months of treatment and medicine, the family turned to prayer, and in late 2007 Didier regained use of his leg. He still, however, has had great difficulty in finding sustainable work.

Lately Laura has been cleaning and jarring clams, making around $1 an hour, but due to the collapsed economy, even that is slow.

We first met this family when Laura came to help on a One Mission project in March. Since then, she and Didier have helped build up the community around them by working alongside One Mission volunteers and other locals on several house builds. This family has definitely faced many obstacles, but they have not lost hope or given up. They continue to work hard, not only for their own family, but also for those around them that are struggling too. We hope you are excited to meet this family and give them the incredible gift of a safe and secure home.

Prep for Mexico

2009-11-03T07:59:00.000-08:00

I am very excited for this opportunity to help out the Rocky Point community and families. I have been studying my Spanish, strengthening my taste-buds for the spicy foods, and learning to use a hammer. I am looking forward to the start, finish, and overall experience of this mission. Can't wait to hit the road!!

count down started

2009-11-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

I think the count down to leaving time has officially started. 4 days left to prepare and pack then its of to Mexico. I should get some Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers music together with some songs about mexico for the roadtrip. Arriba!

It sounds like most of us will be able to drive down together in a van and 1 additional car on thursday and the browns coming on friday. The community time of all being able to drive down together and 'bunk' together will be great.

2009-10-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hey there! This is my whole family, but it will just be I (Lindsey) going on this trip. It's my first mission trip (aside from a few I did in college stateside with Campus Crusade) and I'm excited! Can't wait to be a part of God's bigger plan for this area of Mexico. We leave 5Nov09 and return 9Nov09. We'll be in Rocky Point building a house for a family there. Can't wait to bust out my mad carpentry skills. J/K, my dad has all the skills, but I atleast know the names of a few tools.

Barletts

2009-10-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

Pam and I are looking forward to some time in Mexico. Should be a fun trip.