Home Makeover Sparks Edition

So, another week has come to a close. As many of you may already know, the Mexican government has sent another 7000 troops to Juarez to combat the cartel violence. They have said they are not going to give another inch to the cartels, and will reclaim their city. In many ways this is a really good idea. In the days after the troops' arrival, there was an article in the paper talking about how much the violence has slowed down since the arrival. As a precautionary measure, we have elected not to take groups to Juarez through March to see what the cartels may do. It turned out to be a good decision, because a whole new area of ministry has opened up on this side of the border. Although we plan to be able to return to Juarez this summer, God has truly blessed our ministry here by giving us the opportunity to perform more work in the Sparks Colonia.

Sparks is an area of El Paso County that reminds many who go there of doing work in Juarez. There is a lot of poverty, and homes that are in terrible shape. Flooding of 2006 ravaged the area, and through some previous grants, YLM was able to help repair 14 homes. It is great to have another option for work here for anyone concerned over going into Juarez. I have taken over many of the responsiblilites of finishing out the grants in Sparks, and am really beginning to know families in the community. We have established a great relationship with the community center there, and they will allow us to host VBS at their location. We also hope to help them by building an addition to the center. They also help us identify families who still need help and repairs to their homes.

I have been visiting many homes and preparing project lists for anyone who elects to do some repair work over there, and it just amazes me to see the level of need of some of these families. Hopefully, with the help of the Lord we will be able to continue to help these families have some more suitable, safe living conditions. This past week, we started rebuilding a trailer for a family of 6. Each time we took something down, we discovered even more need. For example, we took off old ceiling drywall, and realized that the beams that were supporting the roof were in bad shape, so we had to create new supports for the roof. 13 students from Martin Luther Chapel, at Michigan State Universtity spent 4 hard days of work there, and we will still be continuing the work this week.

The family is so wonderful and friendly, and each day Maria thanks us 4 or 5 times, and to see the joy in her when she looks at her new roof, or floor tile makes my heart jump a little bit. She has a great 2 year old named Alejandra who loves to play outside and help measure things or peel paper off the tile. She always says "hola", "hasta manana", "la muchacha", and "el muchacho". Erin has dubbed her "my amiguita" which is my little friend.
I never realized how happy I could feel by helping others. YLM is truly a blessing to me, and I absolutely love the work I do here, and I thank God every day for sending me here to make a difference wherever I can. Enjoy the pictures, and take care of yourselves. Please continue to pray for Enrique, and for our friend Esmerelda as well who will be having back surgery this week in Salt Lake City to correct a deformed spine.

Our "amiguita" Alejandra helping to measure wood.


Maria, with her youngest daughter, Alejandra.

Erin and her little friend.

This is where we had to put new supports in.

Old ceiling in kitchen.

Old ceiling in living room.

The floor was very unstable in spots, and we had to put in a new subfloor in area to keep things like this from happening. Their really is a body attached to those feet inside. Whoops. :)

Here is the old floor patter, just random tiles and carpeting thrown around. Many of the tiles were not even glued down and just moved as people walked.

This is what her new floor looks like.

Here is the old roof, water would just pool up on it and leak through into the house in almost every room.

Finishing up the new roof. We created a pitch in the center so water can run off either side and not pool up and damage all the stuff we did inside.