Man mountains

Hello,

So this has taken me a few days to post because I am in the weeds with work, but needed a mental break, so I will post this right quick. I spent last week in Colorado, and brought Erin with me. We originally went to see a couple Rockies games, spend Easter with my family, attend a servant event planning meeting at my church, and get some music equipment donated. Never did make it back with any music equipment, and the trip was extended a couple days due to the fire at the mission, and the 16 inches of snow on the day we planned to leave. We did make it back safe and sound though, just a little later than planned.

We filled our days with lot's of touristy type stuff. I took Erin to a few Colorado original restaurants, and 2 that actually started in Colorado (Chipotle, and Noodles and Company.) We saw 2 Rockies games, went to the Coors Brewery, the mountains, red rocks amphitheater, museum of nature and science, and the art museum. I actually liked the art museum more than I thought I would, and would have liked it even more if not for this stupid, big, half of a floor taking up, everything red except the gray foxes, no purpose having, don't even know why it would be there, let alone take up half of a floor, restaurant.

I did like seeing some paintings by famous artists though. Like Monet and Picasso. It makes me wonder where the security was though, because the paintings were just chilling out there, and online, similar paintings have sold anywhere from 40-88 million dollars. My most favorite thing by far was this creepy lady in a box. It was like a doll, laying in a trunk, with a video of some real lady talking and kind of freaking out. We took about a minute of video and it is posted below. Erin and Mom thought it was creepy, but I thought it was cool.

I hope everyone is doing well, I have to get back to my to do list. Have a great weekend and enjoy the Spring.

Cherry Creek Reservoir, near my parents house. A good place to walk.

View of the mountains from Coors Field

The Field

Erin in the purple seats. This row is exactly one mile above sea level.

My sister's seats for Saturday game. We moved down there after the third inning.

Our seats for Easter Sunday game. The weather sucked and the Rockies bullpen blew it, but it was still fun to be with friends and family.

We ate at White Fence Farm. Great fried chicken. They had a petting zoo, and Erin fed this big bull named Tank. He was huge and followed her around after she fed him thinking she may have some more food for him.

Baby goat at the petting zoo. Watch out for the landmine though :)

Went to the mountains one day. Still an awful lot of snow up there.

Waterfall and water wheel in Idaho Springs, the waterfall is cool because it is still half frozen.

Erin at the Continental Divide. Her left foot is on the Atlantic side.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Constantly voted best place for an outdoor concert by bands that play there.

Row 55 at red rocks was declared as the place with best view of the Denver skyline. This picture is from row 55. What do you think?

Coors brewery. That is a lot of Lutheran Lemonade

16ish inches of snow held us over a couple more days.

This is the video of the creepy lady at the art museum.

Prayers and help needed

Many of you who have been to the mission before may know Rita, the cook, and her family--sons Jon and Leo and daughter Diana. Erin and I unfortunately found out yesterday that her house (one of the buildings on the mission's campus) burned down. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Firefighters said that the fire was caused by some wiring that had been sparking recently. The building itself is still standing and a portion will be covered by insurance, however a large portion of the cost will still be incured by the mission. All of their possessions were lost. In addition, the family is thinking about cancelling Diana's quinceanera (giant 15th birthday party currently scheduled for May 1). Since we are in Colorado right now, they will sleep at our houses until we get back, or maybe shortly thereafter, but we don't yet know where they will go from there.

If you would like to help them out in their time of need, please contact me ((303)748-0950 or chill@ylm.org) or Erin ((314)591-1159 or emackenzie719@yahoo.com . Financial contributions or donations of clothing, housewares, appliances, etc. would be appreciated. Please also keep the entire Ramos family in your prayers, as well as the mission as it copes with one less building and no gas for a few days while they figure out that there is no further damage anywhere. Also feel free to pass this on to anyone else who many know Rita, add this to the prayer list at your church, etc.

I look forward to watching how the Lord will bless Rita and her family through you!

Spring is in the air

Good morning,

So the spring break season of servant event trips has ended, and now we have a break from groups until the busy summer season begins around the end of May. The weather here has been fairly good, today looks like it will be fantastic, about 85 degrees, however, apparantely we are in the "windy" season, so we have had some days with wind warnings, like over 50 miles per hour, and I guess it supposed to be like that today. I have to admit, I am kind of over the wind.


So, I bet you are asking yourself if there is any work for us to do when there are no groups? Well, the is answer is BOY!!! There is always something we can be doing. Erin and I are actually going to take our own "spring break" and go to Colorado for a few days. She has been to Colorado before, but hasn't really had a chance to see much, so we thought we would get some much needed R&R of our own and head up there for Easter. We are going to take in a couple Rockies games, go to the mountains, and see some of the other touristy type Denver stuff. It should be a nice break.

In the meantime, (and probably even when in Colorado), it is time to tackle the to do lists in the office. I am currently working on 3 different grants, one for a Pastoral Renewal Program (sabattical), one for the hot meal program, and one for planting a new mission in Sparks. I have identified a couple other foundations for different programs and will be working on those once I finish a couple of the other ones, so my mind doesn't get too confused and I start putting the wrong info into the proposals. Even though the economy is bad, we are still in need of funds, and luckily there are still foundations out there posting their RFP's. Erin has a little bit of downtime in her daily work of preparing for groups, so she has been awesome in helping me research foundations and even fill out some stuff on the proposals. She leaves the fun stuff to me though, like the budgets, and narratives, but that's ok, I am very grateful for her help.

She is also helping with the Join Hands Day, which I don't know too much about, but I guess it is a national program where communities join together to distribute items to the people. We are going to be doing school supplies and food baskets here on May 2nd. Please check out http://www.joinhandsday.org/ for information on how you can get involved. We are in need of backpacks or handbags to fill with the school supplies and of non perishable food items for our distribution, so if you can help us, please do.

In addition to the grants, I will be working on some other fundraising things for YLM, scouting projects for the summer and preparing a special sheet that shows what supplies are needed, time frame for the projects, etc. Also, as I said in the previous post, I am going to finish that house. It is almost done, but there are a few things that I want to tighten up. Still need to install the sink in the bathroom, tile the bathroom, another coat of paint inside, and to brace one more section of floor in the back hallway. These thing should keep me busy for at least a couple days. :)

Sorry, no new pictures for this post, but maybe I will have some of the Denver trip for you.

Oh, I almost forgot, so the LCMS World Relief and Human Care is putting together a website of their RSO's (Recognized Service Organizations) and one time I talked to a Deaconess there about something or other, I think it was for a mini grant opportunity or something, but we got to talking about how I came to Ysleta, and I guess she really liked my story, because a few weeks ago she contacted me and asked if they could feature me and my story for the initial lauch of this website. So that is kind of cool. I don't really know the time frame, but I think it is close because I have sent my story in, and then they asked for some photos, so I think it could be pretty soon. I'll post a link once it is up.

Hope you have a fantastic Easter. He is risen!!!

I will finish this house even if it kills me :)

Well, here we are. All finished with the spring groups. Most of the groups worked in the Sparks Colonia. As you have read in previous blogs, a lot of good things are happening in Sparks, and we are definitely "in" good with the community. I can't wait to see what other things happen with our summer groups who elect to work on the U.S. side this summer.

Speaking of that, I was talking to Pastor Hernandez yesterday, and he told me that there has been a 70% decline in the violence in Juarez since the extra military troops arrived at the beginning of March. Even though Erin and I both personally have never felt unsafe when traveling and working in Juarez, this is still really good news to hear. Basically, that means the Juarez is safer now than it was when I first came to the mission full time last July. I am still ecstatic that we were able, and will continue to do extra work in the Sparks neighborhood, as we have developed some long lasting friendships there.

This past week, as you will see from the pictures, we got o so close to completing the big project. Like I said before, every time we go to fix the initial repair, we find 2 more things that must be done first to really fix it right. As much as it has been frustrating and a pain sometimes, I feel it is better to spend the time to fix it right now than to bring a group back again next year or in two years to redo it all again. Let's do it right now, and watch the joy in the family's faces as the children grow up in a safe home that has working plumbing and electricity. The biggest example of the "double challenge" as I like to call it this week came when we were going to change the element in the hot water heater and fix the cold water line to the kitchen sink. We got into the sink, and realized that there was so much rust, dirt, and corrosion in the pipes that the water couldn't get through them. We checked a couple other spots to see if that could be the reason why the water was either running slow or not coming at all, and it was. Guess what that meant? A trip to Lowe's. Aisle 13 for plumbing parts. Pipe, couplings, adapters, elbows, solder, flux, etc, etc, etc, and now the family has water running everywhere throughout their house. I think I might even hook it up to their refrigerator because it has one of those water and ice things in the door, but I don't know if it works or what the "double challenge" will be with that.

Erin and I found out that it is the youngest son's birthday today, so as we speak there is a chocolate cake baking in my oven that we are going to take to him tonight after dinner as a little bonus surprise. We told the mom about it yesterday, and she got very excited and said he would love it. We are also going to take some food we bought for them, as it pains us to see the empty cupboards and refrigerator at their house. For some reason, this family truly touches every group they come in contact with. One group a couple weeks ago left some money for us to buy things like towels, washcloths, towel rods, tp holders, etc for the family. Another is taking up a small collection to contribute towards what it cost to get the water to come back on. It is such a joy for me to be able to do all this work in His name and to see the appreciation and joy on his face. I can't wait until more groups come to do this wonderful work, and I think in the meantime, Erin and I will go over on our own time to finish some last minute details that this past week's group couldn't complete at the two houses they worked on.

Sorting, cutting, and threading the copper pipe.

Sorting all the plumbing elbows, couplings, adapters, etc.

It's finally painted, but something should be done with the porch.

I guess it can be torn out and broken down.

Let's build a new one, since only one person could stand on the old, and might fall through depending on where they stepped.

Build some new stairs.

Put the stairs next to the new porch.

It's starting to come together.

Railing is up, putting the "skirt" on.

Working on the new plumbing.

I must have been in a good mood, because I offered to smoke brisket for them. I smoked it for 11 1/2 hours. P.S. thanks for the shirt Kristine. :)

This is what it looked like when it was done.

Finishing up the plumbing under the kitchen sink.

The new porch, all painted and complete. What do you think as compared to the old one from a few pictures above?

Had some bad elements, and plumbing to the hot water heater as well, who knows how long they didn't have hot water, but they do now. :)

All the plumbing is ran and tied in, and goes where it needs to. HOORAY!!!!!!

The finished shot of the front door, check out the new numbers over the window.