My last house in J-Town

Another week, another trip to a mission site I have never been to. This week took us to San Pedro y San Pablo, the farthest mission site from the campus. It is another home site that is the mission family of Pastor Hernandez and Santisima Trinidad. Pastor calls is Kilometro 33, which means it is 33 kilometers from the border. I thought we would be driving forever, and it is a pretty good drive, but it actually seemed closer to me than I thought it would be. This was my last time working in Juarez with the summer groups, as I will be with groups in Chihuahua City or El Paso for the rest of the summer.

Not only were we working in Juarez, but we had 2 groups stateside. A group led by our winter missionaires, Dave and Paige Rohlf put in a huge effort in remodeling building number 1. Painting, tiling, ceiling work, and new blinds were hung. This building will be used for Sunday school, a pastoral study, the mariachi, and plans are being discussed about a gift shop as well. I went to take some pictures, but it was already locked up, so I will post those as soon as I can get them.

MOST ministries, (Mission Opportunity Short Term) also had a group working in Sparks and Horizon City. A VBS was held in the Sparks community center each morning, the afternoons were spent doing some repairs on home in Sparks, as well as some painting in Horizon City. This group came together from 3 different cities and worked together to have a great week here at the mission. Those photos will follow as well.

I am very excited today as I will be heading to Chihuahua City this evening, where Erin and I will spend a week interpreting for an eyeglass clinic being put on by another MOST Ministries group. We had a breakdown of communication and thought the clinic was to begin tomorrow, but the group actually doesn't arrive until late tomorrow night, so we will try and do some fun touristy stuff tomorrow. Maybe a market and lunch, or some cavern exploring, who knows. Although it is work, it is just extra exciting because we will be in a different city working at another site I have never been to. Enjoy the pictures.

Oh, and I lost a bet with Krysia on the MLB allstar game, so now I have to cook dinner. I would tell you what I am going to make, but I think she reads this blog, so I can't. If you really want to know, you can ask me to email you. Once we get back from Chihuahua, Erin's parents are coming to town and I am barbecuing smoked brisket, smoked porkloin, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese (not barbecued), and rolls. Sorry you call can't be here, but we will enjoy it for you. :)

The 2 houses in the distance (the tan and the gray) are the actual mission site. We built a house for the mother of the family that lives at the mission, just a couple lots away.

This is the only picture of me working from the whole week, I don't know why, cause I worked a lot. The group only had 4 people at the start of the week, and a joiner on Wednesday, and they gave the record a run for it's money.

Pastor Micah from the group really liked this photo. The window and wall you see was the first time that Erin had laid out a wall with a window, and she did really good. Pretty soon she will be leading house builds on her own.

Growing up in Colorado, I saw a few regular thunderstorm tornados, but here we see dust tornados.

Erin learned about running electric, I forgot to mention the sawdust though.

More sawdust from the drilling.

A couple of coke bottles fell in between the drywall. They are forever part of the house now.

Erin and her awesome safety goggles.

Genesis, Josue, and Me

Me tickling Genesis. She said we could be friends, maybe I can get her to tell Jennifer from last week that I am a good guy and she can be my friend too.

St. Peter from Arlington Heights Illinois.

New shirt at the market. They will have bracelets soon and already have window decals for you car.

San Pablo wins award

U.S. Commerce Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

WASHINGTON D.C., June 8, 2009 -- San Pablo Lutheran Church has been selected for the 2009 Best of El Paso Award in the Churches category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2009 USCA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

Records were made to be broken

Who would have thought that during the hottest week of the summer so far, the record would fall for quickest house building. It used to be 3 1/2 days from start to complete, which would be the last coat of joint compound sanded on the drywall. This week, a great group of 7 people from West Bend Wisconsin shattered the previous record. For ease of communication, I will say it was done in 3 days, however it was more like 2 2/3. These were regular work days, no extra time spent working late, or starting too early. We usually started around 8:30 and finished before 4 each day. I was amazed at the energy and desire this team had to succeed.

Unfortunately, the size of this group had also shrunk due to the concerns over violence in Juarez. As basically every group before them, they had no fears at all after being here for a couple days, and were very dissapointed in how it being portrayed in the media. They all felt extremely safe and comfortable, and truly enjoyed doing His work for a wonderful family.

Due to the quickness of the build, they also built a bench for the family to sit on outside the home, took a trip to the Mercado Juarez, and had a nice relaxing siesta Friday afternoon. We celebrated the birthday of one of the group members at Andale Friday night, and returned back to the campus for some of my homemade apple pie that I had hinted to them about all week.

Even though the thermometer topped 100 each day, it was still a great week doing God's work. Anyone want a leftover piece of pie? I put a couple pics of Ninja and Bear at the end of the blog because I like them, and everyone likes to show pictures of thier kids right? Mine are just of the dog variety. Have a great week, talk to you soon.

Oh, PS, San Pablo won an award, I am going to steal Erin's blog and post it so you can read about it if you don't read her blog. Thanks Erin,

Cutting the last piece of siding for the last wall. This was before lunch ;)

I like this picture. It is looking out the framed window in the back of the house, and I just think it is a good picture, so I put it here.

Brenda and Hugo selecting colors for the house. After lunch on Monday, we knew we would have time to paint it. Basically, Erin and I got every color of paint card at Lowe's and she put them on key rings by number and now we show them to people we are painting for so they can choose exactly what they want and do have to say something like coffee brown, or milkshake brown.

Karen, the leader of the group helping to put the last couple rafters up.

After day one, all walls, rafters, and roof plywood. No wonder Kristine and I were tired when we got back to the mission.

The group out front after day 1.

Cutting some drywall to be hung by the door.

More drywall hanging.

Me tickling Jennifer. I asked her like 10 times if she was my amiga, and she kept saying no. Her mom tried to help the cause, but no luck :(. Maybe some day.

The excellent roofing crew, and they barely have any tar on them.

Texture too.

Me painting the "man room". The other room was pink, so Derek (the only guy from their group in Juarez) and I stayed away from that paint.

Kristine, Emily, and Becky did the second coat in the man room, nice contrast from pink room to blue room.

From blue room to pink room.

The happy family. Hugo, Brenda, Jesus, and Jennifer

Panchis, Kristine, and I. Panchis was in the middle, but I thought that would look weird, so we tried this. I kind of like this picture though.

The group, Kristine, myself, and the family.

Ninja

Bear

New mission site, new bridge, info update

Oh wow, another day with 2 blogs posted. This week was our "easy" week of the summer. I took almost all of Tuesday off, had to talk to Genaro about some projects, and went to the office to find him after he found me and got asked a question, but overall a very relaxing day.

Only one group this week, from Indiana. They are an awesome group. Fun to be around, joking, and they even took us to Cattlemans on Wednesday. I think we might have upset a couple today though because they were so fast with their projects, that they worked in Sparks today on a grant home, ran into a snag, and it took me a while to get to them with some materials.

This group got the honor to be the first group to work at our new mission site. Sin Paredes, which mean without walls. There are some walls though, and a big rock one is going to be built by some of the members at Cristo Rey. Erin and I went there on Wednesday and Thursday to do an inventory of everything that is there. It has a big kitchen and dining hall, a Sunday school room and sanctuary upstairs, dorm rooms, bathrooms, showers, and a caretakers house where Marta lives now. It is a sweet place that is being donated to us from another church that has run it for several years.

After inventory on Thursday, because the downtown bridge line looked super long, we thought we would drive west to the Santa Teresa bridge that crosses into New Mexico. Genaro said it was like an 8 minute drive, but it was more like 15 and you drive right along the border in Juarez. Check out the pics below.

2 groups next week, both doing houses in J-Town, plus Lone Tree got here today and they are doing some deconstruction of some trailers in Sparks that burned down several weeks ago, and we hope to help the families rebuild there.

Look for a YLM fire update soon. Meetings with construction company, adjusters, engineers etc., have been happening and are happening this week as well.

View from right outside Sin Paredes, the train tracks are actuall on the U.S. side. If you have a good golf shot, you can hit them from here.

One of the guys from the group this week taking a break from patching the roof. All the roofs needed some major repairs and they got done this week, as well as some drywall that needed to be replaced.

View of Mt. Cristo Rey from Sin Paredes.

A better view of the train tracks that are the U.S. side.

The border fence, there was actually a guy walking by it and we were wondering if he was gonna jump it. Never did find out.

Couple more of the group mudding some drywall.

View from Sin Paredes towards Texas.

View down the street from the site. It is right off the main road to Anapra

The border fence. Grrrrr. Ask my mom her opinion on it. We were this close driving to the Santa Teresa bridge.

Actually had to drive through the fence when waiting in border line. It wasn't really a bridge, but a port of entry.

The other side. I think they close the door at night because this one is only open from 6 am to midnight.

Right up next to it. Grrrrr.No comment.

Pics from last week as promised

As I mentioned in the last blog, we had several job sites going on at once last week. Here are a few pics from the other 2 sites that I did not post any from. Enjoy.

Small addition in Sparks, didn't get finished, but that's ok. Had to build a base for it about 20 inches off ground to make it at same level as other trailer and for water to run under. Mom, this one is going to be done with stucco if you want to come down and help.

Got all the insulation up

And some of the drywall in one of the rooms

Some air vents on the roof to keep it a little cooler.

Reyes home that is replacin the trailer to the right. This is also a work in progress, but most of the framing is done. Sorry there are no inside pics of this one, they were not home when we went by to get them.

Shot from the front door.

Porch area, this one is going to be done with stucco too, so we can use your help mom.

Shot from the front

And from the side.