The week of March 12-19, spring break season at YLM continued with five students from North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND.

The Hinojosa family, who you will be hearing a lot about over the next few blogs, is comprised of Gilberto and Dora, 3 of their own children, and 4 of their grandchildren–9 people in all! The NDSU group is the first of many that are slated to work on the Hinojosa compound throughout the spring and summer; first up was making some improvements to an existing structure on the property; stuccoing was the most time-consuming task but it looks great from the street now! One entire day was dedicated to pouring a concrete slab that will be the foundation for a home addition to be built this coming week. The Hinojosas are incredibly gracious and generous people. They brought water, lunch, and a Port-a-Potty for the servants, and even took off work to help on slab day!

The group’s final day of work was a relaxing one spent doing odd jobs on campus and then shopping at the Mercado Juarez on wheels

Erin putting on chicken wire

I HATE stucco, so I did a lot of chin scratching and pointing

They could have used the latter, but preferred to act like monkeys

Starting the first coat of stucco

Team stucco

Since I don't do stucco, I put the forms up for the slab we were going to pour on Wednesday

Team stucco continues. Erin loves to stucco.

First coat is done

Wednesday, we poured the slab for the next group to build on

Getting the volcano ready

Multiple volcanos, plus Genaro, plus making it thinner equals a 5 hour slab

Mixing in the wheelbarrow

Genaro taught me the mad concrete skills which I now have

Hanna and Erin were the smoothers

Even the family helped out a little

Team slab

Spring Break Servants

The week of March 5-12, YLM was pleased to be one of 4 spring break mission trip options for students from Michigan State University’s campus ministry, Martin Luther Chapel. Ten students opted for El Paso and were assigned the task of building a new storage warehouse at Iglesia Luterana Santisima Trinidad. It was designed exactly like a standard house build, except that instead of a center dividing wall, it got a shelving unit. The hardworking gang finished building AND painted inside and out in just four days, even amid multiple breaks to play with neighborhood kids and the church’s newborn puppies. Enjoy the pics, and I promise I am trying to catch up on these. Canada next Wednesday, excited for that, and my first trip to Chicago.

Where we built the new toolshop. Some of you may remember there being a round building here before.

2 walls already up, and not even lunchtime yet.

Pauline showing the size of the building

Monday, Blanca and Josefina made us tacos and bean burritos

This was a bit scary

This is what happens when you don't remind the cut team to watch out for the sawhorses.

Checking in on the workers from the roof

Hanging drywall on day 2

Some of my favorite kids watching us work

There is always time for a game of tag

Carlos is supervising from the window

On Tuesday, Blanca and Josefina made us chile rellenos and homemade tortillas

Hanging drywall over the window

Pastor Hernandez and I checking out the progress

One of the leaders, Abbi, and some of the kids that came by each day

Ruby, Joana, and Kike love to help us out whenever we are there

On Wednesday, Blanca and Josefina made us burritos de rojo y verde (Green and Red chili burritos)

Pastor Hernandez and Nelson checking out some of the final tasks

Winding down on Wednesday by building some shelves. Then it was finished. 3 days. Nice work Team Sparty

For some reason, whenever I paint, this ends up on the wall.

Pauline was getting after the sanding, since Erin was not there, and Erin LOVES to sand drywall, someone had to take over for her.

On Thursday, Blanca and Josefina made us tamales.

Building stuff makes you hungry. Look at all the corn husks Nelson has from his tamales.

Pauline had even more

Pretty much finished inside. Need to sweep though.

The team from Michigan State, Nelson, me, and the puppies

Check out the creeper in the window.

Jessica and Megan, with their new friends, and Ruby and Joana too. :)

Amigos de Ysleta

Amigos de Ysleta is a new adventure to help create sustainable funding for YLM. It is a program that is almost exclusively run by regional leaders to take some fundraising things of the already busy staff. There are several phases planned, but the first phase recently rolled out in Colorado in connection with a Mariachi San Pablo concert. The first phase is to seek out monthly donors with a minimum contribution of $10.00 each month from a bank account or credit card. Plans are underway to roll this program in other regions, and implement other ideas. Once one becomes an Amigo, they will receive a special password for the Amigos store, where they will be able to get Amigos gear that is made exclusively for Amigos.

For more information, check out www.amigosdeysleta.org or www.joinamigos.org

Mission Trips

When most people think of a mission trip, they think about going somewhere (like YLM) to serve. The mission trips I am speaking of involve Erin and I leaving the mission to talk about it. You may remember my previous blog about going to Canada, and now we have another trip to Wisconsin scheduled.

You may remember Erin's winning photograph through LCMS World Mission's facebook page. Well, part of the winnings were hosting a mission fair. Since hosting such a fair at San Pablo may be futile, we asked a church in West Bend Wisconsin (St. John's) if they would like to host one. They accepted and they actually usually hold their own the Sunday after Easter. So we will get to have a YLM table at their mission fair, and then later that evening, we will be doing a Mexican Fiesta dinner, and speak about YLM in the hopes of generating excitement for them to send another team here.

Since West Bend is near Chicago, and Erin is able to do some LBT stuff there, I am going to tag along and check out a city I have never been to for a couple days. Hopefully, I will get to see some friends from St. Paul Mt. Prospect, who was here last week (blog coming soon), and enjoy the sights of a new city for a couple days. Please pray that the trips go well and for safe travels.

Catching Up

I know it has been forever since I posted a blog, but I will admit it has not been high on my priority list. When adding school to an already busy schedule, sometimes things have to get put on the back burner and unfortunately, this was one of them. I apologize to my three faithful readers, and hope to be back on track soon. The good news is I have a list of many blogs I want to write, so hopefully this will motivate me to do so.

This spring has been busy with servant events and getting ready to launch a new program called amigos de Ysleta. Blogs about these are forthcoming. Erin and I have two mission related trips coming up in April, and blogs about these are on the way as well. New YLM website is launched, make sure to check it out and enjoy all the new things on there.

Once again, sorry to be gone for so long, hope to have many new thoughts up soon. Off to do stuff for the Hinchey scholarship so I can mail it on Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

The Great White North

So normally people tell me they are going to do things, and more often than not I am left to be disappointed. This is one thing that has always driven me nuts, because I am a big believer in doing what you say you are going to do. Even if is hurts, if you say you are going to do something, you should follow through because someone may be counting on you, or expecting something.

Yesterday, my faith in that was restored. We had talked with one of the pastors from the Canada group about going up there to talk about the mission at their youth fundraiser, and even at the Canadian Seminary. Yesterday, Pastor James called and asked us how our calendar looked for April 13th to 18th. It was open, so he is now getting us tickets to come talk about the mission to the Canadian Lutherans. Super Excited.

One day we are going to the seminary to talk the students, then have a meeting with a group that is coming in May. Another day, we will do touristy stuff and go to the West Edmonton mall, which I guess is bigger than the Mall of America. That would put me at the 2 biggest malls in North America in less than a year. FUN!!. On the Sunday, we will be speaking at 3 services at the church and helping work the Youth Fundraiser for their annual trip here. Can't wait, really excited.

We are slowly coming out of Snowpocalypse. Water emergency and rolling blackouts are over, but there is still a shortage of plumbing parts in town as everyone is trying to fix broken pipes. We got some from Teri who stopped at a store in Roswell to bring them on Saturday when they came for the baptism of Alivia. Good call. Hopes are to have building 5, 13, and the main line where the pressure regulator done today. Check out the picture below of the plumbing aisle at Lowe's on Sunday, 3 days after most of the popular things were sold out. And of course there is a super cute picture of Viviana crashed out on Erin's lap with a sucker in her hand. Have a great week, stay warm through the next chill coming tonight. Lucky for El Paso, this one is going to just miss us to the east.

Unsuccessful

Remember in my last post, I talked about starting to read the 900 page Don Quixote? My goal for the weekend was to finish it, and then be able to put up a blog saying I finished. No such luck. I got sidetracked with other things, but I have finished one third of the novel, so maybe a couple more weeks and I will be done.

Hope everyone is staying warm during this snowpocalypse.

Snowpacalypse as defined in the Urban Dictionary:

A weather condition in which the amount of fallen snow, while not really such a big deal, wreaks havoc on a city, effectively shutting it down and leaving its citizens stunned and unable to see any sign of hope or a return to normalcy. It's perceived much like the aftermath of a nuclear event, but really... it's just freakin' snow!!