Requests

As you can tell from reading the past blogs, we have been busy. There are still many families in the community that are dealing with the losses of their homes and trying to figure out what they are going to do. We have a group coming down from Seattle in March, but there are needs that are going to happen sooner.

We thought that we would ask anyone if they would want to send help or visit. We are going to be traveling in the next couple of days to find the hardest hit areas and see what people need as far as basic survival.

We also thought that we would write to let people know of some of our "needs." Although, these needs are not as pressing.



Ministry Needs

• New tires (after one got ruined-gouge in the side-ours were old, so we need 4 new tires-we will buy them in the US)


• SLR digital camera


• Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium (this is necessary for newsletter and website) for PC

Personal Needs

• Queen boxspring and bedframe (our mattress is on the floor)


• Wii remote (to create community of course)


• Mexican cell phones (it will cost $40 up front and $20 per month-kind of need that after the flat tire incedent)


• washing machine


• 4 dining room chairs (do not need to be new)

A flat tire at night in Tijuana!

Blowtorch: $23

Help from two guys walking by in Tijuana: $5

Help from the security guards at the rest area: $40

Help from Helio and Ricardo the next day when your car is still there: Priceless

What a night and day. Erin and I set out on a normal trip to the US for groceries for the month of February and some banking/postal errands. But what was going to be a quick trip from 1pm to 6pm, turned into an adventure.
As we returned to Mexico, we experienced some construction. It was dark and the exit was difficult to find. Erin pointed up ahead at the exit and I responded to her point and took an exit too early. Actually, it wasn't an exit. Just construction. We tried to enter back onto the road and it proved to be challenging. No gaps. Finally a car let us back on the road and so I slammed on the gas and apparently hit something. It gashed the side of our tire and we could hear it blowing out air. Not good.
We stopped and I quickly started working on the spare. I got out the tool (and by tool, I mean a little stupid piece of junk that Jeep puts in the back of the car) and worked on taking off the bits. I got 4 of the 5 bits off when the "tool" bent and stripped and did everything but work.
Two guys walking by offered to help and they went to work and couldn't get it either. They tried to help but it didn't. We flagged down a car and a guy with his wife and a bunch of kids in the back, stopped and pulled out a bunch of real tools for changing tires. But by then, it was no use. They tried to knock it off and this only made it worse as well.
They suggested that we drive the car to the rest area, which was only a quarter mile ahead. It is well-known in Mexico that if you leave your car on the road, it will probably not make it to the next morning. Usually gutted or stolen. So we drove on the flat tire.
We asked two security guards for help. And in their bullet proof vests filled with shotgun shells for their weapon, they got down on their hands and knees and went to work with whatever "tools" they could find. This consisted of a lead pipe, a screwdriver, and a bunch of other random pieces of metal.
They worked and worked and worked. But nothing was getting better. Erin and I really believed we were making progress. We didn't want to call anyone and make them drive up to us, especially since we didn't really want to use our US cell phone. We don't have a Mexico plan so we know that using it is REALLY expensive. So we waited. Hoping that it would be fixed.
At 8pm, Erin was ready to call and quit. But we only had two numbers for people in La Mision. So I suggested we work a little bit longer. And as we swung lead pipes at our innocent hands, we really wanted it to come off.
After a while, I could see that this wasn't going to work. I was ready to call someone. But now it was 10pm. We called our friends, Brendan and Sarah. They were awake and thought I was playing a practical joke on them. But he quickly realized that I was not joking. (she didn't) He grabbed some tools and jumped in the car and headed to rescue us. I was freezing at tired and hungry at this point, so we waited in the car until he arrived. The security guards told us we could leave our car by their shack for the night.
Brendan arrived at 11:10pm. He brought with him a power drill and whatever tools he had. We worked on it more with the security guards and with the drill not lasting long and the hammer only a little bit better than a lead pipe, we weren't getting anywhere. At 12:30am, we decided to quit and work on it in the morning.
We loaded up our refridgerated goods, paid the security guards each a $20, and prayed that our car would remain there until the morning.
The next day, I woke up and talked to Helio and Pastor about our adventure. Pastor said we could use his blue van and Helio said he would go and fix it. We grabbed every tool we could think to help along with two drills and chisels and all my drill bits.
Ricardo joined us. He is a 19 year old guy that lives with us here at the church. He grew up at the Door of Faith orphanage.
We drove the long trip to Tijuana. We started working on the tire which was much easier in the daylight, with better tools, and with Helio. But it was messed up. We started pounding away at it, but it was not working again. We decided we needed a blowtorch. Helio and I went to a hardware store close by (luckily Helio knew Playas de Tijuana really well since he works

the elections there). We continued to use the torch and the drills (we went through 3 battery charges) and at 5pm, Helio muscled off the tire.

We replaced the tire with the spare and I drove it back to the church.
All in all, it was a great adventure. We prayed and prayed that God wo

uld help us and take off the tire. But instead of it going the way I wanted it, it was better. God asks us to praise Him in the good, the bad, and the inconvenient. We were blessed with nice people in Tijuana, a safe night, and the help from people who care about us. And to be honest, this really is one of the worst fears of us in La Mision. And it was no problem. If God is with us, who can be against us? I got home at 6:30pm and Erin was there all stressed for me. But I was filled with joy, because of this adventure that we got through.

And even though we didn't have water for a shower (it has been out since Sunday morning and is supposed to be out for a week more), I get so excited that life is happening.

Our motto this year has been, "Turn off the TV and started living our own adventures!" Considering we have lived through a flood, a power outage, a water crisis, and now a flat tire at night in Tijuana, so far, we couldn't be more happy that God has put us where we are at this time in our lives!

FLOOD!

At 2am, the police stopped by the church and pounded on the doors. They told everyone that the flood is coming. Erin heard voices and got up said, "there is a river flowing through our church." We got dressed and started filling sandbags and sweeping water away from the church. It had started to get into the basement of the church. After a while, we stood around and enjoyed our work of blocking all the doors. Erin and I went back to sleep. But someone pounded on our door again at 6am with water everywhere! There was 5 inches of water in the lower floor of the house. The water continued to rise. Erin made coffee for us as we struggled to keep out water and bail out the water that was already there. Pictures describe it best...

We are all ok. There is definitely damage to the house and to the church, but the neighbors and the people at the church are all fine. There is more rain in the forecast. Pray that it doesn't bring more damage!

We Survived!

When it rains… it pours a river off the roof! A picture of some of the rains we’ve recently experienced!

Sunday night after I (Erin) and Chad ate dinner (I made a stir-fry using all local vegetables from our market in La Mision. I would list them I was so excited to just throw everything in the wok…but don’t want to bore you) we were playing a card game the power flickered and then went out.

This is an unusual experience for us as the power rarely goes out for us. However, out it went.  Monday it stayed off and we learned from our friend Helio that we shouldn’t expect it to return until Tuesday around 5pm. 

On Monday afternoon however the rains came. So I was thinking it probably wouldn’t come back on for even longer because when it rains all the dirt roads turn to mud and cars get stuck. 

Even with the power off our lives weren’t affected much. We could still heat water with our gas stove and make coffee. We don’t have heat, so that didn’t change. And we didn’t have much food in the fridge that we had to worry about spoiling. So all in all the power outage made us just feel a bit disconnected from people, as we didn’t have access to the internet or our phone (since we use Skype).

Monday night when it started to get dark and was still raining, Chad and I went downstairs and ended up having a great time playing dominos by candle light with Pastor, Pastora, Gustavo, Enrique, and Edgar.  Sofia played guitar for us. We also ate with them, which was such a blessing as Pastora Elizabeth's cooking is so good.  She made her delicious flour tortillas, so for dinner we had bean burritos with guacamole.   YUM!

Tuesday was clinic day for me, and I didn’t think we were going to hold it since it was still looking like it was going to rain and the power hadn’t returned. But yet, Sarah came up to our apartment around 9:30am looking for me saying even in rain and no power clinic would still be open!  It started raining around maybe 12 and there was one patient who had to walk a long ways to her house…so I got inventive and cut out a poncho for her.  The clinic also has a visitor volunteering her work, so she will be joining us in clinic for the next two weeks. 

Clinic by lantern light! Sarah treating a baby boy sick with a cold.

One of our patients sweeping the water to make sure we could still walk through it from the clinic door.

My creative skills at work with a poncho I made for one of our patients!

Our volunteer Ebony, who came all the way from Philadelphia to work at the clinic.

Good to be back

Well this week has been great. We have had many things happen. First, Erin and I have decided to give up media...to a degree. We found that last year, we retreated to watching Friends on DVD to escape the cold winter nights (and it gets REALLY cold here at night...last night we had three blankets on and I would wake up when one would get a little low--that's what happens when you have no heat!). We also found that we were choosing to watch movies or internet shows more than we think was healthy. It was just much easier than taking the risk to go and build community.
So far, it has been a real blessing. It helps that we can speak more Spanish, so that we don't just sit there and pretend to laugh when other people are laughing.
We are trying to fill that time with building quality relationships.
Just the other night, we were trying to figure out what to do after dinner. We usually go downstairs and hang out with people playing games. We heard a knock on the door and it was a friend who needed to talk. We gave this person counsel in sadness and it was totally in Spanish. Erin and I were very impressed with our understanding.
Yesterday, I turned into the ambulance driver. Gabriel got something in his eye from working with tile and was in pain. The clinic could not assist. So I ran him into Ensenada to an optician. I was able to watch as he dug a chunk of tile out of Gabriel's eye. It was intense.
I took him back again this morning and brought Edgar to school. We stopped at Angelito's where I picked up a bunch of fish for dinner. (one Kg for only 40 pesos!)
We are excited for a big weekend full of activities. It is so nice to be back!

Back from Seattle

We were greeted with this party as we arrived back in La Mision

Happy New Year. Actually, New Decade!

Erin and I returned on Saturday from a long trip to Washington. As we sit and look back on the trip, there are many things that stand out. One is that we were there for a long time. We went to an amazing wedding of some close friends and it was great to be there. This was why we decided to be in Seattle for the whole month. Second, we went to work trying to raise money to support our mission. We both found out that we don't really like this part of our job, but it is necessary. The need for survival makes you bold. By the end of the trip, I was lining up dinners with people at Starbucks when I would run into them.

After a lot of meetings and odd jobs, we finally arrived at Christmas. It was a very wonderful time. We spent a lot of time together with the Cantini family. We always have incredible food with them.

All in all, it was so nice to be in Seattle with all of our friends and family. We were blessed by so many people who were so giving to us. But deep down inside, I was longing to be in La Mision. I literally felt pain from being away from our home. I would think of the people I would see when I would return to church, and it literally hurt. I was ready to get back home.

That is a good sign. We were confirmed that while being in Seattle surrounded by our great community, wonderful family, awesome food, and a huge TV, we missed our true home.

As we drove into La Mision on Saturday, we were greeted with a huge birthday party for Fred Imanuel. He turned one. He didn't know what was going on. But they threw a huge party for him with Pizza, a bouncy castle, facepainting, and of course a pinyata.

Church did not disappoint either. It was so good to be back in worship and with all of our friends that we missed so deeply.

As we were driving south on I-5 for a long, long time, we both began to feel the excitement of getting to work in the community and all of the wonderful ways that God is working in our lives this year. We are so grateful for all of the support that we continue to receive and we feel honored to be able to partner with you to live our lives fully for Christ!