The Ensenada Project: Amazing couple of weeks being involved in His ministry!

We've made it through over half of our summer, lots of amazing stories of what God has been doing here and many answers to prayer. Our team was tested two weeks ago with the biggest group of our summer. We were a little nervous how things would go with 81 people building, eating, sleeping and getting to know each other. It was an amazing week as we looked back on how smooth everything went, and were able to build relationships. Princeton Alliance had a hefty schedule with the amount of building they wanted to get done. They managed to get a second story on Pastor Reynarios church, built three houses (almost finished all) and an extension to Pastor Jamin's house. The hardest part of the week was the amount of people who got sick. Not from the swine flu! All week they passed a virus that ran its course through just about everyone, at the end of the week even knocking out our team. Through it all, God's light shined through each member in two communities, and in each church they shared the love of Jesus. God continues to do work in the hearts of many who have come down, it has been a great encouragement to hear the stories of changed lives. One member of the team, Kevin, planned to stay with us for a month. It is has been our joy to give the opportunity for those who want to seek God's will to stay and serve God for an extended time. We look forward to seeing how God will use these opportunities to shape and mold the interns who have served here. We are grateful for the sacrifice of time and finances it takes to come and stay for a longer period of time.

During the week I was driving our car on one of the dirt roads, the car felt like it had a flat tire. I got out to check and didn't see any tires were flat. So I continued, I went onto the highway and soon realized I had no control of the car. After pulling over Stephanie and I went out and looked under the car, and the control arm to the back tire had snapped. Thankfully, I was not driving on the highway very long. I realized very quickly how God had taken care of us in a very simple way. As much as I hate the dirt roads, I was so thankful I was driving on one at that time.

Last week we only had 38, it seemed so small. But, great things happened! Michael Alcorn from Moses Lake, Washington brought a group in to do our first youth ministry week. God was at work in a great way. Each day around 40 youth came from all 5 Alliance Churches. They played games, worshipped together, danced before the Lord, listened to testimonies and heard a message prepared by youth (and Bill). The week ended with a huge youth rally at Pastor Jamin's. Over 120 Mexican youth came out, both groups of American and Mexican youth along with many adults came to worship together (probably close to 200 in total)! Rafa brought in a band from Mexicali, all cultures came together worshipping and dancing together. Michael challenged the youth, and they all came forward to put Christ first in their lives. It was a great experience ministering to the youth. Jeudy and his team from California joined the Washington group on Monday afternoon. They spent their time ministering to the children in each of the churches, and finishing up the houses from the week before. They were willing hearts wanting to do what ever was set before them. One of the greatest moments was seeing both groups, and the youth from Ensenada up front on Friday night arm in arm worshipping the same Lord in two different languages.

God's mighty name is being proclaimed throughout this humble valley. Pray for us that we will continue to seek God's face in all that we do. Pray that we will be a strong light shinning to our neighbors (all 20 of them below us), the hot dog guy (Julio) and Carlos who owns the neighborhood corner market. They know who we are and what we do, our prayer is that we will be a reflection of Christ in our words and actions.