Monday, February 1, 2010

All we can say is thank you so much for all your prayers!!

All we can say is thank you so much for all your prayers!! God has showed himself so clearly and brought us through the difficult circumstances we went through. We have learned a lot about being apart of a community and what that means. We have seen how God has met our needs in ways we couldn't even imagine. God used a hard week to bring our team together as they worked hard, amazing to see their love for each other! We are sure that this is through your sacrifice of time to pray and give to the ministry here. God is so good and we are thankful to be God's servants here, willing to be used by Him.

God's timing and His plan can only be from Him, we continue to shake our heads in amazement. Last week 2 bridges south of us were washed out and it was not possible to go south of San Vicente. A group from Alaska was planning on going to an orphanage down south, found out about us and on Sunday showed up ready and willing to do whatever we needed. They went to Fransisco's and repaired the roof damage and moved two dump loads of dirt to secure the retaining wall. Then went down to the boys home and fixed the roof and worked on the dry wall damage. The ladies did to many loads of laundry to count and cleaned the kitchen thoroughly . They helped pour our foundation for the new apartment complex. The Big Bear team that was scheduled to do the foundation was unable to make it, so between the group and our pastors it all got done. Praise God!! God's plans are not always our plans, and He knew exactly what we needed. The pastors stayed all night after the cement was poured and kept smoothing out the cement. To our amazement all of the pastors rallied together to get this done and done well.

Update on Jamin's community, the road is still not passable. They think at least another week or two. The government has brought in trackers to move the dirt and water. Jamin's family has walked through mud and water to get into their home, there was little damage to their home or church. Praise God! The pastors have bonded together, it has been great to see them grow together. It has been a sweet time, loving on each other, helping whenever someone needed something and serving each other. During the storm, we had two days of dinners at our home for all the pastors and their families. They came together like little kids, sharing stories of their communities and how God was at work.

Through this storm God also brought a couple from Moses Lake, Wa. They were going to be with us only for a few days, but plans changed when the road was washed out south of Ensenada. They jumped in and helped us in many ways. Gene was able to go to Paradise for two days and help put up a wall on one of the churches that collapsed, he also fixed some things that needed to be fixed at our facility. Gene and Starlene get up early each day to help put out breakfast and get lunch ready. This has been a huge blessing for us. Also, one of the members of the Big Bear team who lives in Los Angeles, was able to make it down. Jim was a huge blessing, not only taking wonderful pictures and video, he pitched in and helped get the team where it needed to be. He was willing to do whatever needed to get the job done. We are so grateful for all of the people God brought along our path, just when we needed them.

Please continue to pray for us as we will need to continue to fix things at the boys home, so that they can return. This Sunday our first group arrived to start building the first floor of the apartment complex. Pray for wisdom as we need to make changes to the apartment complex. The Mexican government does not want us to build a three story building (after the last storm). We have a couple of options; pray that God will direct and that we will be wise in what way to go. Thank you all who wrote encouraging words, who prayed and those who gave. Please keep checking our facebook page we will be posting pictures and video so that you can see what is going on here in Maneadero.

Friday, January 22, 2010

UPDATE ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN ENSENADA!

Thank you so much for all your prayers, our pastoral team thanks you all as well. The pastors are all fine and their families. I will try to update you the best I know at this time, things change hourly, including the weather.

Since Sunday, Southern California and Baja Mexico had 4 major storms come through our area. These storms had a lot of rain and very strong winds, at times up to 80 miles an hour. By Thursday in the middle of the night the winds hit the strongest, with a major amount of rain. In Santo Tomas the wind was so strong it ripped off the roof of the boys home, where the boys sleep. Fransisco's family came to our home at 4am for fear that their roof would come off their home, and their home was leaking in three of the four rooms. Around 8am Jamin phoned, his family was stuck in their car as the water was rising. The military asked the families to leave, because the river (I never knew there was river!) had crested. Rick, Fransisco and Reynario left to go rescue Jamins family. The road was higher than waste deep with water, they were unable to go down. The fire department and search and rescue went down to get the families out. Jamin left with all the his kids and Jarib's, Jarib refused to leave. They had to walk through waste deep in water to be rescued, they showed up at our home with only the clothes they had on that were wet and some without shoes, and distraught. Imagine Jamin ( a man the size of Tammie) wearing Rick's clothes, VERY FUNNY! They are not sure if they will have a house or church to go back to. An hour later Sergio went into the community to rescue Jarib and his wife. In the early evening Ricardo's community was evacuated and later allowed to go back. Our apartments now have the boys from the boy's home and our second floor has a family that was evacuated. Our home is home to Jamin's family until the water goes down (hopefully by Sunday).

All areas that are at sea level have been flooded! Today we have no idea how bad Reynario's community or Jamin's community really are. It will take a few days for it to dry out. Today is the last day of the storm, at times it rains really hard and at times there is a beautiful break in the sky. Faustino and Ricardo's communities are fine with very little flooding. The road to Ricardo's is dangerous, many boulders have fallen from the mountain above and not sure if it will wash away. All of the fields are flooded, and many of the dirt streets are filled with water. Fransiscos church has major damage with due to water on the dry wall. All of the shingles on Fransiscos house flew off, causing water to enter his home as well.

Our first group arrives Sunday to start building the apartments for our groups. We need your prayers, for direction and wisdom. Depending on what the damage will be, we may need to look after the churches. PLEASE pray with us that the waters go down and that the houses and Jamin's church were spared damage. We need to help Juan with the boys home roof. Pray for money that somehow what we have will be multiplied, we do not have significant funds to repair the damage. We know that God is in control of all things, and He has a plan much greater than ours. Join us in prayer as we seek God's direction for the Ensenada Project. Continue to pray for the people of Maneadero, many do not have houses that will have made it through this series of storms.

We will update you this weekend as soon as we know how the communities made out. Thank you again for all of your prayers, we are grateful that we have internet (at least at times) so that we can communicate to all of you.