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.
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.
