no.93 130801 Thank you for the completion of the house and the ministry in Bella Vista

The house we built for the family in Cerro del Cuatro, Mexico.

Yesterday was a long day as we began with the construction work in the morning, and had another schedule in the evening. We went to pastor Rolando's church for their Wednesday worship. I'll update the details later!

I woke up to the thunder this morning. It was raining really hard and I was afraid that we may not be able to finish the house today. Thankfully, when we were about to leave the rain stopped. Another concern we had was the road condition. As I have mentioned, the house is up on a high hill and the road is not paved. It seemed like that area didn't get much rain. However, we didn't want to take our chance so we parked the van somewhere safer than where we normally park and decided to make our way to the site.

We had to rush a little bit because we were behind schedule. The back and the side interior walls, and some of the front exterior walls needed to be up. Afterwards, we plastered the gap between the drywall panels and covered the drills. And voila! The house was done. After tidying up, we called the family over to the house and did a small dedication ceremony. I got so emotional seeing the mother of the family tear up as she received the key to the house. Although it was difficult and tiring construction work, it was definitely worth our time and sweat. I felt so thankful to be a part of this team to build the house, although this house is literally only a box. The sad part is that although it's only a box, it's probably the nicest house in that neighbourhood. It was an amazing experience. To see how God used us to do such a wonderful work. 

With Mariana in Bella Vista. I bought a bracelet from her and she gave me another one as a gift.

 

The next destination was a place called 'Bella Vista'. All the information I got was that we will be doing the praises and the skits. I didn't know if it was gonna be at a church or somewhere else. I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't even prepare my testimony to share, but I ended up sharing it. It took us a little less than an hour to get to Bella Vista. We arrived at someone's house for dinner, and I found out that was the place where we will be for the rest of the evening. After some authentic Mexican dinner, we started off the worship with praises, testimonies and then a message by the pastor Peter, who is the leader of this mission trip. Then we had a time of prayers. I've been forgetting the fact that church isn't the only place to worship God. Whether we're at the church, one's house or even out in the field, it doesn't matter where you're at as long as you have the heart to worship. Another thing I found encouraging was the people who came late. There wasn't enough seats so they were sitting outside the door, trying to listen to the message. It was amazing to see that. I really enjoyed the ministry at Bella Vista. I wish I could go back while we're here but apparently we are not. I really hope to see them again, especially the little kids that I met today.

I'm so grateful for today. I feel blessed to be on this mission trip and just excited to see how God will work through these people I've met today.

no.91 130730 Thank you for the construction day

Our team is done for the day.
We've been building a house on a high, high hill. I don't know the name of the region, but it takes about half an hour from the Korean church where we're staying at. The more we drove up on the hill, the poorer the neighbourhood was.

It looked like a garbage dump. We met the family whom we are building the house for. The kids were playing on the ground with their broken toys beside glass bottles. I wish I canp show you a photo of what the house/ the neighbourhood looks like. But I gotta wait until I get home! I was so heart broken that I teared up when I saw how they were living. It is something that I've seen before on TV, but it was definitely different when I saw it in person. You really don't know what it's like until you see it with your eyes in front of you.

We have completed putting up the two walls on the sides, and we also managed to put up the roof on top. We started the facade and placed a window on it. We stared about 9AM and went on until 6PM. Thankfully it wasn't too sunny nor rainy, so the weather was perfect for a construction work. I'm thankful for today's work that God did through us, and I'm also thankful that no one got injured.

Please pray for us that we will complete the house for God's glory, and that God will grant us safety and physical health. I pray for the good weather as well. I also pray that through that one house, the family of the house as well as the neighbourhood will be open hearted in coming to know God. I pray that the house will be a blessing for the family and the neighbourhood.

no.90 130729 Thank you for the safe trip to Mexico

Here I am in Guadalajara, Mexico!!

We arrived safely but I am exhausted! I barely got any sleep on the plane, and even last night at church, I think I slept for an hour max. As soon as we got to the airport, two pastors that we'll be working with greeted us. We came straight to the Korean church where will be our home for the next 10 days. After a quick meal, we got our scrapers and started scraping off the paint off the exterior wall of the church. I think we started around 2:30is and we just finished about half an hour ago. I feel so good after a shower!!!!

We are off to another church for our next assignment in fifteen minutes!!
It's raining now. Please pray that the rain will go away tomorrow morning when we start construction work!

I'm thankful for a safe flight to Mexico. Although I'm exhausted, I pray that God will provide physical strength to our team so that we could carry out all the things we need to do on this mission trip!