Wednesday Mexico update
Don’t be confused … I’m writing this on July 3rd, but it’s 6:45am here, and by the time I got to my room last night, it was WAY too late to give the day’s update. Sorry about that … hope this still makes the rounds.
What an amazing day we had on Wednesday! There must be a huge amount of family & friends praying for us, because God is working so powerfully in our midst here! I’m changing up the format of the report today for something different, and because God was doing too many cool things yesterday that crossed over from team to team, so reporting by team won’t work as well. Here’s the highlights:
- One house (Building Team #2/Wooden) is basically done … all they have left to do is hang the front door on Thursday!
- The other house (Building Team #1/Hewko) is coming along very well, and some of Team #2 moved over to this location on Wednesday to help with bringing it to completion faster
- Both houses had beds built in yesterday (this is an “extra” that isn’t in the original plans) … so all 6 kids will have bunk beds to sleep in, and Maria (single mom) will have a “double bed” to rest on in her new bedroom
- We made arrangements at both house locations to have the power hooked up to the house as soon as possible … it may even be by the end of this week (another “extra”)!
- James Nelson took a few people from Building Team #2, along with Maria and her girls, and Pastor Tony’s wife (to interpret) to Walmart on Wednesday, and completely outfitted all 3 with new clothes for the next year, AND a full assortment of school supplies for the girls! You should have seen James’ face when they returned … I don’t think he’s EVER had that much fun before! And the family was SO grateful and overwhelmed by this gesture … in fact, Shar Shoff had to “teach” Maria how to shop for herself, because in all her life she has never done so … always lived on hand-me-downs from her sister, and the only purchases she has ever made were just for her daughters.
- When I arrived at Building Site #1, I found Ryan Law sitting on the gravel, with a toy paddle in his hands, playing a game with a little guy that couldn’t have been over 2 or 3 years old … was the cutest picture.
- The VBS Crew was having another busy and fun day with the kids … we lost count on Wednesday of the numbers of children, but it didn’t matter … I have some great pictures and video of smiling faces and great singing! The children all received toothbrushes/toothpaste today, along with an awesome demonstration of how to brush your teeth by Jess Nelson. This VBS team is amazing … we’re going to have to figure out how to do some city-wide/area-wide VBS programs at home in the future, because they are great!
- The Youth Centre is finished, and it looks amazing! Doors are in, windows are in, and the paint job is unbelievable! I’ve attached a picture, the quality of which isn’t that great … but it does give you a bit of an idea of the incredible paint job inside the room … WHICH WAS DONE COMPLETELY BY FINGERPAINTING (since the Mercy Team didn’t have the right size of brushes to do the detail work). The man giving the thumbs-up is Tony Jr. – the youth/worship pastor for the church … and the man in the yellow shirt behind him a ways is his dad – Pastor Tony.
- Myself and the other Pastor Greg spent pretty much the entire workday driving around Ensenada/Chepultapec with the cargo van … picking up furniture that had been pre-purchased by Gwen Rubie … purchasing additional furnishings for both homes, and lumber to build the beds … and buying a huge tarp to cover the new shelter built at the church for the services! Pastor Tony travelled with us most of the day as well, and as we found each thing we were looking for, he would get goosebumps and tear up a bit … this week has been somewhat overwhelming for him already too!
These are all great things, and even if the day had ended after all of this, we would have been thrilled! But the BEST was still yet to come! We had an early supper at the YUGO base, and then at 6:30pm the entire team of 67 loaded in the vans and drove back to Pastor Tony’s church … all decked out in our good clothes (Ryan Law even had on a tie – with a bright red Canadian flag on it). There we joined with about 100 people from the church … and together we had an incredible 2 hours of worship & testimonies together, with Pastor Greg Clark bringing a great message at the end. This was probably THE highlight of the week for everyone … and everyone sensed a very special moving of the Holy Spirit in our midst there. Families with small children … grandpas and grandmas … men from the halfway house that the church owns/operates … teens and leaders from Canada … all lifting their voices, their hands (and even their bodies … the children, the pastor and some of the men jump during the singing – so you KNOW a ton of our kids joined in too!) in worship of Christ our Saviour! What a night! What a night!
So what can you pray for today?
- As I type, it is spitting a bit of rain outside right now, and while we don’t mind the cool, we really would prefer to not have a lot of rain today as we finish the houses and the final day of VBS.
- The Mercy Team will be going to an orphanage this morning – which is really cool, since they have spent the week so far covered in paint and having very little contact with local people – so they are understandably excited about this. But please pray especially for them as they go this morning … I am a bit concerned about the emotional overload of this trip today, as they are very worked up to go, and wanting desperately to get the most out of these couple of hours with the kids.
- Pray for safety for those who will be connecting the power to the houses today (none of our kids).
- Pray for the salvation emphasis of the VBS program this morning … that it would be delivered in a way that is clear and understandable to the children, and that they would respond because of God’s move in their hearts (not because their friends are responding).
Wow … very long email this morning … sorry about that! But as each day goes by, it becomes clearer to me that this trip is much bigger than I ever imagined it might be, and you are getting the overflow of what is happening in my heart! THANK YOU SO MUCH for praying for us … we believe that it is the prayers of our supporters at home that are being used by God in all that is taking place in Ensenada! May God bless you as He has been blessing us!
And a little note from 'our' Pastor Greg as well:
"So tonight was one of those nights where we planned on doing something but God had better plans.
We went to Pastor Tony's church and worshipped together there and it felt like heaven. We didn't want to leave. God really moved through our group tonight in an amazing way!"
What an amazing day we had on Wednesday! There must be a huge amount of family & friends praying for us, because God is working so powerfully in our midst here! I’m changing up the format of the report today for something different, and because God was doing too many cool things yesterday that crossed over from team to team, so reporting by team won’t work as well. Here’s the highlights:
- One house (Building Team #2/Wooden) is basically done … all they have left to do is hang the front door on Thursday!
- The other house (Building Team #1/Hewko) is coming along very well, and some of Team #2 moved over to this location on Wednesday to help with bringing it to completion faster
- Both houses had beds built in yesterday (this is an “extra” that isn’t in the original plans) … so all 6 kids will have bunk beds to sleep in, and Maria (single mom) will have a “double bed” to rest on in her new bedroom
- We made arrangements at both house locations to have the power hooked up to the house as soon as possible … it may even be by the end of this week (another “extra”)!
- James Nelson took a few people from Building Team #2, along with Maria and her girls, and Pastor Tony’s wife (to interpret) to Walmart on Wednesday, and completely outfitted all 3 with new clothes for the next year, AND a full assortment of school supplies for the girls! You should have seen James’ face when they returned … I don’t think he’s EVER had that much fun before! And the family was SO grateful and overwhelmed by this gesture … in fact, Shar Shoff had to “teach” Maria how to shop for herself, because in all her life she has never done so … always lived on hand-me-downs from her sister, and the only purchases she has ever made were just for her daughters.
- When I arrived at Building Site #1, I found Ryan Law sitting on the gravel, with a toy paddle in his hands, playing a game with a little guy that couldn’t have been over 2 or 3 years old … was the cutest picture.
- The VBS Crew was having another busy and fun day with the kids … we lost count on Wednesday of the numbers of children, but it didn’t matter … I have some great pictures and video of smiling faces and great singing! The children all received toothbrushes/toothpaste today, along with an awesome demonstration of how to brush your teeth by Jess Nelson. This VBS team is amazing … we’re going to have to figure out how to do some city-wide/area-wide VBS programs at home in the future, because they are great!
- The Youth Centre is finished, and it looks amazing! Doors are in, windows are in, and the paint job is unbelievable! I’ve attached a picture, the quality of which isn’t that great … but it does give you a bit of an idea of the incredible paint job inside the room … WHICH WAS DONE COMPLETELY BY FINGERPAINTING (since the Mercy Team didn’t have the right size of brushes to do the detail work). The man giving the thumbs-up is Tony Jr. – the youth/worship pastor for the church … and the man in the yellow shirt behind him a ways is his dad – Pastor Tony.
- Myself and the other Pastor Greg spent pretty much the entire workday driving around Ensenada/Chepultapec with the cargo van … picking up furniture that had been pre-purchased by Gwen Rubie … purchasing additional furnishings for both homes, and lumber to build the beds … and buying a huge tarp to cover the new shelter built at the church for the services! Pastor Tony travelled with us most of the day as well, and as we found each thing we were looking for, he would get goosebumps and tear up a bit … this week has been somewhat overwhelming for him already too!
These are all great things, and even if the day had ended after all of this, we would have been thrilled! But the BEST was still yet to come! We had an early supper at the YUGO base, and then at 6:30pm the entire team of 67 loaded in the vans and drove back to Pastor Tony’s church … all decked out in our good clothes (Ryan Law even had on a tie – with a bright red Canadian flag on it). There we joined with about 100 people from the church … and together we had an incredible 2 hours of worship & testimonies together, with Pastor Greg Clark bringing a great message at the end. This was probably THE highlight of the week for everyone … and everyone sensed a very special moving of the Holy Spirit in our midst there. Families with small children … grandpas and grandmas … men from the halfway house that the church owns/operates … teens and leaders from Canada … all lifting their voices, their hands (and even their bodies … the children, the pastor and some of the men jump during the singing – so you KNOW a ton of our kids joined in too!) in worship of Christ our Saviour! What a night! What a night!
So what can you pray for today?
- As I type, it is spitting a bit of rain outside right now, and while we don’t mind the cool, we really would prefer to not have a lot of rain today as we finish the houses and the final day of VBS.
- The Mercy Team will be going to an orphanage this morning – which is really cool, since they have spent the week so far covered in paint and having very little contact with local people – so they are understandably excited about this. But please pray especially for them as they go this morning … I am a bit concerned about the emotional overload of this trip today, as they are very worked up to go, and wanting desperately to get the most out of these couple of hours with the kids.
- Pray for safety for those who will be connecting the power to the houses today (none of our kids).
- Pray for the salvation emphasis of the VBS program this morning … that it would be delivered in a way that is clear and understandable to the children, and that they would respond because of God’s move in their hearts (not because their friends are responding).
Wow … very long email this morning … sorry about that! But as each day goes by, it becomes clearer to me that this trip is much bigger than I ever imagined it might be, and you are getting the overflow of what is happening in my heart! THANK YOU SO MUCH for praying for us … we believe that it is the prayers of our supporters at home that are being used by God in all that is taking place in Ensenada! May God bless you as He has been blessing us!
And a little note from 'our' Pastor Greg as well:
"So tonight was one of those nights where we planned on doing something but God had better plans.
We went to Pastor Tony's church and worshipped together there and it felt like heaven. We didn't want to leave. God really moved through our group tonight in an amazing way!"
brought to you by Greg and Farrell Clark at 7:04 AM
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