This last week, I had the pleasure of working with Evergreen Lutheran Church. They drove all the way from Colorado to work with us. Their youth leader Brittany, I had worked with on a build back in March when they brought their adult group. This week though, it was the youth groups turn.
We built in Juarez, MX in a colonial called Anapra. Despite the pretty spectacular views in Anapra, the poverty level is strikingly difficult for the soul to take. We built for a couple, Oscar and Yolanda, who have four children. They make 50.00 a week to support their family of six, that is of course, when Oscar has work. Oscar is a mechanic without any work right now. Making ends meet is difficult.
For food, Oscar is raising a few pigs and chickens so that hopefully he can live off the livestock he has accumulated during the rough patches of employment. He even hunts rattle snakes to eat. I was a witness to that. He caught one, skinned it, and cooked it up right there. Crazy!!!
The Kids from Evergreen Lutheran were some of the hardest working teens I have ever worked with. They worked very well together despite two big setbacks during the week; Our site was one meter out of level which is pretty crazy, and our Concrete truck couldn't get to the site and had to be bucked over by front end loader.
In the end, we completed a beautiful house and I was able to make a lot of friends with the leaders and the teens on the trip. Oscar and Yolanda are not Christians. It is my prayer that the gospel penetrated their hearts and that the Mexican Pastor of this family will do everything he can to be an ambassador of Christ.
Thanks Evergreen Lutheran for your hard work and dedication for the sake for the gospel!!!!
Check out more pics from the week at our flickr page. The link is at the top of the blog!!!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Evergreen Lutheran Rainbow Trail Camp
Evergreen Lutheran Rainbow Trail Camp
This is the new house Oscar and Yolanda received last week. 3 rooms, fully insulated, electric, ceiling fan, drywall, etc. No more freezing winters, and unbearable summers. God is pretty amazing!
Evergreen Lutheran Rainbow Trail Camp
This is the second structure Oscar and Yolanda had constructed to live in. A little bit of improvement but nothing compared to what God was about to bless them with.
Evergreen Lutheran Rainbow Trail Camp
Oscar and Yolanda's starting house. It was one room and pretty tore up.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Juarez Pastor's Meeting July 2009
On Tuesday, July 7th, I had the privledge of attending the pastors meeting in Juarez, MX. The pastors meeting is a gathering of all of the pastors working with Casas Por Cristo to worship, learn, encourage, and discuss about the Church in Juarez and business matters of Casas Por Cristo.
I attended the meeting with the Executive Director of Casas Por Cristo, David Robertson. He explained to me how awesome the pastors meeting is. The meeting has become the largest unified gathering of Pastor's in Juarez, MX. There are pastors from many different denominationscoming to gather for the sake of the gospel in their city. This is something that we have not even accomplished in the States. When these men gather who are serving Christ in Juarez, it's not about denomination, doctrine, or controversie, it's about Christ and the work of the gospel. It is one of the coolest things I have seen in the church today. It is just funny that I found such a beautiful thing on a back road in the middle of a city in Mexico.
I learned an important lesson. I have had this idea that we in the United Sates sit at the top of the most advanced society in the World and it seems that we have it together when it comes to "doing church". After what I saw yesterday, I think that the American Church has so far to go when it comes to unifying Body of Christ for effective change in our country. I pray that God will help us be a little more like the brothers in Mexico.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
The Grove Build June of 2009
This past week I had the pleasure of working with The Grove Baptist Church. I have worked with this church 3 times on 3 different houses and my experience with them gets better and better as our relationship grows. They are the kind of people that are just addicting to be around. Their personality and their sense of hospitality make it easy to fit in and become part of their church family. It is one of the highlights of my year.
This year with The Grove, we built a single home which is a 22' by 11', 2 bedroom house. To an American, this seems like nothing more that the size of a common car garage but to an impoverished Mexican Family, it is a Cadillac home that sticks out like a sore thumb. We may have bruised a couple thumbs with our hammers but this house is like a kings palace to the family we were able to bless it with.
Alberto and Aurora and their son lived in nothing more that a cardboard and pallet shack. The shack was not closed up and rain and snow are able to get in the house when bad weather strikes. Not only that, the summers are desperately brutal with heat and the winters numbingly cold in a shack with no insulation or closed up walls. The floor of their shack is rough ground and rocks, and everything that they do is conducted in a single room. Their only income is 45.00 dollars a week. It is not because of laziness. 65 year old Alberto works all week 12+ hours a day. 45.00 is only enough for them to survive on.
I asked Alberto and Aurora what they had been expecting from when they heard they were going to receive a brand new home to live in. They said that 2 other ministries had promised to come either repair their old house or give them a new one. The one that said they were going to make improvements to their shack made them move all their belongings outside and then never showed up. The "promise" of God and of Christians seemed to be faulty. So one they were told that we were going to build a house for them, they had little hope.
We showed up on Monday morning with the goal of glorifying God and blessing a family that dearly needed it. It took 3 and a half days to build. Everyday there was a new challenge. The first day, getting the forms ready for concrete was a nightmare. The site had really hard rocky soil and the area we needed to build was extremely unleveled. the second day it rained and set us back a little bit. The third day it was blazing hot. But through it all, The Grove kept there composure and had excellent attitudes that kept morale up during the build.
On a side note, the Grove team held a soccer game with the local kids and then shared the gospel with them after the game. There were 22 adults and children that came forward who wanted to receive salvation through Christ. It was awesome!!! We hope that God brings those in their paths to disciple them into the kingdom.
On thursday, we dedicated the house to the family. It was probably the most heart wrenching dedication I have ever been apart of. We shared songs of praise to our God and then turned it over to the family's sponsoring pastor. He shared about the great blessing that God had given them and about salvation through Jesus Christ. Then Alberto came forward and cried with a spirit of gratitude for what God had done and how much their lives had been changed. Then Aurora came forward with tears of Joy and escorted us into their old house. She said that she wanted us to see the way that she and her family had been living and how big of a gift the house was to them. I couldn't stop tears from running down my cheeks.
We laid hands on Alberto, Aurora, their son, and the new house we had built and prayed for them. We prayed that the house would be strong and that it would be a safe haven for the family. We prayed most of all that it would be a place where the presents of God was known and felt and understood by the humble Mexico family we had bonded with. After the prayer we gave them a bible and the keys to their NEW HOME!!!!
I can't tell you how big of a privilege it is to work for this ministry and to be apart of these homes. I told God that night that I have no business being here because I am a sinful man and don't deserve to be apart of something so beautiful and so miraculous.
To the Grove and to those who support Julie and I, Thank you for your partnership enabling us to be apart of heaven on earth.
If you would like to see more pictures from the week, visit our picture site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinandjuliemissions/
My New Job
Hey everyone! I am almost through my training for my new job and will start the weekend shift in a couple of weeks. It is a little hard to get used to working in a different culture, but everyone I work with is super friendly. My co-workers are even helping me learn Spanish, which is a good thing since half of the patients only speak Spanish!
I have made a couple of friends with some women in the ministry. We have bonded through chick flicks and shopping at the outlet mall! I never thought this would happen but I think I'm turning into a city girl. It's really nice to be able to go wherever I want in five minutes (unless I get stuck in traffic-then it takes an hour!).
I'm looking forward to start working on the weekends so I will be able to build with Justin during the week. Ok, to be completely honest, I'm more excited to go play with the Mexican kids than to actually build!
Miss you all!
Julie
Christ Church Lake Forest Build June of 2009
Christ Church Lake Forest Build June of 2009
Originally uploaded by Justin and Julie Kirklin
My first build back with Casas Por Cristo was a good one. We built for a couple named Cesar and Yanette. They had 6 children. They lived in a 10 by 10 cinder block square with their children. We were able to build them a 3 room, 40 by 15 ft house with insulation, drywall, electrical, and roofing.
We worked all week in a very urban part of Acuna, MX. There were a lot of Mexican locals that stopped by to see what was going on. One of them was named Jose. We got to know Jose over the week because he came by everyday to help build the house. Jose was an ex-Mexican Military soldier who had battled a lot of things and through much adversity, became a Christian a few years before we had met him. The second day we were there, Jose showed up with some bad news. His brother had just passed away the night before and he had no idea what had happened. Jose also communicated his grief that he had tried to share Christ with his brother but his brother didn't want any part of it. We laid hands on Jose and prayed for him and his family. This did not stop Jose from coming the rest of the week and worshiping god through serving his friend in the community.
Another smiley face in the neighborhood was the sponsoring pastor of the family. When we build a house for a family, the application for that family is turned in my a local Mexican Pastor. That pastor, in return, is responsible for shepherding that family. Pastor Renae was one of the most good hearted, spiritual men I have ever met. Probably in his 60s, he worked like he was 18. Pastor Renae really took the opportunity to share scripture and the message of the gospel to Cesar and Yanette while we were there. I am grateful for having met Pastor Renae. I hope we can partner together many more times in the near future.
This week was touched by many highlights, but the biggest highlight was the end of the week when the team and I laid hands on the family and there newly constructed house. We were n the middle of prayer when Yanette, the mother, raised he hand hand a just balled with thanksgiving for the miracle God had done in her and her family's life. They had just received the best earthly gift they have ever received.
