Wednesday in Monterrey

Well, it wasn't so hot today. Finally!
We got up even earlier and we left the hotel at 6:30 am and got to the job site about 7 am.

Jan concluded his devotion series about being mission oriented every day with readings from Matthew. We greatly appreciate Jan's willingness to lead these devotions. Each of them has given us a wonderful start to the day's work.


Today's job consisted of laying the first row of blocks on all seven slabs. The first task is to remove the form boards from the slabs.



Then we lay out the four walls and snap chalk lines for reference. We mix the mortar and start laying the blocks.



Each house has two openings for doors and we try to get them where the homeowner wants them if at all possible. Today's work went very well once we got going. We had three teams laying block simultaneousy, so the work was done by noon! Some of us even got to take a watermelon break at the fruit stand in front of one of the slabs.



Here are some pictures of the proud workers and even prouder home owners.



Hermando and his wife were especially grateful and a couple of our guys saw tears in Hermando's eyes as we were leaving. He gave each of us a bear hug that let us know how much he appreciated what we had done.



Moments like that make this trip so satisfying that it is hard to describe. From our affluent perspective what we are giving them seems like so little, but it is obviously a tremendous gift from their perspective.

We have been blessed to have this opportunity to serve God and to witness to these people. Our prayer is that what we have done has glorified God and that the homes we have started may make a real and lasting change in the lives of these people. We give praise to God for his goodness and for his guidance on this trip.

Each of us takes home something different from these trips. Please ask us to tell you our story the next time you see one of us.

Buenas noches de Monterrey

Tuesday in Monterrey

Well, it was hot again today. Same routine as yesterday only earlier since the first concrete truck was supposed to be at the job site at 8 am.

Jan's morning devotion was based on Matthew 2: 1-6 and James 1:22 with the theme that we must be doers of the Word and not just listeners and that means every day not just when we are in Monterrey. We closed with the Lord's prayer.



While waiting for the concrete trucks to show up, we reinforced some of the forms to make sure they would not move due to the weight of the concrete. As is often the case, the first truck did not show up when we expected it, but about 9:30 am, three trucks arrived at the same time. We began pouring the site where three houses are close together.





The trucks do not have chutes long enough to place the concrete in all areas of the slab, so we use 'come alongs' to move the concrete. That is seriously hard work!



Once there is enough concrete in the form, we start smoothing the slab using a bull float. This usually takes about 20 minutes per slab.



The final step is to install a piece of vertical rebar in the corner of each slab. This is used to provide stability for the concrete block wall. It takes about one truck per slab depending on the depth of the slab. Once the trucks started arriving, they came at good intervals with only a couple of twenty minute breaks. We finished at about 1 pm and headed back to the Granada. A very good day's work. Ty's lunch blessing gave thanks to God for the sucess of today's work. He reminded us that when things go well, we often take credit for it and forget to give God the credit and the glory. In previous years we have had days that did not go so well, but we remember that God is with us in both the good days and the 'hard' days.

After we returned to the hotel, some of went to the local Home Depot to buy mortar mix to lay the first row of blocks tomorrow. We lay the first row of block using mortar. All the rows above that are dry laid by the Senior Highs and then a stucco type cement is applied to both the interior and exterior walls. It makes for a very strong wall.

A few more local school children showed up with their notebooks to ask us questions for their assignment.



Everyone is in good spirits, feeling well and working together as a team.
Praise God!

Buenas noches de Monterrey.

Monday in Monterrey

Well, it was hot! We were up at 6 am or so, had breakfast on the hotel balcony and then left for the work site about 7 am. It takes about 45 minutes to reach the job site from our hotel. We are working in Escobedo, which is on the northwest side of Monterrey. The last couple of miles takes us through an industrial area and then a 'housing' area that is even poorer than the area where we are working. As we passed one of the elementary schools many of the children were walking to school with their mom or dad. They wear white uniforms that look spotless. It always amazes us that in the midst of all the dust, their uniforms are so clean.

Once we got to the job site, Jan Milligan led us in the morning devotion based on Matthew 25:32-40 which is the story of the sheep and goats. Verse 40 is : "The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers, you did for me."



Jan reminded us that while it is good to come on these mission trips and serve the 'least of these', we should do it every day of the year, not just on mission trips. A very appropriate thought to start the day.

The first construction task was to start framing the forms for the concrete slabs. Each slab is 21' 6" on a side, so we have to splice a 10' piece and a 12' piece for each side of the form. After nailing the four sides together, we adjust it to make it square.



Then we shoot each corner with a transit to get the form level.



Then we put stakes all along each side of the slab to hold it in place when the concrete is poured. The next step is to dig footers along each of the four edges of the slab.



The final step is to install grade stakes in the middle of the slab. These are used when we are pouring the slab to get in level all across its surface. All of this sounds simple, but it always seems to take longer than we expect. With seven slabs this year, we really have a lot to do. We made great progress up until about 11:30 am when we had lunch. After lunch, the heat began to take its toll on all of us and progress slowed considerably. However, by about 2:30 pm we had all the sites ready or almost ready to pour. The first concrete truck is scheduled for 8:00 am on Tuesday and then every 30 minutes after that. Promises to be a busy morning!

There is not much shade on the build sites, but Erroll found it.



He deserved a break. He, along with everyone else, worked very hard today!

The only problem of the day ( and even it wasn't major) was that we misunderstood where on of the slabs was supposed to go and ended having to move it about 17 inches to get it over the property line.

While we were working today, we were approached by some of the school children who obviously had an assigment to come talk to us. Each had their notebook with written questions to ask us and for us to write the answer in their notebook. The questions were 1) When were we going back to the USA?, 2) Where were we from?, 3) What was our name?. Some had a fourth question which was how old we were.





It was amusing because some of the kids (they were about 12 years old) were too shy to ask us directly. They would hand their notebook to one of the other kids who would bring it to us. They were all very polite and thanked us for helping them with their assignment.

Tonight we were guests for dinner at the church.





Some of the ladies of the church prepare an authentic meal for us every year. This year there were two beef dishes and one pork dish. All were served with tortillas.

Muy delicioso!

Buenos noches de Monterrey.

Men's Monterrey Mexico Mission

It is Sunday night and we are anxious to get to work tomorrow morning. Four members of our team left Marietta on Friday morning at about 6 am in the church van. We spent the first night in Houston and then arrived in Monterrey, Mexico on Saturday afternoon. The trip was thankfully uneventful. The rest of our team flew in on Saturday or Sunday and we have one coming in on Monday.

This morning we worshipped at the Presbyterian church in Monterrey that is our partner in this mission effort.



The name of the church is Camino, Verdad y Vida ( The Way, the Truth and the Life). Pedro Diaz, the pastor, is also the father of Marcos and Jorge who many of you know. Marcos and Jorge are a wonderful help to us and without them this mission trip would be almost impossible.
Their worship service lasts about 2 hours and includes at least 12 -15 hymns. It is a stimulating and joyous worship experience even if you don't understand the language! They gave us a warm welcome as always. Allen Hirons is the bravest of our group. He prepared and delivered in Spanish a welcome from our church to our Christian brothers and sisters in Christ in Monterrey.

Our task is to pour seven concrete slabs for houses that the Senior High youth will build in June.
This is the most slabs we have ever poured and so we praying that everything will go smoothly so that we may finish our work. With the heat and dust it can be quite exhausting for those of us who are used to working inside all day.

This afternoon we went out to visit the job site. Although some of the build sites had changed since our pretrip visit in January, we were very pleased to find very level sites that had been cleared and are ready for us to begin.

On Monday, we will build and install the forms for the slabs and get everything ready to pour the concrete on Tuesday. Each slab is 21' x 21'. Not a large house by our standards, but definitely a step up for the families who live in them. The weather forecast is for hot days with significant cloud cover.

Please check in again to see pictures of the construction and check on our progress.
Also, please keep us in your prayers!

Our team consists of Erroll Eckford, Mark Thompson, Rem Bennett, Ty Hunter, Dean Sutherland, Phil Brand, Bill Claxton, Allen Hirons, George Childress, Jan Milligan and Brian Wright.

Muchias gracias

Spring Break 2006 Work Day 2

We continued our efforts on Tuesday by starting off with breakfast and a devotional by Dan Valentine about how real servants act. After that everyone moved to their work sites to continue the work started the previous day.



Our tremendous teen crew sets off to work

Robert continues to have a difficult time letting us tear damaged parts of his house out. He appears to be trying to hold on to the little bit that he still has and the team is being understanding but firm with Robert that he has to let go so the house can be repaired. One funny incident occurred when Robert indicated that he wanted to leave something in place for the contractors to look at. Mike Beasley responded that "we are the contractors, we're just free." It appeared to work as Robert allowed us to continue to gut his house.

Elaine's House

Robert's House (note his FEMA trailer to the left side of the house)

FPC team members gutting the inside of a house

Some members of our team had mixed feeling about why we were continuing to work on Peace Presbyterian since we had learned that their Session had voted to dissolve the church but while they were working on it, a pastor that had lost his church in the storm visited and indicated that he had a congregation of 300 and this church building would be perfect. Where this goes is in God's hands but we were reminded that nothing done on God's behalf is ever wasted. We were asked to remove the beautiful 100 year old stained glass windows in the front of Peace and store them but we respectfully declined not wanting to hazard the possibility of breaking them.

Peace Presbyterian's Stained Glass Windows

Back at FPCNO, Tami Martin devoted her efforts to cleaning handbells that had been tarnished by the flooding and Will and Michelle Goodman, with Salli Beasley's help, put their professional expertise in landscaping and plants to good use, transforming a garden in the yard of FPCNO into an area that has gained compliments of many of the nursery school parents and even a couple from the pre-schoolers themselves! There is much excitement on the part of the nursery school about the upcoming Easter egg hunt in their new garden.

The kids love the new garden we put into FPCNO's church yard

At the end of the day, we all cleaned up, ate at Piccadilly's and came back to reflect on the day's event. Debbie Peterson lead the reflection by talking about how, as Christ's servants, we needed extend an "Arm of Love" and literally passed around an arm (no, it wasn't real, it was off a dummy). The holder of the arm would share his or her reflection of how we saw an arm of love extended to someone today.

We also met as a team Tuesday night and decided that we would finish up at Peace Presbyterian, at Elaine's house and in the new garden in FPCNO's yard on Wednesday and devote most of our team on Thursday to working on FPCNO's sanctuary to insure that it would be ready for a worship service on Easter Sunday less than two weeks away. With our last two days planned out, we all headed for a much desired night of rest...

Spring Break 2006 Katrina Mission

On Sunday, April 2nd, 32 men, women and teen-age missionaries departed from First Presbyterian Church Marietta and traveled to New Orleans to continue this church’s effort to support those whose lives were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The team was made up of:

Andrew Nelson, Beth Bailey, Bill Zercher, Celine Thomas, Dan Valentine, David Geiger, David Griffith, David Hartin, David McPherson, Debbie Peterson, Doug Allen, Jeff Hartin, Karen Humphrey, Keith Thomas, Kelly Lohman, Matthew Geiger, Melanie Valentine, Melissa Merrick, Michelle Goodman, Mike Beasley, Mikhail Thomas, Natalie Thomas, Nate Shelton, Nathan Boatwright, Perry Beasley, Richard Blake, Salli Beasley, Susan Merrick, Tami Martin, Wendy Trippe, Will Goodman, Will Goodman Jr.

We arrived at First Presbyterian Church New Orleans where we would be staying until April 7th at 7 PM Sunday and were greeted by Dr. Cliff Nunn, FPCNO’s pastor. He gave us a tour of the church which is still undergoing repairs from damage sustained during Hurricane Katrina. The sanctuary is without its pews which were out being refurbished but they are intent upon conducting an Easter service here in 2 weeks. After the tour, we enjoyed a lasagna dinner and were in-briefed on the current situation in New Orleans and the projects that we would be working on. After that we all got situated in our respective sleeping areas and rested for our first day of work.

Monday morning, April 3rd started with breakfast and a devotional by Dan Valentine sharing that our lives are not intended to be our own but rather surrendered to God in order to that we can serve Him by serving others. After that we broke into four teams to take on our different assignments.

Teams 1 and 2 were each assigned a house about 2 blocks from the church that had sustained serious damage and were in need of cleaning out and gutting for two people – Robert and Elaine - who, while owning the houses, did not have the ability to get them repaired.

Team 3 went back to Peace Presbyterian Church and continued the process that a prior mission team from FPC Marietta began last Thanksgiving. The team began the process of tearing down the drywall which had flood damage.

Team 4 stayed at the church and did several things to help prepare the church for Easter Sunday including landscaping work and cleaning the handbells tarnished by the flooding.

It was a hot day and most of the work was dirty but an amazing amount of work was done. The teams will all be returning tomorrow to continue their respective projects.

After enjoying a dinner at New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood, a restaurant that featured some of the local flavor, we had a Reflection that was lead by Mike Beasley. Mike asked us to reflect on the funny events of the day and some of the things we felt were more serious. A lot of our discussion centered on Robert, whose house we are cleaning out. We talked about how Robert – who is currently living in a FEMA trailer - had such a hard time letting go of things that were damaged and how depressed he was. We prayed that God would help Robert - and the many others in his situation - through this tough time and that we might shine some light into his life. With this, David Griffith led us in a song and we went to get a good night’s sleep so that we could continue God’s work tomorrow.