Cristo es el cimiento (Christ is the Foundation)

This is the report on the Men's Mexico Mission trip to Monterrey Mexico in April 2008. Each year the Senior High Youth go to Mexico to build houses in some very poor sections of Monterrey. In April, a mens team goes and pours the slabs and lays the first row of blocks in preparation for the Senior High trip.

Every trip to Monterrey for the mens team is its own unique adventure. This year we were building in a new location for the first time in 9 years, so we knew from the beginning that it would be challenging. Our trust, however, is in God to lead us through the trials and difficulties that we knew we would face.

Our team of 12 (Rem Bennett, Erroll Eckford, Sam Henderson, Allen Hirons, Bryan Musolf, Rolando Perez, Bob Petersen, Bob Sabin, Tom Steele, Howard Swinford, Mark Thompson, and Brian Wright)was all set to go. Mostly hardened veterans of many trips to pour slabs, but with two rookies to initiate(Sam and Bryan). We had our tools, our work clothes, our passports, our Spanish/English dictionaries, and our sunscreen.

As always, our good friend of many years and many mission trips, Marcos Diaz was there to help us in ways too numerous to mention and to be our guardian angel in Monterrey. We literally could not do this trip without him.

The first challenge was that two of our men discovered at the last minute that their passports had expired. If we had been driving across the border we think they could have gone with just a birth certificate, but if you are flying you can't even board the airplane unless you have a passport that is valid for six months beyond your trip. So. our team of 12 suddenly became a team of 10.

Howard and Brian left on Friday morning to get a head start. Saturday morning they went out to Garcia and located a lumber yard to buy the lumber for the forms. Once it was delivered, they needed a safe place to store it until Monday. We ended up storing it on the roof of Veronica's store. She is our contact in Garcia and helped us select the families we are building for. Once the the lumber was stored, they went by each site to see the progress in tearing down and moving the existing structures. Although some were ready, others still needed a little help in getting ready.




The weather was a very nice 100 degrees ( or in that vicinity). April in Monterrey can be very changeable. Some years it is very pleasant and some years it is downright hot. Dry heat or not, 100 is brutal. We know that when the kids go in June it is just as hot or hotter, but they are a lot younger than we are!

The location where we were pouring the six slabs is on the outskirts of Garcia, which is northwest of Monterrey. It takes about an hour to drive from the Hotel 88, but the traffic is not too bad if you go early enough so the drive is not too stressful.

Each morning we have a devotion at the job site before we start to work.


Errol Eckford did Monday's devotion and he chose the story of Gideon defeating the Midianites from Judges Chapter 7. Basically, God tells Gideon that he has too many men ( 'In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength saved her') and to send some home. Well, Gideon goes from 32,000 down to 300. We didn't have that big a reduction in numbers, but we certainly understood the message that it is through God's power that we accomplish his purpose, not through our own.

Before we started work, there was one more task to accomplish. One of our rookies forgot to bring his work gloves, so we had bought some very attractive pink gloves at Home Depot on Sunday and we made the presentation to him.


We split into two teams and started the work of preparing the form boards for the slabs.


Sometimes we get some help from the homeowners!



In the past, we have built on lots that were considerably wider than the 6 meter width of these ( 19' 6" or so). We had resized the house size to fit on the narrower lots, but because we were building right up to the lot lines ( and in most cases right up to existing walls), the job was definitely more difficult. Also, several of the lots had considerable slope to them which makes for a much deeper slab on one side than the approximate 4" depth we like. We solved that by buying several loads of gravel/sand mix. It is much cheaper that concrete and allowed us to even out the slabs.

Another problem that we have not encountered before was that several of the homeowners wanted indoor toilets so plumbing drain lines had to put in before the slab was poured. Installing these pipes is the responsibility of the homeowner and some of them put them too high which would have made the slab even deeper. So, we had to get them to lower the pipe.



We actually only worked a half day on Monday. Of course, a half day is from 7:30 in the morning till 7:30 in the evening! We were beat, but everybody worked hard and had a great attitude and the forms were ready. We usually go out for dinner, but since we didn't even get back to the hotel until 8:30 we opted for pizza delivery from Domino's. Actually, pretty good and we saved the leftovers for lunch on Tuesday.

Mark Thompson did Tuesday morning's devotion. He based it on the idea that when life is hectic and full of monumental challenges ( like,how are we going to get these slabs poured with only 10 men?) that we should 'simply' lean on God. These are the simplicities of God that Mark shared with us. I believe in God. I believe He loves me. I believe He has a perfect plan. I believe He is righteous, pure, and good. I believe that I have no clue what tomorrow will bring, but thank goodness I believe in a God that does. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in Heaven. I believe in God's angels. I believe in the Bible. I believe in prayer. and I believe, at times, that is all God wants us to do -- simply believe. It was a great reminder of what our faith should be.

Tuesday is concrete day and the question of the day is whether the concrete trucks will show up on time. Although they were supposed to start at 8:00 am and they didn't start arriving until 9:00 am (this is Mexico after all) nobody complained.







They came pretty regularly for the first five trucks (about 1 truck per slab), but there was about a two hour break between trucks 5 and 6.

We took this opportunity to rest and to play.






Since we had started the sixth slab with truck 5, we had a real problem. We normally pour the back of the slab first and get it up to its finished height and then move forward. If the next truck comes within 20 minutes of so, it is no problem to merge the old pour and the new pour, but in two hours concrete has pretty much set and pouring fresh concrete next to two hour old concrete doesn't work very well. So, before the first concrete set, the guys pulled all the concrete down to about 2" and then we poured the fresh stuff on top of the old stuff.

One of the difficulties that the new lots presented was in finishing the concrete. We used a combination of a screed board and bull float to get the slabs as smooth as possible. Because most of the lots had one or two existing walls bounding them, we were not able to work from the sides and this makes it hard to get smooth slabs.





Tuesday was a short day. We only worked till about 4:30 pm.

Tom Steele did Wednesday's devotion based on two elements of the Lord's prayer. The first is the petition to '.. give us this day our daily bread'. In our affluence we don't often think of this, but for these people living in the dust with a packing box as a roof, give us this day our daily bread is deeply significant. Look at this picture and think about living there.



The second element is ' ..thy will be done' a reminder to us to do the will of God, to feed the sheep. By providing basic, yet suitable, shelter we are vastly improving the lives of those we touch, not for our own sake but to glorify God. A copy of the Spanish language Lord's prayer was given to each team to place in the foundation blocks of each home to symbolize that we are doing this work to fulfill the will of God.

Wednesday is block day. We lay the first row of blocks for the house so that when the Senior Highs come in June, they are ready to start building walls. The challenge of the day is getting the block lines square and level. Although it sounds easy, it always seems to take longer than we expect. Since none of us are professional masons, we have to be retrained each year to understand the difference between 'perfect' and 'good enough' when it comes to block walls.




During the course of the day we got two loads of block delivered which had to be unloaded by hand at each job site.



We laid the last blocks about 5:30 PM. A great feeling to be finished!

This year we had our own T-shirts for the team and we brought extras to give to the homeowners. The T-shirt design (which was wonderfully done by Jason Laiche who is on staff with the Youth Ministry) was based on the concept that Christ is the foundation of our lives and that we were building foundations for these homes. We each signed each shirt and presented it to the homeowner and took a bunch of pictures. As you can see, a lot of smiling faces!









We flew home on Thursday with a great feeling of accomplishment and a renewed understanding of the fact that God is with us at all times and it is through His power that we are able to glorify Him in all that we do.