Day 11

Hello everyone!

Things ended nicely by the end of last week, we finished up the house with the Bethany group and it ended up looking great! Sorry for the lack of pictures but I never took my camera out to the work site. Ill try to take some progression pictures on one of the next houses. The group left on Friday (after having an awesome time of worship on Thursday night)  and it was sad to see them go. I felt like I was just starting to build some friendships but now they are gone, and we are preparing for the arrival of the next group. The Bethany group were all hard workers with good hearts and they will be missed.  Our crew had to spend a few extra days working this weekend to prepare for the TWO houses that the group will be building this week. Today was our day off, which was nice. Ash's poor foot is still in the healing process and she is wearing a boot and using crutches but she is going to be able to start helping out in the kitchen around meal times and also will be preparing food bags for the needy people in the community this week.

Today was a great day because we were finally able to see some of our favorite people the Marquez family! We were able to spend a lot of time with them last year and have kept in touch over email over this past year and were so excited to be reunited with them this morning! We went to the church that Pedro and Marina Marquez started and pastor. Although we weren't able to understand much of the sermon, it was such a blessing for us to be able to worship along side our brothers and sisters in Christ. The family is incredibly inspiring and their faith is so strong. This church is very small and located in an area of great poverty, so although the people tithe faithfully the amount is very little, therefore pastor Pedro doesn't receive any pay  and the family frequently struggles to get by, their sole income relies on whether or not Pastor Pedro can sell the cheesecakes he makes (Clearly since this is an area of need I am taking responsibility to buy as many cheesecakes as needed to help support the family, I mean its for a good cause, hehe). This family relies day by day on the Lord for support and wait on Him to provide for their family and all the while sing praises to His name. Ash and I are so encouraged by their love for our Father and each other. They welcomed us with open arms and giant smiles, what blessings they are to us!

Ash and I with the Marquez family - Our family in Mexico

Team two arrived tonight, it is a youth group and a college group from New Hope Church in Portland. There are 33 of them, which is a lot of people to have staying here but such a blessing because they raised enough money to build two houses (originally only planned on one house as I mentioned in the last post) so we will be finishing two houses this week! We can't believe its already been 11 days since we moved here to Vicente Guerrero, we are loving every minute of it. Everyday is a reminder of how blessed we are to live in the United States, things like the ability to flush toilet paper down the toilets, drink and brush you teeth with the water from the sink, paved side walks and roads, access to quality health care and the list goes on. Ash and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to serve our Savior and His people here in Mexico and to be able to do it together :)  

Sunday is laundry day - I have a feeling we'll be thankful for dryers by the end of the summer