At the beginning of July I was assigned to work with a small group of 5 from Vancouver, BC. We went to a different site to work each day and it was incredibly fun to be able to experience so many different outreaches in one week! On Monday we headed out to Casa Esperanza. Casa Esperanza is an amazing ministry run about 30 minutes from our camp. It has housing for women that have been domestically abused and provides a safe, healthy shelter for these women and their children. They currently have 9 mothers and 31 children. The ministry has a preschool, and a fully operating kindergarden. They provide women with the resources they need, so that when they leave they can provide for themselves. We spent the day playing with precious children, cleaning out a classroom so the government can put in a sewing program, cleaning and organizing the kindergarden classroom and helping organize their donation closet. It was a truly incredible day that had a huge impact on me. Tuesday the interns stayed at camp for classes and my small team headed out to a orphanage. On wednesday we got the chance to go to a local feeding program, paint their building as well as helping with an afternoon feeding program. The older lady who runs this program lives about 30-40 minutes from where the small shack is located. It is a one room, narrow shack that hosts tons of kids a few days of week to share the gospel and give food. This lady was giving everything she could even though she didn't have many resources. It was a great example of someone giving everything they have to help meet the needs of the people around them. Thursday we were scheduled to go back to Casa Esperanza but I was unable to go because I had woken up at 1am throwing up :( We had a 24 hour flu virus going through the camp and I unfortunantly caught it. 5 of the interns came down with it but thankfully it was a quick virus and everybody felt back to normal after a few days.
The second week of July(the same week I turned 19!) was the week that my friend Matt and I had been really excited for! We were working with a group from Oregon (Country Christian) and we were going to build Yugo Ministries's first ever D-house! We have 3 house models A. B and C but now we have added one more that has 2 extra bedrooms making it a 4 bedroom house! The team was awesome, I might be a little biased! It was so fun because my college math teacher and her family were on this team and we all had such a fun week building together! We finished the house in 4 days and were able to provide the family a place they could all live in together. This family is from Oaxaca, Mexico and a few years ago the mother passed away. The dad moved to Ensenada to find work and when his youngest daughter got sick the whole family came up. He remarried a women with a son and they could not afford a place big enough for the entire family to live. The older son and daughter along with the 3 younger sibilings lived in a small room at their work but now the whole family is able to live in one place, all together :) Thursday night after we had dedicated the house we went to the family's church for dinner. The pastor's wife, daughter, son and the family served us a delicious meal and presented the Oregon church with a certificate as well as all of the ladies a rose. It was a fun night of being in community with the people we had been given the oppurtunity to serve alongside all week.
The same week as the D house we meet a small family in the same area. Our leader Sean and Pastor Theo had ran into an older lady after visiting our house. The next day, Sean, Matt and I headed down to see her and pray for her. When we arrived we also met her husband and 2 grandchildren. They told us in broken Spanish (they speak an Indian dialect) that they had a great need for a new roof that would leak and flood their dirt floors. The inside wasn't much better than the worn down exterior. We took a picture with them (top right) and prayed for them before we left. We asked them to continue to pray for God to provide them a roof because we were not able to pay for such a project. Sean posted the picture on facebook, asking people to be praying for this special family. The next day Sean got an email from yugo's accountant. A man from Alabama had seen the picture and donated $250 to helping them! He did this without knowing the we wanted to provide them with a new roof! Within less than 24 hours we had more than $500 given from many different people around camp to help bless this family. We bought the supplies we needed and assigned Sean and Theo's wives; Trisha and Melissa to spend the rest on food and other necesities for this family and another Oaxacan family we ran into the day before. On Saturday we all skipped our day to sleep in and woke up at 7 am to go! It was one of the most fun days, serving alongside some of my best friends and people that have greatly impacted my life. We started by trying to make the roof a little more sturdy by putting up supports in the inside of the house and then Theo and another intern, Boston went to the roof to begin the project. While they worked on this Matt and Lexa started working on a small roof to try to help out the other Oaxacan family. There was a lot of spending time with the sweet grandma and her grandsons. When Trisha and baby Evie, Melissa, her 3 girls and Skye & Aili arrived we spent time together eating lunch and loving on this sweet family. At one point Matt, Sean and I headed back to camp for some extra supplies and on the way out God provided us with something really cool! As we were about to pass the local matteress shop that supplies our ministry with all of our matteresses, Sean noticed the man was outside with a truck full of a new shipment. He pulled over and quickly asked the man how much it would cost for the cheapest one. The man told us it would be $50 for a twin, but we knew that we couldn't pay that much. Then he said "I have a queen sized in the truck and I'll give it to you for $40, also if you know of any families that really need some, like if they have had a house fire or something like that let me know because I would like to donate one or two sometime." We had exactly $40 left to spend! God is so crazy/good in the ways that he provides things for the people that follow Him. A few hours later the roof and been finished and we had put everything inside their house. The women began to cry as she saw a matteress in her small home. The 54 year old women began to tell us that she had never in her life slept on a matteress before! They both accepted Christ that day and a few minutes later a local pastor drove by. It ended up that He had been trying to minister to this family and had been telling them to pray for God to provide them with a new roof. Isn't it crazy how God is working behind the scenes?! That day we also we able to take some food and clothing to the Oaxacan family that was living in a shack and a tent. We also build a small shack using the roof Matt and Lexa had made as a shelter to put their tent under.
The next week was one of the coolest week I've had while in Mexico! I got to build in a small fisherman's community for the niece of a woman I built for last summer! What are the chances of that. This incredible family was living in a small trailer on the same piece of property as her parents and brother across the street from the family I built for last summer. I was able to see the now almost 2 year old twins that I built for and talk with the mom. There house is beautifully decorated and it is obvious that they take great pride in taking care of their home. At one point during the visit she disappered into a bedroom and pulled out a black box full of important papers, document, pictures and hands me 3 professional done pictures of her kids and told me she wanted to give me a copy of them. :) During the week I was able to really get to know the 22 year old mom of the family. Ana is a beautiful woman married to Alex and they have 2 daughters; Yamileth and Cris Mary. I spent so much time in her mom's house chatting with them and playing with the 5 granddaughters; Melanie (4), Yamileth (2), Alaska (2), Alondra (6 months) and Cris (2 months). I would sit on the couch playing with the girls while Ana and her mom prepared lunch and ran around the house. It is in moments like this where I feel like I have become a part of the family. I wish I could explain in words what an incredible experience that week was for me. On dedication day they made us lobster and we all sat eating and enjoying our last day together. The house dedication was great and the team had generously put extra furniture, clothing and food inside the house. They also put an new 3 burner stove inside. Ana had told me earlier that week that her 2 burner stove had been destroyed the last week. Without the team knowing they had already bought a new one for her! It was a sad goodbye but I was able to go back once more in August to visit them which was so awesome.
The last week of teams we had 2 huge teams and over 150 people running around camp. The church I worked with from Florida spent the week working on different projects at a local orphanage as well as building a house for the directors that haven't been able to sleep in the same room for a few years! It was a fun week of doing lots of different things and enjoying our last week until we had to say goodbye to a few of the other interns. :(
The last week I was in Mexico I got to go out and say goodbye to a few families I had built for. One family I desperatly wanted to see was my precious Florecita. I met her last year at a VBS and have had a growing friendship with her and 2 of her younger sisters; Ania and Julia. They had moved from their old house and I had been unable to find them that last few times I tried. Thankfully another intern had meet her a few weeks earlier at her job site. She found where Florecita was living and provided me with pictures and directions. I loved seeing my 3 girls and spending a little time with them. I love my tres hermanitas. (3 little sisters)
The last house I worked on was at our annual local youth build. This year we hosted youth from different churches around Ensenada and built 2 homes. There were teens from downtown and teams from the communities we build in. It was so awesome to see all these youth from different backgrounds and churched come together to provide for a family. It was so humbling to see these amazing local youth working in their own cities to help people in need. This week was an amazing end to and incredible 5 months!
On August 15th I returned back to Portland. I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for me and supported me while I was in Ensenada! I seriously cannot thank you all enough for supporting me on this journey. The last 5 months were some of the best months of my life and I have learned so much. There were times that we hard and sad but more than that there were times of incredible joy and happiness. I was surrounded by a community of amazing people and was so blessed by all of them. If any of you have any questions about any of my trip, feel free to ask, I am now in the States!
MEXICO, YO TE AMO.
