Tuesday, Day 4: God's provision.

Hola to you all amigos,

William here; Lorna asked me to write the blog for today for which I am very honoured.

Where can I start about today?Well, it was a day where Satan tried to knock us down but where we stood strong with God. Around lunchtime today, we found out that one of our vans were stolen. It was done in about a minute, before anyone could see what was happening. To this we were shocked and horrified. How would we get between the building sites and our hotel(around about a 30 minute drive)? How would we all get across the border and subsequently back to New Zealand? Setting aside those worries, we all got together at our respective building site and prayed for a miracle. With encouragement from some of the crew, we all decided to put all our trust in God's will and hope for the best.

The result? As Lorna put it, "all these little miracles happened in succession". Now, I won't go into detail about what these were; I'll probably get them wrong. Best to ask Lorna I think.

Although our van is still stolen, we have not only found a replacement(which Diana will be arriving with in about a hour), but the insurance company generously have decided to replace the van but two hundred dollars. Considering the value of the van(judging by its size, quite alot!) this is a major miracle!

PRAISE GOD!

Thank God for providing for us such an awesome outcome, in a dire circumstance.

On the building side of things, it is going extremely well. Having been to both building sites(the classroom and the house), both teams have done most of the roofing and jib-boarding. They have also made big inroads into the plastering. I believe that we should be proud of the team as they have worked extremely hard. We should be especially proud of the team made up of mostly MBC youth(the house team). With considerably less equipment and with only one foreman, teamwork has really eptiomised the team, and has meant they are keeping up with the classroom team. Well done guys!

Being in Mexico is still challenging us and making us think perceptively about who we are, who God is etc etc. Also, being in Mexico has given us alot of joy and hope in God's love and how this transcends anything. In the midst of the whole stolen van saga, Diana still had time to testify about God's love to a local who drove them to the police station. When buying a balloon animal for $1 (US), Zara then proceeded to give the lady $5 and said to keep the change. You should've seen the lady's face light up. She not only looked over the moon, she made Zara the best darn balloon animal I have ever seen. Furthermore, she then wrote her email address on a serviette for Zara to email her.

When I see stuff like what happened today, I know the Mexico is worth it.

Definitely.

By the way having difficulties uploading photos, but will have some photos up tomorrow!Blessings and keep praying- you guys are amazing!

William :):)

For Wellington South

Hey guys, Jimmy Hayden and Pete here. None of us had passwords for the blog so just logged in under another guys name. We are currently in a beach condo in a town called Rosarito which is amazing! Had our first day of building the house today which was a pretty unique experience for all of us. Working in the heat of what is practically a desert ended up taking its toll, particularly on the older amigos (not naming any elders). was good fun playing a bit of street football with some of the young boys, despite the fact that they were alot better than us. Everyone has been keeping their food down so far which is a relief, most people on the team are pretty paranoid about food poisoning which is not suprising given how dirty everything seems to be here.



will make another posting leter on in the week, hopefully we will have our own username by then!



cya

Underway and to a brilliant start!

So we have started building today and we have gotten away to a brilliant start! Most of the Miramar group are building on the house site with the assistance from Peter, (Pastor) Hayden, and Jimmy from Wellington South Baptist and Keyziah representing Lower Hutt Baptist (Yay for the Hutt homies! Me and my mum Claire are the other two!).
We have built in a single day the framing, exterior walls, roof, windows in and have now started the Gibb (dry wall), with some electrics and roofing to go. So by the end of tomorrow we will be most of the way down the home straight!
It has been quite the culture shock for many of us as so many of us haven't seen such poverty let alone traveled abroad. Yet we have such an opportunity to show these people love and some of God's character and already people are really blown away by the fact that we have come here let alone to do what we are doing!
As a member of the team that has been before it has been amazing to see the difference in this nation from just a year ago. The slums have become much more 'westernised' with some large shops and factories which have shifted across the boarder to make use of the cheap labour. I'm still not sure what to think as many people that didn't now have jobs and yet it is a relatively ethic free move from these American companies. There has been allot of humbling and challenging sights that we have individually been processing in our heads and we are so often left more confused then previously. However it is these times and sights of the real lives that we encounter which challenge and shape us the most. For which we praise God and pray he would continue to mould us and have us be His salt in His world!
It is such a blessing and i cant tell half of what i would like to on here but God is moving and were privileged to be part of it!

More to come as we continue ministering and building in the next few days!

Kirk

Day One of building completed!

We are having a great time in Mexico and have just finished the first day of building! We are building a house for a family of 9. The mothers name is Anna Maria and her youngest child is 2 months old - very cute! The team is doing a fantastic job of building - the house was framed, closed in with roof on by 5pm tonight. We are also building a classroom at a local church that runs a women's refuge. We will finish building tomorrow (Tuesday) and the school will be open on Wednesday! We received some generous donations for education materials so have purchased 600 school books, a couple of white boards and other classroom equipment so the school will be very well equipped - so thank you so much! Thanks also for your prayers - we are having an awesome time - the team is fantastic and we are having a lot of fun. The team tell me that their highlights have been the Mexican food (it has been really yummy!) and we are having a competition to see which team can build either the house or the school room the quickest - so far the school team is in the lead! We will be visiting 2 orphanages this week - one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, as well as the womens refuge. All of these places have lots of needs and we are privaledged to be able to help them out. The refuge make yummy doughnuts which they sell in the markets each day - this afternoon they cooked up a heap of doughnuts - and they are good! We will post some pictures on the website soon, but having a few difficulties getting internet time!!

Sat 27th Sept, 2008

K: Well all packed and ready to go, off to Mexico to build some houses for the people over there. So exciting and so unknown about what is coming up, the people and the area. Just cant wait to get there. Vicky is pacing around just wanting to get there as well. Will be great to meet the others who are on the same adventure. Fly to Auckland then to LA, from there a bus trip into Mexico for a week then to las Vagas for another week.

Gave Baz a bath today so will be nice and clean for the dog minder. Lawns mowed, neighbours informed, camera charged... all done.. I hope

House Building Trip To Mexico

The 2008 Mexico House Building Trip is almost upon us. We leave NZ on the 27th of September for the slums of Tijuana, Mexico to build a home for a family and a school room at a local women's refuge. It only takes 2 days to build a family a new home. Its basic construction - a plywood exterior, shingle roof, gib lined, 3 roomed dwelling with a long drop outside, but it makes a huge difference in the lives of the families we build for.



32 people from NZ will be coming on the September 2008 trip - for some its their second time and we are glad to have them back! As well as house building we will be helping in an orphanage, hosting a street fiesta and meeting lots and lots of people! More info on the trip and what we do is at http://www.breakfreeexpeditions.com/