Ensenada, Mexico

We're back! Joyce and I (and the Grants Pass group) arrived back in town about 2:00 this afternoon. The trip was great -- tiring, dirty, hot -- but great. Let me back up a bit and explain that this project began about 4 years ago. The Oregon Conference of the Free Methodist Church is helping a small church in a poor section of Ensenada, Mexico expand into a center to serve the neighborhood they are located in. The Conference has purchased (for them) a warehouse next door to the church and individuals and churches in Oregon are transforming it into a larger church building and community center. Grants Pass got involved 3 years ago when I and two other men went down with another church to check it out. Since then we have sheet rocked a small 2-room classroom building, helped remodel the upstairs of a small building for a parsonage, turned the downstairs (the old parsonage) into an office, tool room, and restrooms. We also built an entry porch -- a big deck -- onto the front of the warehouse.

In the past we have taken 12-16 people. This year we had 22 -- a big group considering the limited facilities we had. This included 10 teens. We cooked in a classroom, ate outdoors, the guys slept in the sanctuary, and the ladies in the other classroom and office. It worked okay and we all got along well. The work we did was finish the deck (yea!!!!) by adding safety railing and a handicap ramp. We also put up a security fence and repaired the stairway up to the parsonage. Oh, we also painted the deck. All of this done with no advance drawings, I might add. We just made up plans on the spot and did it. For me, it was it was a new experience because I was NOT in charge. Sometimes it was hard to keep from taking over but I was in charge of building the ramp so that helped keep me occupied.

Last weekend I went to Annual Conference Friday and Saturday, then left for Mexico early Sunday morning. We stayed Sunday night at the church in Los Angeles that Jana attends. Yes, we got to see Josiah and Lilly for a few minutes! We arrived in Ensenada about noon on Monday. No trouble crossing the border going down or coming back. Yesterday we attended the church there (this was the Pastor's last Sunday because he is moving to another church, but this will not be a problem for the project). We stopped for fish tacos going out of town, drove all night except for about 3 hours of sleep in a rest area. Did I say, "sleep?" Have you ever tried to sleep in a van with 10 other people? That one ranks right up there with the worst night I've ever had! But the trip was still good!

And so, that's been my world for the last couple weeks. What's in yours?