August I - Sold Out Team from FCC

Now, back to the FCC team.  We were so blessed by our team coming to minister with us in Mexico!!  A team from FCC came in 2008 to build a house as well.  The difference between these two builds was that Ron was not fully in charge of the '08 build, so he wasn't able to choose his materials for the house.  This time he was able to make upgrades, do a little price shopping, etc.  It's very exciting to be able to begin getting everything put together. 

Besides getting blueprints put together for the model house that we would like to build here, we had one other major focus.  That was to figure out how to help a team that is building a home have an evangelistic focus toward the family, as well as their friends and neighbors.  Well, let's just say this team didn't need any help in that department!  They brought gospel bracelets to give to the children - and there were lots of children!  On two separate days they used an interpreter to explain what the colors on the bracelets meant.  Every day they were out there playing, talking, interacting, painting, and playing soccer with the children.  There were also a few adults that we had the opportunity to build relationships with.  Two of them were raised mostly in the States, so they spoke english very well.  Jose was a man that stopped by because he was curious about how we were going to build the roof.  He lived down the road and is planning to build a small guest house for his parents to live in, but had never built a roof before.  We invited him to observe/help out all week so that he could ask questions and learn a few things.  So he did that for part of the week when he wasn't working.  This opened up lots of time for conversations about what we believe and why we were here.  On the last day a few of us had the opportunity to meet a man named Gerry, who also grew up in the US.  We had a long conversation about various things, including Satan, nightmares, Jesus being the only way to get to Heaven, and more.  It's so cool to see how God places people around the job sites that you can bless and witness to. 

They worked so well as a team when they were here.  There was a little bit of concern as to how the guys that had more experience with building were going to work with those, especially the girls, that had little or no experience.  So on Day 1, Ron put about six girls on framing and they framed the first three walls by lunch time.  Most of the guys painted trim and siding during that time.  We may never know if this was a necessary move, but the whole team was very encouraging to one another all week long.  Unfortunately, we had one person get sick in the middle of the week.  On the last day in Mexico, all but three of the team and our family were sick.  Most of them got sick overnight at the hotel in San Diego.  We were kind of thankful, though, that this didn't happen earlier in the week or we may not have been able to finish the house.