Semana Santa

Semana Santa or Holy Week is a busy time in Mexico. School children get the week before and the week after Easter for vacation. Most factories give some time off during the week, and on Friday almost all stores are closed. On Good Friday there are processions with people carrying large crosses, and special services. In some places people are actually crucified on crosses for several hours.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church also has special services during this week. Several of our churches invited their communities to see an evangelistic movie during the week. On Friday the Prince of Peace church had a special service of "7 Palabras" or the 7 last sayings of Christ from the cross. Seven men from the church each took a turn giving a devotional about one of the phrases.

On Saturday we went to the beach halfway between Rosarito and Ensenada. Yes, it was great beach weather here, about 80 and sunny! We met at church at 6:30 am and returned at about 5:00 pm.

Sunday morning we had our traditional sunrise service at 6:00 am. Because the women were the first to hear of Jesus' resurrection, the ladies are in charge of this special service. They all come dressed in white and lead worship, participate with special music, recite memorized verses, and give the devotional. Marcia gave a children's message at the end of the service using resurrection eggs. Then the men serve breakfast! This year we enjoyed "flautas", (deep fried chicken tacitos) beans, and boiled eggs.

At 9:00 we had our regular worship service. The day was a blessing, and a celebration that Christ Lives!

Friday, and it is all done!

Friday the team worked on finishing up the shingling and the electrical. The roof crew finished first and took a trip to Downtown Tijuana for shopping. The electrical crew stayed behind to get the rest of the building wired. It is an impressive site, to see a church building go up in only five days! Pastor Armando Ponce, from Cristo Arca de Salvacion church came by to see the building, and was impressed with the work. He had to try out the view from the pulpit.

Saturday morning the whole crew made it across the border and to IHOP for breakfast. Pray for safe travels as there are predictions for snow in the mountains!

Thursday

Thursday was a busy day. The two main projects were the wiring and the roof.

A trench had to be dug from the electrical pole at the road to each of the buildings to lay the main cable. The new santuary as well had to be wired for lights, outlets, fans, and speaker wire.

The roof was another big job. The plywood had to be nailed on, then the tar paper and shingles. Bird block and facia boards had to be cut and nailed up as well. By the end of the day, one side was shingled and some of the plywood was up on the other side.

Everyone returned "home" to Pancho Villa tired. The pingpong table had only a few takers.

Wednesday, raising the roof

Wednesday morning dawned a bit cloudy, all the better to work on a roof. The first order of the day was to make the two gable ends. These trusses are special and it is always a challenge to get it exactly right. Then the truss crew loaded the 36 scissors trusses and two gables on to a flatbed truck for transport. The truck made it to Agua Viva in the same condition it left Pancho Villa.

The building crew had to unload the trusses and set them in place. It is a very impressive site to see the trusses go up. It is also a bit scary to see the guys up in the trusses and walking on the walls. By evening all the trusses were set in place, ready for the plywood sheeting on Thursday.

When they arrived for their Wednesday evening Bible study, the small congregation at Agua Viva was surprised to see how far the building has advanced. They are very excited to have a santuaty.

For lots more photos check out the Denver Adult 08 album.

day 2 working hard

Tuesday morning saw the two teams at work again. The construction crew at Agua Viva began by raising the two long walls. They then built the three shorter ones. By the end of the day all of the walls were up! They are ready for the trusses on Wednesday.

The truss crew finished all of the trusses except the two end gables. The time was 11 minutes per truss, until they ran out of glue and had to take a lunch break. By the end of the day all 36 trusses were done and ready for transport to Agua Viva.

During devotions two veteran team members were honored for 10 years of service. Mark Hinken and Mile Alsum (in ausentia) received their ten year jackets. Thanks for your commitment to building churches in Tijuana.

More pictures are available in the Denver Adult 08 album. Link on right hand side bar.

12th annual Denver Adult team

The adult team from 3rd CRC Denver arrived in Pancho Villa, Tijuana, Sunday evening. They came ready to build the new santuary in Ojo de Agua, for the "Agua Viva" church.

Monday morning the group divided into two teams, one team went to the site to begin framing the walls and begin electrical work, while the truss team stayed at Pancho Villa, at the "Cristo Arca de Salvacion" Church, to begin building the scissors trusses.

In the evening two veteran team members were "honored" by Dick Pastorkamp. Dan Tigar was honored for his service as a volunteer fireman. Pastor Dave DeRidder was honored for his plan to ride in the Sea to Sea cycling event this summer.

For more pictures click on the Denver Adult 08 album link to the right.

Puppet Miniatry at Prince of Peace

Yesterday a group of eight adults and youth from the Prince of Peace church began a new outreach program directed towards the children in Altiplano. Diamandy came up with the idea and is directing the project.

Before hand they passed out flyers in the community, then on Friday at 3:00 they had two short puppet shows with an evangelistic message, sang some songs, and had a snack. About 40 people, children and parents, came to the first event! They are planning a similar program every other week.

Please pray for the workers involved, and for the children and adults who attend and hear the Gospel message.

Friday, wrapping up

The men from Calvary CRC finished up in the morning, filling some more holes. They then attended a joint prayer service with the men from the Rehab center. It was a moving experience for everyone.

In the afternoon they went to down town Tijuana to do some tourist shopping. They returned for a pizza dinner, and a final time of sharing with ourselves and the Lees. They went to bed early to be up this morning for their 6:15 flight from San Diego.

Thanks again for all of your work, and the love you showed to the men at the rehab center.

Thursday, winding down

Today the guys from Calvary went to the 6:00 am devotions at the Rehab center. They enjoyed the experience, even though they did not understand much of anything! They finished up pouring the columns, and began pulling off the forms from some they had poured first. Then came the job of filling the holes back up. 12" at a time, and then compacting.

Check out more pictures by going to the Calvary album. Link is on the right side bar.

Fire!

On Monday we had Santa Ana winds, the dry winds from the east that fuel wild fires. In Terrazas, about half a mile from where the group was working there was a house fire that quickly spread and took three other houses as well. Neighbors were there with garden hoses, and buckets of water. The fire truck took a wrong turn and was late. Fortunately a water truck came by and helped to put out the fire. It was amazing it only took four houses. Yesterday the guys saw another fire up the hill a ways from them.

Fire is always a danger here, with the dry conditions, and poor wiring (many times using spliced or damaged wires) with the wind it just takes a spark for a fire to start. Many homes in Terrazas are still stealing electricity, hooking a bare end of a wire over the electrical wires and then stringing it to their homes. This is also dangerous in the winds, and rain.

Just last week a family from the Emanuel church, Julio Cesar and Geronima, and their 8 children were left homeless when one of the grandchildren started a fire playing with matches. This family is staying at the Emanuel church until Grupo Amor can build a house for them in two weeks.

Day 2, Calvary CRC

Tuesday morning the guys started out where they left off. They made forms (from used plywood complete with rusty nails), and rebar columns to put in the holes. They then had to reinforce the 16" forms, and fill them with cement. The goal was to pour seven more cement footings (bases) and six concrete columns today.

Check out the photo album link for Calvary CRC to see more pictures of the work. Pictures will be added daily.

Calvary CRC at the Rehab Center

Have you seen the movie "Holes"? If you have you can imagine the scene at the Forjando Nuevos Destinos Rehab center in Terrazas del Valle. But instead of holes six feet deep these holes are about twelve feet deep. What are they doing, digging for water? Buried treasure? New outhouses? No, these are footings for the new two story building for the Rehab Center. Because the lot where the center is located has tons (literally) of fill dirt, in order to build a strong foundation, the footings have to go down into hard ground. Eight men from Calvary CRC in Holland, Michigan, arrived Saturday night to help with the project. They are working along side of the guys from the rehab center, under the direction of Paulino Luna, an Elder at the Cristo, Arca de Salvacion (Christ the Ark of Salvation) Church, who is also a cement mason.

The group is staying at the Cristo, Arca de Salvacion church in near by Francisco Villa. On Sunday morning they worshiped with the Arca church. They ate a taco lunch at the church, took a tour of some of the other churches and missions in Tijuana, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the Geurink's house. In the evening they worshiped with the men from the rehab center at the Dios Viviente (The Living God) church located on the other half of the same property.

Presently the rehab center has about 35 men, it has had more than 45. The new facilities are designed to hold 150 men. The construction will be done in stages, replacing the current temporary buildings, as it progresses.

For photos of the work in Terrazas, click on the link to Calvary CRC album at the right of the page.