On May 17th twelve mission team members traveled to El Paso, Texas to stay at the Ysleta Lutheran Mission to do servent work for a family in El Paso and a mission church in San Fransisco Juarez Mexico. Six adults: Jane Jaenke, Andy Heren, Dod Bertsch, Ron Braswell, Bob Detlaff, Ken Jibben and Six 7th/8th grade students: Ryenn, Sami, David, Sarah, Danielle and Ellie were busy for five days sharing Jesus love through serving others.
On Sunday the students lead an activity with the children at the church in Anapra Juarez. Two students read the "Gospel by colors" in Spanish as the other students assisted the Sunday school students in making bracelets that would remind them of the story. Pastor Braden has been teaching Spanish twice and week at ECLS to the seventh and eighth graders. The Chairwoman of the Anapra congregation was very impressed by the student's Spanish that they had learned over the school year!
On Monday and Tuesday the team went to a trailer on the outskirts of El Paso to do some repairs for the family. The family's oldest daughter is in a wheelchair due to a disease that effects her legs and joints. At the trailer the team rebuilt the wheelchair ramp, removed a broken air conditioning unit, patched the roof, replaced water damaged flooring and installed tile flooring. The trailer was quite humble and the work we need was very necessary. The joyful expectant looks on the faces of the daughters as they came home from school the first day made the sand and heat worth it!
Norma the mom made the workers lunch the three days they were there. That was a treat for the workers. She was an amazing cook and the food was delicious! Tacos, homemade salsa and fresh avacado filled our bellies quite nicely!! As we learned Spanish phrases to communicate with Norma, she also tried to learn English phrases from us to help her understand us better!
On Wednesday the team split. Some returned to the trailer and some went across into a very poor area called San Fransisco in Juarez to build a sun "porch" at a private home that was serving as a mission church meeting place. The site we worked at made the trailer look like a palace. It was a tiny yard fenced with pallets, wood doors and cardboard. So many people were meeting there that they need a shelter to keep the hot sun off them. A simple 12x 16 foot roof on four posts was erected in two days. We were unable to tar and paper it due to the high winds the last to two days. We learned that it would be finished "tomorrow" which in Mexico means "not today". We pray that another group will soon be there to finish what we started.
It was an amazing trip filled with an incredible amount of humor and joking with all the team mates. The wit and easy going nature of the group made for an incredible experience. When things seemed crazy due to lack of correct tools or conditions the teammates found humor in those times and it kept smiles on our faces.
We were blessed at border crossing times as the longest wait we had was 45 minutes. The prayers that people offered for our safety were obviously heard as things went smoothly. The federal police were noticed at the boarder but its presence was the same as going to the Metrodome for a football game where the Minneapolis SWAT team members are posted at each entrance.
By far the evening devotions were the most impressive as the team members really opened up and shared how they were impressed and what impacted them the most. God truly had His hand in our trip!
To see photos of the trip select the read more link below and look for the photo album titled ECLS Mission Trip 2008