Staying at Faith Mission in Del Rio is an experience in itself. We have two sleeping porches filled with bunk beds for the 60 plus men to share for the night. Normally I would have a hard time sleeping in these accommodations, but with the long days and short nights I don’t seem to have much problem. I’m curious what percentage of men in their 30’s to 60’s tend to snore? Whatever it is, with more than 30 men sleeping in the same room, the odds are we will have a healthy component of snorers. This is my third year on the Power Ministry Trip now and I can honestly say I enjoy a good Snores.
Today was a full day of projects in Acuna, including a Joy tour. After breakfast and devotions we enthusiastically loaded up our tools and some rice and beans and went to our assigned projects. The Name of God that we looked at in our devotions was Jehovah Shalom (The Lord is Peace).
I was able to work at Pancho Villa for both morning and evening sessions today. Pancho Villa is a home for some mentally disabled folks who from the looks of it are very poor and likely treated as fairly worthless. God knows each one of them and longs for them to walk in freedom and victory as his specially created children. I wish I would have taken just a little time to talk with a few of them. Anyway, we made some huge steps in getting the Multipurpose building finished up: Electrical wiring, insulation, roof sheeting and roofing, siding and windows and paint. The crews I worked with there had a super time working together.
There was another building project at Justo Sierra School building a Cafeteria that was very similar to the kind of work we did at Pancho Villa. Other projects included some miscellaneous things at Jaime Blanco Church and Faith Mission. Power guys made 11 more pews for a local church.
Most of us actually only do construction work when we are on these power trips. If anyone reading , this knows someone who would benefit from a week of serving the Lord in this way, but would hesitate because they don’t do construction, it should be clear that you don’t have to have any construction experience to come and be a part of this.
JOY TOUR: Joy tours are an incredible experience for everyone involved. It’s basically an impromptu evangelistic outreach in the middle of a target community in Mexico. To kick it off, a bunch of guys blanket a community by walking around all the streets and inviting people to come to a designated point. Lots of suckers are handed out to happy faces of all ages. They play some loud music to help draw attention and also have speakers and a microphone or two. There are always a few guys randomly selected to give their testimonies, with an interpreter. The guys don’t get much more that a couple minutes to think about what they will say, giving the Holy Spirit a chance to step in. There were four testimonies shared today: Collin Litterell, Mike Harms, Doug Steward and Armand Rogers. Each of them was here for the first time. There were blankets and clothing and rice and beans handed out as well as many bibles. Many of the people were actually specifically requesting a bible and some asked for prayer. One little girl who needs surgery came up and asked for prayer for healing. It can be difficult to witness up close the kind of poverty and desperation in some of these peoples lives, but it’s also amazingly life changing to witness the hope and joy that we can bring through an event like this.
Our kitchen crew for the day had a great meal waiting for us at Faith Mission when we finished our afternoon projects. We also had ice cream for desert. I have never seen nor even imagined how excited a bunch of overfed, grown men would get over ice cream! (Blue Bell) Honestly, I don’t think a group of 3rd graders would have been any more enthusiastic about it. We finished off more than 2.5 gallons of ice cream in about 15 minutes! I really am not supposed to eat ice cream, but I got caught up in the frenzy and had three scoops myself.
As I’m writing this, I’m a little torn because there are a bunch of guys playing cards and just having a blast. I would love to join in, because I love playing cards whenever I get the chance, but at the same time, I am thoroughly enjoying just witnessing these brothers having a little fun together after a hard day of work. Just another example of how cool it is to be here with these Christian men. Thank you Lord!