It has been so great to be back down here in Mexico again! My parents, grandparents, and Joshua drove down from Canada to San Diego. There they went to the airport and picked up Rachel and I (we just finished an incredible 6 week Hebrew language course) as well as Rachel's good friend Shelby. We all crossed over into Mexico on January 17. The border crossing was a bit interesting, certainly the most thorough we have ever had to deal with. Our fifth wheel trailer was sent through the X-Ray and we all ended up having to buy visas. We are certainly thankful for God's faithfulness and protection, because things could have gone a whole lot worse. We saw other people with trailers having to empty every last thing out of their RVs and wait on the sidewalk for many hours while it was gone through. But eventually we made it across and were once again greeted by the familiar sights, sounds and smells of Mexico; vibrant colored houses, interesting looking dogs dodging in and out of traffic and past stop signs the say “ALTO” rather than “STOP”, the delicious smell of fresh tacos mixed with strong exhaust fumes wafting up on the breeze, and the sounds of loud Latin music and vehicles with loud speakers strapped to their roofs advertising their services driving up and down the dusty potholed streets.
We have been spending our time down here meeting and reconnecting with some great people as well as helping out our good friends Dorothy and Eduardo with the ministry that God has called them to down here, which they began nearly five years ago. The name of the ministry is New Beginnings Woman's Association (NBWA) or Mujeres Nuevo Comienzo in Spanish www.newbeginningsbaja.org . It's great to see what God has been doing in and through this ministry. This ministry reaches out to the women/girls and their children who have faced all sorts of abuse and those who've struggled with different types of addictions, or those who've completed rehabilitation and have no place to turn. The women’s restoration center's goal is to provide a safe place for woman, where through Jesus they can find restoration from their difficult lives of pain, abuse, hurt and addiction. There are currently dozens of women and children in the five bedroom house that this ministry has been using rent free for the past 5 years. It is a full and busy place to say the least, but God is working and lives are being changed.
Just over a year ago this ministry purchased a beautiful piece of land up on a hill, with a fantastic view of the ocean to the west and a great view of the band of mountains and hills to the east. Having their own property and more functional buildings has been a huge need for this ministry. Over the past year work has slowly begun on the property as God has allowed in His perfect timing; as finances, supplies and man-power come in. The perimeter of the 2.5 acre property is now fully fenced in, with some trees planted, a tool/storage building built, outhouse set up, and an old trailer parked there for whoever is there for security.
Since we've gotten here there has been no shortage of things to do. Up at the new property Dad got the power all hooked up last week, which was very exciting. Rachel, Shelby and Joshua worked on some landscaping by building a retaining wall out of rocks. Grandpa, Darryl (Shelby's dad), Mom and I worked on framing, insulating and sheeting half of the storage building which needed to be divided in order for there to be a temporary living space on one side. One of the big things that Dad has been working on is welding the gates for the property, as security is a big issue. Because there is currently no gate, someone needs to be staying at the property every night, and now after a complicated situation involving a drug pusher and the man who was staying there as security, my parents or Eduardo are now rotating through having to stay up there. Back down at the current shelter, Grandma has been very involved in teaching the women sewing and quilting, which the women are just loving. Mom and the rest of us girls also spent a few days last week cleaning, organizing and sorting through donations.
Shelby and her dad Darryl were with us for just under a week, so they headed back to Canada on Sunday. This past Monday we also had a rather interesting experience; and if the idea of butchering an animal makes you feel uncomfortable it might be best if you skip the rest of this paragraph. Dorothy and Eduardo had a young heifer, and it was costing too much to keep feeding her, so she needed to be butchered. Because we are all farmers, naturally the task fell to us. However, it is illegal to have a gun in Mexico, so the deed needed to be done without a gun, which was a new experience for all of us. In the end it all went very well, and she died far more relaxed than I've ever seen an animal die from a gun. Dad welded a contraption to put onto the back of our truck to lift the body up so that the meat could hang over night. I spent the night sleeping out in my hammock making sure no dogs came to try and get any meat, and thankfully it was a rather quiet night. The following day we cut and packaged up all of the meat. We all learned a lot from the whole experience and now the ministry will benefit from some nice beef in their freezer.
This week a group of dentists from Alberta have been working here at New Beginnings; checking, cleaning and working on the teeth of all the women and children at the shelter, as well as local missionaries and other locals. Mom has been very involved with all of that, helping out as one of the dental assistance for their team, which has been a totally new experience for her. Some other people who came with the dentist group have been helping up at the worksite as well, getting the entire storage building covered in tar-paper and stucco wire. Rachel and I have certainly had a bit of a challenge trying to remember how to speak Spanish, as we just finished 6 weeks of learning Hebrew before we came directly here... It is coming back slowly, but not without some confusion due to various Hebrew words that some how manage to get thrown into the conversations we are trying to have with people in Spanish. It all makes for some rather entertaining experiences.
On the weekends we have had some time to rest, explore, and reconnect with a bunch of really great people we've met from past years, as well as meet some more amazing people. On Friday evening 20 some people came over to Dorothy and Eduardo's house to come and hear about our family's trip to Israel this past Fall, it was fantastic. We also met a couple really great families over the weekend, one from Michigan and the other from Idaho. We have some mutual friends back in Canada with the family from Idaho, and we had some great times with them; from tacos and visiting, to Dutch Blitz and capture the flag in sand dunes by the beach, it was a great getting to know them a bit better.
We also took them to a couple really great ministries, and it was so encouraging to see how God is working through those places. The Oasis After School Program www.oasisinbaja.com which is a fantastic ministry that disciples, loves and helps children in a very poor community in the area during the time of day when they are not at school and their parents are working, a time when they are normally left home alone. We also stopped in at Welcome Home Outreach Ministry www.welcomehomeoutreach.org which is another really fantastic ministry that we have done home builds with in past years and also offers a free daycare service to very needy families. It's so great to see how these ministries continue to develop over the years and the differences that they are making in the community.
Dorothy left for Canada and the States on Tuesday for a 3 week speaking/fundraising tour, and this weekend my Grandparents will be returning to Canada. We've all certainly been missing having David with us this year, but are very excited for him as he is serving in Israel until late March. We will be down here helping Eduardo and working on the property until about the 10th of February, after which we will be driving back up to Canada; I will likely post one more update before we leave. It has been so good to be back in Mexico, seeing the work that God is doing and helping out where we can. We are so looking forward to continuing to see God’s work in the ministries and the lives of the people here, as well as helping out and encouraging the missionaries and the people here in Mexico, as we allow His light to shine through our lives as we reflect Him who is the Light of the World.
- Stephanie
P.S. A little Mexican girl named Sophie (in one of the pictures below) from the area is going to be having major heart surgery the first Friday of February, so please be lifting her up in prayer.
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