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wow. last night i got this in the mail. Rocky Mountain Synod made this about our little church in El Paso. M25 thru gifts from you is helping the lady you see with the special girl and the young lady you see when they talk about the after school program is the one running the summer soccer camp you provided for. listen to the stories and you see immigration is more than sending those lazy, deadbeat illegals back home. Like Pastor Rose Mary says if we’re the hands of Jesus how can we turn someone away who wants to feed their children. You’d be sending Jesus packing.
Also, check out this video that was made about our congregation!
En paz,
Tom
a brother wanted to know about my trip as he feels God is leading him to go:
the streets in anapra were empty on a friday and saturday moring. i went with Dr. Mendoza on Fri and went over by myself on Sat. Dr. mendoza takes a different route every day to work, she is so prone to being kidnapped. on each corner there are teenage boys watching and reporting every thing you do. violence, extortion, kidnapping, robbery, are ever present. i dressed in my yard work cloths wearing a old dirty T shirt to not call attention to myself and carried nothing i wouldn’t readily hand over to a robber (victor and ogla are being extorted, he had to leave mexico, she pays $30 a week not to have her house burnt down). no children in the streets. christo rey in el paso will not let anyone go to juarez, they did let me drive their van on saturday and i rode with Dr. Mendoza Fri. i was the only visiting gringo dr. mendoza has had in the last 12 months. Jose will not let Jim outside by himself. i took him a load of new shoes, socks and shirts. he has a line for food that grows weekly. the economy is a disaster. we can do nothing with the children like we used to, anything we do the gangs come and breakup the gathering and take everything. our last soccer team we sponsered was at a little tournament and some people came and murdered a coach. One of Dr. Mendoza’s nurse’s lost her cousin the day before I came who was murdered for a cheap stero. The police force is corrupt, so you have no one to call. you feel a little safer downtown but it’s once you get out in the colonia’s where we go, it gets spooky.
The most recent trip to Juarez, Mexico shortly before Christmas was an opportunity to visit with many of our fellow co’workers and pastors in Juarez. We were able to bring alot of new winter clothing and many homemade quilts and blankets. We visited some of the marginal areas on the outskirts of Juarez bringing families Christmas Baskets of food and clothing. Was able to visit with the families involved in our two home improvement projects. One was completed and one we were anticipating to start in January. We’ve tried to target elderly residents or single parents that have little or no family support. We have a number of projects to consider for the springtime. We’d like to redo the roof on the home of one of our missionary friends, we have a pastor that would like a small building put up on a outlying area he’s had a outreach in and there is a single mom with nine children that has no place to live.
We also are looking forward to meeting with a pastor of a church in a area we have been visiting over the years to consider a joint effort on ministering to the elderly in their community.
So the spring trip would be a normal type of trip for us. We would visit with the people we currently work alongside, maybe have a small construction project and meet with new contacts the Lord has brought into our line of sight.
We would love to have you join us on one of our trips… email us if you would like more information.
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