A (Wo)man Among Men
Our first servant event since August was here last week, from St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Barrington, IL. They normally bring 20-25 people and do a medical clinic at one of Pastor Hernandez's (Pepe's) mission sites, but this year, they opted not to cross the border which reduced their team to just 5--all guys. We planned a project in Horizon City for them--Olga Reyes's roof/electric--but they still sent a check down so that Pepe's doctor friend who normally helps them out with their clinic could run one in their stead, the same week even. I thought that was a very cool idea, and I don't remember the exact numbers that Pepe's wife Blanca told me, but he saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 people in 5 days.
Barrington's week started off by crossing the border for church at Santisima on Sunday so that they could be there to celebrate Pepe's 20th anniversary as a Lutheran pastor--their church has been working with Pepe for several years now and they were NOT going to miss that. I'm glad we went too...I think Chris and I would have gone even if they hadn't wanted to! The service was PACKED! People came from ALL of the YLM Mexico mission sites to share in the celebration, and it probably didn't help that there was a baptism that day too, and communion. To help shorten things up there was a biography of Pepe instead of a sermon, during which I learned lots of things I didn't know about him. I guess that's not that surprising considering I just met him in January, but who knew that he first felt God's call into the ministry at age 13 so he studied for many years to be a priest? It wasn't until after he married Blanca and met some of the other YLM staff members that he realized his true calling was to the Lutheran ministry...I could be biased but I think that was a good choice!
After the service, there was a party, of course. After a few song and dance performances by the combined youth from all our Mexico mission sites, Pepe called the whole group, Chris, me, Pastor Martinez, and Javier (pastors from Cristo Rey and San Lucas, respectively) up to the head table with his family and other close friends. He kept telling everyone that we got to eat first because we had a bridge wait ahead of us to get back to the mission! Once we finished eating it was starting to get dark so we needed to get going, but Blanca insisted that we eat some of the cake she made (there were 2, hers and one someone brought from a bakery), and since you can't say no to that she gave us some to-go plates!
Back at the mission, the guys told us that after talking to Pepe, they would prefer to work with him all week rather than in Horizon. Problem #1: there were already 71 bundles of shingles on Olga's front porch. Problem #2: we had been promising her for a couple weeks that she would get a roof (which was becoming a greater and greater priority since every time it rained water leaked through the cracks in the OSB and damaged the frame underneath) and her electric run. So, from then on out, the plan became put the roof on in 2 days and then go work with Pepe, and that's exactly what we did!
With the goal of meeting with Pepe on Wednesday morning in mind, me and the guys worked our tails off and gave Olga a darn good looking roof if I don't say so myself...in TWO DAYS! Chris did ALL the electric, and the rest of us shingled like crazy under the direction of their resident former roofer. I still LOVE shingling...you get to be up high but minus the tar...and it was fun showing the boys that girls can shingle too, not that there was ever any doubt about that! We had done it once before, but this time we had a pro showing us how to do it...I think I was a pretty fast learner anyways. Wednesday the group crossed the border to meet with Pepe/scout the project he wanted them to do, and Thursday and Friday their task became to build a porch at San Pedro y San Pablo--buying all their own materials out of pocket--which will provide extra space (and shade!) for Bible studies, meals, and clinics. Chris and I stayed back to finish up the electric on Wednesday and get some office work done the rest of the week. We also got to see Super Josh, one of the 2008 summer volunteers, for a couple days...he's roadtripping around the USA for a month before he starts 2 years of pilot training in MS. Anyways, the porch had been high on Pepe's priority list for awhile, so it was a total God thing that it got done last week--we had told him it wouldn't be completed until at least February! He plans to dedicate the porch on Reformation Day, Saturday, October 31. I don't know if I'll be able to make it since we have other Reformation stuff going on here at San Pablo, but it'll be a neat event for sure. Pepe has been talking for a long time about getting regular ministry going out there and this will bring them one step closer. The guys from Barrington were even talking about what it will be like in 10 or 20 years and remembering what Santisima used to be like...a concrete slab...so who knows?!? OK back to 2009...enjoy the pictures!
Cake #1
Cake #2
The kids all made him a sign that says, in English, "Congratulations Pastor Pepe!"
Enough partying...time to get to work--Chris was the Romex runner extraordinaire.
Ken laying shingles. I never did like working from below like that...probably b/c Jeff taught me how to line them up from above so that's the method I stuck with!
It was important not to put too much weight on our toes so we wouldn't damage the courses (rows...in roofer speak) we had already laid. Dan's technique unfortunately didn't work, but it was too good not to take a picture of.
Dave, the group's leader, arrived late due to a funeral, but he literally got off the plane and got to work!
Even so, everyone who had been there all day thought it would be fun to stand around for awhile and watch him work!
Barrington's week started off by crossing the border for church at Santisima on Sunday so that they could be there to celebrate Pepe's 20th anniversary as a Lutheran pastor--their church has been working with Pepe for several years now and they were NOT going to miss that. I'm glad we went too...I think Chris and I would have gone even if they hadn't wanted to! The service was PACKED! People came from ALL of the YLM Mexico mission sites to share in the celebration, and it probably didn't help that there was a baptism that day too, and communion. To help shorten things up there was a biography of Pepe instead of a sermon, during which I learned lots of things I didn't know about him. I guess that's not that surprising considering I just met him in January, but who knew that he first felt God's call into the ministry at age 13 so he studied for many years to be a priest? It wasn't until after he married Blanca and met some of the other YLM staff members that he realized his true calling was to the Lutheran ministry...I could be biased but I think that was a good choice!
After the service, there was a party, of course. After a few song and dance performances by the combined youth from all our Mexico mission sites, Pepe called the whole group, Chris, me, Pastor Martinez, and Javier (pastors from Cristo Rey and San Lucas, respectively) up to the head table with his family and other close friends. He kept telling everyone that we got to eat first because we had a bridge wait ahead of us to get back to the mission! Once we finished eating it was starting to get dark so we needed to get going, but Blanca insisted that we eat some of the cake she made (there were 2, hers and one someone brought from a bakery), and since you can't say no to that she gave us some to-go plates!
Back at the mission, the guys told us that after talking to Pepe, they would prefer to work with him all week rather than in Horizon. Problem #1: there were already 71 bundles of shingles on Olga's front porch. Problem #2: we had been promising her for a couple weeks that she would get a roof (which was becoming a greater and greater priority since every time it rained water leaked through the cracks in the OSB and damaged the frame underneath) and her electric run. So, from then on out, the plan became put the roof on in 2 days and then go work with Pepe, and that's exactly what we did!
With the goal of meeting with Pepe on Wednesday morning in mind, me and the guys worked our tails off and gave Olga a darn good looking roof if I don't say so myself...in TWO DAYS! Chris did ALL the electric, and the rest of us shingled like crazy under the direction of their resident former roofer. I still LOVE shingling...you get to be up high but minus the tar...and it was fun showing the boys that girls can shingle too, not that there was ever any doubt about that! We had done it once before, but this time we had a pro showing us how to do it...I think I was a pretty fast learner anyways. Wednesday the group crossed the border to meet with Pepe/scout the project he wanted them to do, and Thursday and Friday their task became to build a porch at San Pedro y San Pablo--buying all their own materials out of pocket--which will provide extra space (and shade!) for Bible studies, meals, and clinics. Chris and I stayed back to finish up the electric on Wednesday and get some office work done the rest of the week. We also got to see Super Josh, one of the 2008 summer volunteers, for a couple days...he's roadtripping around the USA for a month before he starts 2 years of pilot training in MS. Anyways, the porch had been high on Pepe's priority list for awhile, so it was a total God thing that it got done last week--we had told him it wouldn't be completed until at least February! He plans to dedicate the porch on Reformation Day, Saturday, October 31. I don't know if I'll be able to make it since we have other Reformation stuff going on here at San Pablo, but it'll be a neat event for sure. Pepe has been talking for a long time about getting regular ministry going out there and this will bring them one step closer. The guys from Barrington were even talking about what it will be like in 10 or 20 years and remembering what Santisima used to be like...a concrete slab...so who knows?!? OK back to 2009...enjoy the pictures!
Cake #1
Cake #2
The kids all made him a sign that says, in English, "Congratulations Pastor Pepe!"
Enough partying...time to get to work--Chris was the Romex runner extraordinaire.
Ken laying shingles. I never did like working from below like that...probably b/c Jeff taught me how to line them up from above so that's the method I stuck with!
It was important not to put too much weight on our toes so we wouldn't damage the courses (rows...in roofer speak) we had already laid. Dan's technique unfortunately didn't work, but it was too good not to take a picture of.
Dave, the group's leader, arrived late due to a funeral, but he literally got off the plane and got to work!
Even so, everyone who had been there all day thought it would be fun to stand around for awhile and watch him work!Until next time, blessings!
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