Are We There Yet?

We did it!

As of 11:00 last night (1 a.m. Michigan time), all 55 of us were back in the United States and we'd built four houses from the ground up. The border crossing was very easy and we were able to sleep on carpeted floors last night at Park Hills Church.  It really is amazing how much of a difference even a thin carpet can make after sleeping on cement! 

The builds went really well and all four houses have been dedicated and given to the families. They were all so excited to receive them!  We are so glad that we had this opportunity to come and bless the families here in Juarez.  It's been a great trip!

We're back in El Paso for one more day of serving with Casas at their compound, showers and dinner tonight and then we'll leave tomorrow morning for the drive back. 

Now that we're back in the states and have internet access here at Casas, we're able to upload some photos for you to see parts of our trip.  I recommend watching Facebook as well to see even more.  As of this morning, students had given me around 700 photos that they've taken.  There's not enough space on here to share all of those with you, but I can share some highlights!

Here are some photos from the trip down: 

We take over gas stations when we all show up

Chelsea P, Danielle, Tori, Chelsea V., Brittani, Lauren and Melissa

Chelsea V. 

While we were in Roswell, we took full advantage of the warm weather and sunshine and played outside the hotel with frisbees, repacked the vans, worshiped together with music, communion and a devotional from Mitch and wandered around town to try a find a UFO (we didn't have any success). 

Glenn enjoying the sunshine

Brandon B, Sydney, Keleigh R, Faith and Cassie M. 

Cassie M, Lauren, Melissa, Kelly W. and Chelsea P.

Mitch and Joe planning the day

Lauren, Brittani and Emma 

Alex and Jessica

Drew, Justin H, and David loading up the vans

Kate, Baleigh and Heather all dressed alike again

Danielle

From Roswell, we drove to El Paso where we ate dinner and had ice cream cone contests and then made our major grocery run to Wal-Mart for all of the supplies we needed for the week: 

Driving to El Paso

The banana mentos aren't good either

Jason's Deli in El Paso

Getting groceries at Wal-Mart: Mike R, Andy, Jim, Keleigh R, Faith, Sydney, Becca and Brandon B. 

Brandon B, Sydney and Faith

Up next: our first day of building!