Friday, March 7, 2014

It's GO TIME!

Judging by my choice of title for today, I think I've watched too many episodes of Cake Boss and Next Great Baker.  But, it really is go time!  We're supposed to be pulling out of the Guys House in approximately 2.5 hours (give or take).  The vans are here, the packing team will be here at 4, Faith is helping finish the "Mexico Brain" binder with everyone's forms and the insurance, and we're getting excited!

A lot of people have been asking what the next 8-10 days look like for us.  They know that we're building houses in Mexico and they know that the reputation for this trip is that long and rough. But, they don't really understand how we get there, what we do each day and how the trip runs.  Hopefully this post will be able to answer some of those questions for you.

We leave tonight and drive to the Chicago area, where we'll meet Michigan Tech.  Once we have them with us, we'll drive straight through to Roswell, New Mexico.  We have connections there with the owner of a Super 8 where we'll stay Saturday night.  This gives us a chance to sleep horizontally, shower and have church together before we finish the last stretch to El Paso.

On Sunday afternoon/evening, we'll go to the church in El Paso that is hosting us and unload all of our stuff, make a wild dash through Sams Club to start buying the food for the next 4 days, grab dinner and then make a giant run to Wal-Mart to get the last of our supplies with all 55 of us (it's usually quite the experience!  We get a lot of weird looks).

Monday morning, we cross the border into Juarez where we'll go to the SHOC to unload our bags, split into building teams and gather all of the building materials and then go to our building sites.  The SHOC is Casas's main base in Juarez and we will be going back there each night to eat dinner, worship and sleep.  There's no beds, just a concrete floor, but after a long day at the worksite, just laying down feels amazing!

Monday, the goal is to get the foundation leveled and poured and the walls framed.  Tuesday is the long day on the building site when the walls go up, the electrical gets done, windows go in, blackboard and chicken wire goes up and the roof gets done.  Wednesday, we do the stucco, drywall, finish any electrical, finish the roof and have the dedication ceremony when the families receive a Bible and the keys to their brand-new house.  We'll stay in Juarez Wednesday night and then on Thursday, we go back to El Paso and work at the Casas compound there doing anything that they need done.  It's our way of being a blessing to their staff as they bless the families in Juarez every day.

Thursday night, we get to shower again (yippee! Even the cold showers feel amazing after building!) and we go to dinner with the Casas staff.  Then we go back to our host church to sleep and leave bright and early Friday morning to come back.  We'll drive straight through (no hotels this time) and hopefully get back to Big Rapids sometime Sunday.  Sometimes it's as early as 3a.m. and other times it's later that afternoon.

It's not an easy trip.  There's about 80 hours in the vans (although, we do have 4 extra seats this year that will make the trip MUCH easier for everyone), 4 long days of working in the wind, dust and sun, the opportunity for smashed thumbs and slivers, sand burrs in your socks and sleeping on the concrete.

BUT, in the end, when we get back to Big Rapids, we'll have the knowledge that because of the sacrifices that we made, 4 families have a roof over their head and four walls without any holes, their homes have locking doors, working electrical, real insulation and drywall to be warm. Plus this year, we'll be able to give the families $575 worth of furnishings for their new houses!!!  THANK YOU to everyone who gave towards our extra gifts for them.  We're so excited to bless the families in this way!

Thank you for your prayers, your support and your encouragement as we travel.  We appreciate you! We'll see you in 10 days!

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