It’s getting so close to time!  You guys have no idea how excited I am for our build next week.

This past week I built a single with three other interns and a couple of Mexican pastors.  Josh Crabbs came out to help one day also but it was still a ton of work (Josh has lead RHBC on many builds in the past).  The back side of the foundation form had to be raised 2 feet!  We were building for 26 year old Otelia and her family of four.  This single took 3 ½ days but it was almost perfectly constructed.  The craziest part of the week was explaining tasks to the pastors in Spanish.  It was quite a learning experience.  I am so thankful for their patience and grace.

Pastor Gideon came out on Wednesday and Thursday.  It’s always awesome to get to spend some time with him.  He was ecstatic when I explained that my home church was going to stay at his church in two weeks.  He got even happier when I told him of the gifts we had to help with his Sunday morning breakfasts.  I’m pretty sure my kid’s going to have Gideon in his name somewhere. 

Last night three other interns and I took a trip out to the SHOC, a compound that Casas owns on the outskirts of Juarez, for Miguel’s daughter’s Quinceaños (party for a girl that turns 15).  In the states we call this a Quinceañera but in Mexico the birthday girl is called the Quinceañera and the party is called a Quinceaños.  For those of you that don’t know, these things are like weddings - live band, MC, all you can eat barbacoa, and around 10 cakes.  This party was crazy.  The best was seeing Miguel in the role of proud father.  He kind of assumes the role of crazy uncle around the Casas family.  It was an awesome cultural experience and I’m so honored to have gotten an invite.

This week I am leading a church from Illinois on a single in Juarez.  They seem pretty awesome from what I’ve heard on the phone and I’m looking forward to a good week.  I hope it flies because I can’t wait to see my family from RHBC. 

Love Y’all,

David

Build Pics

Gideon and a young Guatemalan man named Gio that Gideon is housing currently.  They were pretty good with stucco trowels!

Otelia's finished house

Otelia and Gideon nailing on the plaque.

Gorditas and a Coke from Gorditas Junior.  I love this place!

Quinceaños Pictures

Mucho Pasteles!

Miguel before the ceremony.  A very happy man.

Cinthia. What a dress!

The prayer.

Ok so I have to get Merricarmen to explain this but the changing of  Cinthia's shoes to high heels seemed to be the climax of the ceremony.  

Miguel and his whole family.

Los internos and Cinthia

Pinto Beans, chopped up weenie (hot dogs), and other stuff you don't want to know about haha.

Tacos de barbacoa

Pre-dessert dessert

Miguel again.  I love this guy.

So during the reception the Quinceañera walks around and people pin money to her dress.  I wasn't expecting this.

Head start on next week's pictures

My site for this week is right under this mountain.  Mexican pastors go up once a year and repaint the rocks.  It reads "City of Juarez, the Bible is the truth, Read it"

I know I know the gaps between blogs just keep getting longer and longer haha. I’m going to start back three weeks ago:

The Week of June 24^th: 6 of the 7 interns were in Acuna, leading teams.  My team was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The Monday that we poured the slab set an Acuna record with a high temperature of 118.  I took 3 people to the hospital that day, two from heat exhaustion and one from heat stroke.  The heat stroke occurred right in the middle of the most crucial point of the foundation process.  I’d never seen a heat stoke before but it scared me to death.  Despite a few more trips to the hospital  we completed the house, a double, on Thursday.  After the dedication I went to Jess’s site, a single, to help speed things up.  Her site was ridiculous; you’ll understand when you see the pictures.  Anyway I put in a few windows and did the wiring and we finished all but the final touches that night.  Since my team had left, I spent the night with David Quinones.  He’s the Casas rep that is Mexican and lives in Acuna.  He had been helping at Jess’s sight as well.  His wife made us some incredible chicken tacos when we got back to his house at 11 p.m.  She is an incredible cook.  The next morning David took me to a local breakfast kitchen where I was given a nice full plate of menudo, the Mexican version of chitlins.  I choked it down.  From there we went to Jess’s dedication and then headed back home to The Pass. 

The week of July 1^st:  We interns built a single in Juarez this week.  We built for an elderly couple both of whom had some disabilities.  Our site was super tight.  When the house was finished there were cement walls within 2 feet of each of the 4 walls of the house.  This build was my 10^th house of the summer.  We watched El Paso’s fireworks from a high vantage point in Juarez.  I turned 21 in the first church Rolling Hills ever stayed in, El Salvador Devino, translated Devine Savior. 

The week of July 8^th:  I’ve been in the office this week doing all sorts of stuff.  One day I’m patching leaks in the office roof, the next day I’m taking passports to team members in Juarez who forgot them.  Pretty much just doing odd jobs and keeping the radio on in case teams in Juarez need us.  My nights are free so that means a lot of mountain biking and rock climbing. 

I am really looking forward to the Rolling Hills build at the end of the month.  I’ve heard that y’all are collecting items for the family and Gideon.  Believe me, these things will be greatly appreciated.

I hope all is well and can’t wait to see you guys

Love,

David 

The double I led in Acuna.  This was the Wisconsin team.

The family and pastor in front of the Acuna double.

This pastor has been the sponsor of all the builds I have led in  Acuna.  We  have become great friends.  He makes incredible descada for every dedication.

This was Jess's crazy tight sight.  If you look you can see the 6 inch gap between the house and concrete walls on both sides!!  We had to get very innovative with our stuccoing techniques haha.

Myself, Andrew, and Jess prepare for the pump truck on our intern single.  This was also a tight sight but nothing compared to Jess's previous one.

This is how you fix bowed roof plates in Mexico haha. 

This is the crazy storm we were trying to beat when finishing our roof.  When things got ugly we pulled everybody up there.  The whole roof only took about 25 min to tar paper and shingle.

Jess and I trouble shoot electrical. 

There were a ton of kids around all week.  It's always fun when we get to interact with the community.

This is the family we built the intern single for.

An awesome traditional Mexican meal from Josues.  Un hamburguesa y un gordita con papas fritas.   This place isn't far from the church we are staying at in a few weeks so we could definitely work in a trip here if you guys would like.

This is from the beginning of the summer but I just had to share it, too funny.  Thats Dave Kruh, our 6'6 intern haha.

This is Pastor Gideon.  Every Sunday morning he takes an ancient school bus and picks up the kids of  Juanita Luna and brings them back to his church from breakfast.  

Mountain biking El Paso's Franklin Mountains

Rock climbing at Hueco Tanks just out side of El Paso.

Ok so I know its been a while haha.  There is so much to tell!

The week before this past week I lead my first team solo in Acuna.  It was an awesome group from Mitchell, South Dakota.  The week went flawlessly.  We finished the build, a single, on Wednesday and dedicated around 2 p.m. 

The family we built for was a young couple with a 3 year old daughter.  They had been waiting on this house for 3 long years but here’s the cool part.  They owned a plot of land on the far outskirts of town without power or running water and it was far removed from their families.  Two weeks prior to us arriving onsite, David Quinones, the Casas rep in Acuna, visited them to tell them they would be receiving a house.  However, through a series of odd quirks, this couple had the opportunity to trade their remote lot for a lot directly adjacent to the young woman’s mother.  This new lot had both power and water, as well as the comfort of close family. 

Another odd tidbit, the sponsoring pastor, who I became very close to this week (my Spanish is very much improved) has a sister who is a pastor in Atlanta.

We had a blast that week.  I had time to take them around town for some local cuisine and souvenirs (one of Acuna’s few perks).

This past week I had an awesome time building with Team Casas, a build that brings individuals from all over who may not have a trip of their own to attend down to Juarez.  My parents came out for the build and we had an awesome week.  Very chill.

The man we built for, Francisco, had just lost his wife to cancer, leaving him the sole provider for his four children.  It was truly an honor to build this man a house. 

On Fridays I work in the Casas office doing mostly data entry.  Casas has about 100 each 5 inch binders full of applications, maps, and pictures that they would like to be scanned into their computer system.  It’d probably take me 50 years to finish this. BUT!! I do other odd jobs too including entering info about upcoming builds and today I had the incredible pleasure of entering Rolling Hills’ trip into the system.  You guys have no idea how excited I am to share this experience with you.

I leave on Sunday to meet a team from Wisconsin for another solo build in Acuna.  Hot doesn’t even begin to do justice to Acuna.  My boss calls it Hell’s doorstep.  Check the weather in Del Rio every once in a while this week and shoot up a quick prayer for me and my team.  We are building a double – yikes!!

I’d like to leave you guys with one last thought. 

I want to tell you about my fellow intern Jess Hehrer.  She’s a senior at Ferris State University in Michigan.  I’ve never met anyone so willing to work behind the scenes as Jess.  We interns live in a constant state of exhaustion.  That being said, there are still a variety of everyday tasks that must be done for us interns to function as we are supposed to.  Those of you who know me know that I am no free loader, but this girl humbles me every week as I find her doing the dirty work human nature would tell all of us we are far above.  And this is completely separate from her mastery our construction and leadership duties.  

As you guys know each intern was responsible for raising 3000 dollars for building materials for the doubles that the interns build in Juarez.  Jess does not come from a Christian home.  She found Jesus through her college campus ministry a few years ago.  Therefore, she has no home church aside from her campus ministry, nor a true network of adult believers to fall back on for support.  You guys were so incredible in your support for me as I raised funds for this spring.  It is beyond me how she raised over half of her $3000 without support like mine. 

I can’t think of anything more awesome than if a group of believers that she doesn’t even know adopted her and provided some additional support.  Believe me – she would be blown away!!!  All donations will go directly to cover the building materials she is responsible for funding.  There will be support cards in her name located on the hospitality desk at Rolling Hills tomorrow.  Online donations to Jess can be made at https://www.givedirect.org/give/givefrm.asp?CID=1005.  To specify for Jess, select “internship program” in the program area menu and under comments put “Jess Herher Support.”

I heard you guys had an awesome week of VBS at Marnelle.  I wish I could have been there to help!!  Hopefully I’ll be able to see some of the results when I get back home in mid-August.  At least I should be able to speak a little better Spanish with them this time around!!

I love you guys and love to hearing from you.  Shoot me a text or send me an email or facebook message and let me know me know what’s been going on with you.

Love you guys,

David

South Dakota Team in Acuna (in no particular order)

Blackboard

Chicken Wire 

Pouring the Foundation

Raising the Roof

My Awesome Team

The Final Product

The Family

A Few Snap Shots From Team Casas

Pump Truck!

Throwing Up Some Stucco

Francisco's Children

A 9pm Dedication on Wednesday Night.  Thats dad next to the door.

Just wrapped up our first intern build.  We have 7 interns total 4 guys and 3 girls.  We built a double in five days working Monday through Friday and spending a total of 60 hours on site.  It was one of the most trying experiences of my life.  It seemed that from beginning to end just about everything that could possibly go wrong did.  The site was the worst that I have seen in 12 builds.  It was narrow and short (so short that the dimensions of the house had to be altered on the fly, a fairly complicated process). It was unlevel due to a concrete slab that made leveling almost impossible.  It was so small that all materials had to be moved twice a day and a 500 lb water tank was sitting right in the middle of the site.  If you are familiar with a double, you know how monstrous of a task this was to complete with 7 people.  The last time Rolling Hills built a double we had 22 on our team and it still ran into Thursday.  In a build like this you end up doing almost all of what you are good/efficient at, and a fair amount of everything else.  For example of the 20 wall and roof sections, I framed 12 alone.  I also wired over half the house.  In a now frustrating (but sometime down the road funny) story, I tested the wiring and trouble shot for over an hour before finding out that the power was out in the entire neighborhood.

The complications ended up only costing us time in the long run.  The house turned out beautifully.  The family had been waiting for 7 years for this house.  The colonia that we built in, Juanita Luna, is an awesome place to be right now.  I feel it is in the midst of a cultural revival after a few hopeless years.  Though we hardly had any time to play, there were kids everywhere, helping clean, holding screws or nails, asking excitedly how to say Spanish words in English.  The church we stayed in is also one of my favorites.  Pastor Gideon is one of the most exceptional men I have ever met.  My Spanish is only progressing slowly, however I can understand everything this man says, its almost eerie.  We had several late night talks this week.  I fully intend to bring you guys to Juanita Luna on our build and stay with Pastor Gideon.

I know the tone of this update isn’t near as upbeat as my previous ones.  But in truth this week was extremely trying both physically and emotionally.  Don’t take this as a sign of unhappiness with my situation (there is nowhere else I can imagine myself being) but more complete and total exhaustion. 

I leave for Acunia tomorrow.  I will meet a team from South Dakota Sunday for my first solo build.

Love you all,

David     

Please excuse any grammatical errors haha

I never saw any of these pictures taken haha, I'd probably have been mad if anyone had been taking time to take pictures but they got some pretty good shots.  These are in no particular order.   

busting off some forms

chicken wire playground

chicken wire.. probobly my least favorite part

dry wall with jessica

hand troweling the slab

Juanita Luna

nailing on the plaque

making some late night pancakes.. we got unconventional with our meals this week

Pastor Gideon nailing in the second nail

Roof sections

Samuel

soffet with andrew

framing up some wall sections solo

final product..not a bad house for 7 college kids