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

A few pictures from the week..

Counting Tools

Leveling the forms is a lot easier with a transit.

Building Walls. They say a good leader never swings his hammer.  Sometimes its tough not too.

Setting the Roof.

Estella and New Home

Me and the House

An Awesome Group of People.

Some awesome connections being made in the foreground, me tossing the football  americano with Luis and Jesus in the background.  It was an awesome night. 

The interns are building a double in Juarez this week.

Hello All!

I’m ecstatic to hear that Rolling Hills is planning a trip! The waiting list for doubles in Juarez is a on the minds of the staff at all times.  

I had an awesome time this week leading a group from Spring Road Christian Church (West Point, Georgia!!).  Andrew and I led most of the build under a staff member’s supervision. The team constructed a beautiful house for Estella, a single mother of 3.


The drive to Acuna is taxing.  Each week staff members lose their Sunday’s to tne of the most desolate 8 hour drives in America.  (See picture of my extended cab seat in Justin's 1995 F-150 with sub par air conditioning) Justin, the staff member observing us this week, had a fever of 101 due to an abscess he developed on his neck as a result of an auto immune disorder.  The thing was the size of 3 golf balls and kept him from being able to turn his head.  He was back and forth over the border every day trying to get medical attention, however the doctors would not drain it because he was scheduled to lead a team in Guatemala on Monday. We ended up boiling a razor blade on Wednesday and doing it ourselves. Thankfully he is doing well.  He left for Guat this morning.  Please remember to pray for him, he has been so good to us.
  
This week was our first experience building with a team and I could not have asked for a better one.  The team consisted of 5 adults and 11 youth, half boys and half girls.  I have made some awesome friends and am thankful for every member.  They were very patient with us as we worked the kinks out of our team leadership techniques.

The build went according to schedule.  We finished Wednesday morning and then went back to the church we were staying in where the team prepared all of their extra food.  After the dedication that afternoon we took all the food to the sponsoring pastor’s church and ate and fellowshipped with the neighborhood.  It was so refreshing to throw a football for a few hours.

I feel so blessed to have met these awesome people and for the privilege to take part in the miracle that occurred in Estella’s life this week.

With regards to the RHBC trip, I would like to steer you towards Juarez. Acuna is just as hot as Juarez but with extreme humidity, mosquitos, and the most cockroaches I have ever seen in my life. Swamp coolers do not work in Acuna because of the humidity which made sleep difficult.  I woke up every couple of hours drenched in sweat.  Violence in Juarez is down 58% from last year with 80% of persisting violence occurring between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM.  Casas’ primary concern is team safety.  Teams do not leave the church after dusk, and the director, David Robinson, is in constant communication with both the U.S. and Mexican State Departments.  The recent violence is concentrated 70 miles east of Juarez and is strictly gang on gang.  David is informed daily of the areas of town that should be avoided (this hasn’t happened since I’ve been here and I understand that travel advisories are very rare).  I love you all dearly and would never put any of you in harm’s way.

I will be building a double in Juarez this week with the other interns. Please continue to pray for us.

I love you all and look forward to hearing the details of your trip.


David 


-I'll post some more pictures tomorrow once the group gets home and settled and puts them on the internet.  The last day is pretty much the only time I had time to get out a camera.

Estella's old house

Estella's new house, a work of God through Spring Road Christian  Church

My left knee in back seat of Justin's truck.

My right knee in the back seat of Justin's truck.