David Lebby Blog

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)