Mexico Build Trip

After a restless, cold, rainy night (and by cold, I mean probably 35 or 40) in our loft house, the girls and I woke up at 5:45am. Good news! Although we had no electricity in our house, the shower house did! And even better, there was HOT WATER! Yeah! Felt good after sleeping on a very firm wooden bed with a thin mattress. Breakfast was at 6:30am, and by 8am we were on the way to our start construction. The road out of the ranch to the main paved road is 10 miles and it takes 45 minutes to drive. It's one of the most bumpy roads - if not the bumpiest road - I ever driven on in all of my years of going on missions trips - rivaling Tanzania. Adventurous to say the least. We then broke off into 6 teams - 5 from our church, Southwest, and 1 team from another church - and went to 6 different build sites. Like all of the teams, our team spent the whole day building a loft house for a family with 6 children. It was absolutely amazing to watch a muddy corner of their lot have a fully functioning house on it by 5pm. The build even included a a stove, gas for the stove, some bags of rice and beans, beds, and cleaning supplies. After cleaning up the site, we had a beautiful moment giving the mother of the family a Bible, praying for her and her family, and presenting her with the keys to her new home. It was moving to see her gratefully wiping the tears from her eyes. The team effort was awesome, and I was so proud of both of my daughters. They worked super hard and loved playing with the local children. Unfortunately I didn't bring my card reader, so I'll have to post pics when we return. The plan is to shoot out tomorrow morning at 5am to get to the border at a good hour for crossing.