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April 12-18, 2007

El Divino Salvador Lutheran Church in Tijuana Mexico, the mission center for the Brookfield Lutheran Mexico youth mission trips, needs a new sanctuary because they have outgrown their old one.  We have been asked to be one of three teams on a building blitz this spring.  The sanctuary is needed to connect people to Jesus in the community of Obrera Tijuana.
 
Building the sanctuary is a team effort of willing workers from various places.  Here are some specific details about the building blitz:
  • Three possible plans were submitted for review and selection to Pastor Manuel, from El Divino Salvador.
  • Mike Young from Crescent City, CA is their engineer. 
  • We will be working on the roof and doing interior work in the sanctuary.
  • We are meeting up with groups from Nebraska and Illinois during this week.
  • Kit Hunter led a group from Kalispell, Montana the week of March 23 – 30.   The photos you see here show the progress of the building as we begin our work week.




Our group from Brookfield Lutheran consists of nine people:  Bob Dusel, Bob Fischer, Brian and Jeanette Keller, Bonnie Lemmer, Terry Marquardt, Mary Lightbody, Ben Otto, and John Perry.
 April 20th   Print   
April 20th

We met our goals and exceeded them in many ways.  These last pictures are taken on Wednesday, April 18.  In these pictures we see Pastor Manuel and Marta with Mary Lightbody and then a picture of all of us who worked on this project for the week in our newly drywalled, textured and painted sanctuary.  You might also be able to see all the lights we installed.  The other picture of the building is the classroom area that can be divided into three rooms.  We finished strong and on time.  It was amazing how much we were able to accomplish in a small amount of time.  The last picture is of a well deserved last dinner in San Diego.  

We all flew our seperate directions on Thursday.  The BLC group arrived back home at 10:00 PM.  Altogether, we spent over 60 hours working on the building.   With all 15 of us, that is over 900 hours of labor in a week.  We finished the shingling the roof and adding vents, painting the exterior and gables, installed soffitts and vents, installed the plumbing, corrected and rewired part of the building, installed one exterior door and trim, installed most of the interior doors, installed over 20 lights and 7 ceiling fans, drywalled, textured the walls, painted and exterior lights.

We had a wonderful prayer of blessing in the church with Manuel and Marta before we left.  They are so happy with the work.  They see it look more and more like a church.  They still have some work to do before they can receive their occupancy permit.  But they are hoping that will be completed by the end of May.   We continue to pray for blessings on their work in Tijuana.  This will be a wonderful place for people looking for the hope of Jesus. 

We, the servants of Christ, are humbled to have been a part of this project.  Thank you for your prayers and support.  We felt the prayers everyday!

Mary Lightbody

April 17th

Today is Tuesday!   We have been blessed with another day of excellent weather.  This may not seem important as we are working mostly indoors but we did have one day of rain and humidity that caused our mud and texture to not dry very quickly.   But we are back on track!  Monday was a full day of mudding seams, texturing the ceiling and walls.  Some also worked on installing a soffitt and vents.  Others worked on outer door trim, laying out the kitchen and more electrical.   Today the plan is for painting!   It has been fun as I spend most of my day running people around for supplies to learn the way things are built in Tijuana.  People are often confused when I ask them for something.  Then they educate me on how it is done the "TJ Way".  We have adapted many things.   We also had visitors yesterday from Lutheran Border Concerns Ministry in San Diego to meet the group and check on the progress.  They seemed very happy with the work.  

As you can see from the pictures, everyone is hard at work but the hardest worker of all is GOD!  You may see some of us wearing a blue shirt with orange lettering that says GOD AT WORK with our GOD AT WORK logo and scripture.   We love to witness as we work.  It has opened the door for so many conversations and witness opportunities.  Please continue to pray for our last push today and Wednesday.  Then also for a safe and EASY  border crossing on Wednesday evening.  

Love to everyone at home!  Mary
April 15th

It is Sunday!  We planned for it to be a day of rest but we needed to finish a little bit of mudding so we would be ready for Monday.  We all got up early and worked until worship started at 11 AM.  It was a VERY full service which showed us again why we needed to give them a new worship space as soon as possible.  We took the afternoon off and went to see houses we had built in the past.  We also toured around the coast, ate out and shopped.   Tonight we are feeling rested for 3 more big days. 

The Lord has blessed us greatly.  We see His hand of protection and provision daily.  Thank you for your continued prayers.  Everyone here says Hello to family and friends back home!

Mary

April 13th

Hello from Tijuana!   It is Friday afternoon and we have been here about 24 hours.  I really can't believe how much has been accomplished.  After traveling for over 12 hours on Thursday, we started working right away on the church.   Some climbed up on the roof to finish it.  Others started putting up drywall and insulation.  Some worked on a 40 Yard trench for water and others put in a door.  We closed our first day at the Taco Stand for dinner and Bible Study on Psalm 46.  We have seen our Lord protecting and providing for us already.  

Today the new gate was installed, more insulation, drywall and doors.   It is about 72 degrees today so we also started painting.  Bob Dusel and I went on a shopping spree at Home Depot Tijuana.   He was a trooper trying to translate and find the things we needed.   We quickly learned you can not build the same way in Tijuana as we do in the US because they simply don't have the same supplies.  Good thing Bob is excellent at "Plan B".

Everyone is feeling better today.  Thank you for your prayers of health.   Today we ask for prayers of patience as the group is settling in and the lack of sleep is starting to catch up with them.   I have to say I am personally amazed by the people God has sent on this trip.  They are true servants of Christ and witnesses of his love.   Thank God for Brian and Jeanette Keller, Bonnie Lemmer, Bob Dusel, Ben Otto, Mary Lightbody, Terry Marquardt, Bob Fischer, John Perry, Paul Schneider, John Klehm, Craig Risor, Ted Meyer, Matt Meyer and Chris Archer.  

Easter Blessings,

Mary

P.S.  I hope the snow has melted at home!

April 12th

Hello from San Diego!  We made it through the snow and rain to Chicago and caught our flight on Thursday.  We are just about ready to cross the border...as you can see from the pictures it looks like we got just about everything!  We met up with our Nebraska and Illinois friends too.  We are all anxious to get started after a long day of traveling.  Today we ask for your prayers for health as there are a couple who are not feeling well.  We even found a fellow missionary who took our picture for us and prayed a blessing on us in the parking lot of Home Depot!

Love from Mexico!

Mary Lightbody
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