This is Valle de la Trinidad, Baja California, where Hno. Sergio Vargas and family have their main church. (There are two other towns where they are working as well.) Matt and a group of 35 people went to help them build a building to serve as a church and house.
They left here Friday afternoon, and Friday night picked up more people. Saturday they stopped in Ciudad Juarez to pick up more people, and went to church Sunday at Iglesia Bautista La Gracia where one of the men is pastor. This is some of the group in church that morning.
It was a 3,726 mile round trip that took 95 hours to cover! There were many, many problems on the road, but the Lord was good in protecting them the whole trip and the whole time they were working.
This is the trailer they took...and the view the people in the van behind had the whole trip. Thank the Lord it made it!
This is also the view that they had (down) for several hours of the trip!
This was also a common view (and an expensive part) on the trip. (The other van is on the other side.)
Finally there! The building site: The long room on the left will be for the church services, and the two small rooms are housing for Hno. Sergio and a class room. Hno. Sergio had most of the foundations laid when they got there.
The present building they are renting for church and house.
Facing the other direction. Notice the bathing section in the back corner.
This is the main problem with their current building. Notice the holes in the roof. The last day it rained, and the whole floor ended up wet. They had to move everything to keep it from getting soaked.
They got there late in the afternoon on Monday and set everything up so it would be ready for night. The ladies stayed in the house, and the men stayed in tents or in the vans.
They went ahead and made work preparations for the next day and even started working some that evening.
They got some block laid that evening.
6:30 a.m. 'First light' on Tuesday morning they were up getting ready to work.
This is where it was when they started on Tuesday morning.
Hno. Sergio finished the foundation while the others started on the walls.
Alot of concrete to be mixed!
10:00 a.m. Tuesday
2:00 p.m. Tuesday
9:00 p.m. Tueday: 1,000 block laid!
Wednesday morning: taking a break for breakfast.
Speaking of food...The ladies did a wonderful job in using what they had to feed the group.
The men enjoying the food....and the break!
On Wednesday they were able to finish up the block.
And while some finished the block others started on floor preparations.
Leveling the floor.
Some of the men started on the floor and poured most of it on Wednesday afternoon.
While the floor was in process the pastors and assistant pastors met for the ordination of Hno. Sergio.
The ordination service Wednesday evening.
Matt preaching the ordination service.
The dedication prayer.
Hno. Sergio, Hna. Elena, and Sarai
Throughout the week and for the service Wednesday night Claudia and a couple of the ladies held a children's club.
Thursday morning there was still a little bit of the floor to finish pouring.
By mid-morning they had finished.
The group with what they accomplished in less than three days. ...then came the long trip home....
We praise the Lord for the opportunity that we had to help out Hno. Sergio and Iglesia Bautista Monte Sion (Mount Zion Baptist Church). So far all but $1,000 of the $8,000 that was spent on the building and travelling has been covered thanks to the Lord's provision and to many of you. We wish that we had been able to do the roof, doors, and window, but neither finances nor time permitted. When they were still a few hours from home though, word came that a church in Canada had given an offering to cover those things!
The week after next the plans are to head back and finish the roof, doors and windows. This time it will be with only one van and about four men. It looks like most of the expenses are already covered as well.
We thank each one of you for your participation through prayer in this project. We are looking forward to reporting on the finished building!
