Life

this is our season without teams - and since we've been working full time with El Ayudante we were either preparing for teams or working with the teams while here - which was a very busy busy time for us - that we loved! And so now it's September - we won't have any teams until the beginning of the year so we have been calling this our 'slow time'. I don't know if that's really true - because it's not like we're walking around looking for something to do.

I realized something really cool the other day - another reason why "El Ayudante" fits us. El Ayudante means "the helper" - and that's what Tristan and I love to do - to help - and when we've worked for other ministries in the past we still had so many other side projects going on because we see a need and want to fix it. Well now we are working for "the helpers" - which means really anything we do falls under our job description! Sweet!!

Tristan is helping our church remodel - he has added a handicap ramp and a new wall with some doors - and then he's adding some new stairs and another wall and doors at the other entrance. I will show pictures soon. This is a huge project and a big help to the church - they were quoted at over $1500 for labor (this is a lot of $$ here!). And Tristan's loving it because it's a challenge and he has missed working with wood as so much work lately has been finish work or cement work - and he's much more confident with wood. so he's loving that. It'll be awhile until it's done because he doesn't have a complete week to work on it - it's a day here, a day there.

We have a new intern! Matt - from Richmond, CA is here with us for a month. He's a pleasure to have around and has been a big help so far. It's been eye opening for him - this week we visited a pueblo to plan a medical clinic and he saw that the school of 115 students don't have running water at the school - that hit him pretty hard. Reality is hard to grasp until you see it first hand. He knows a lot about construction so that's been nice! We also have a volunteer with us for a week - Jack from Maplewood, TN is here with us. We're excited to have Grandpa Jack with us for the week! So we have a mini team with us for a week and they are going to be focusing on finish work in the guard and staff house. We picked out tiles for the staff house bathroom and we're hoping the bathroom will come together this week as well as running electrical and working on the cabinets. We're also hoping to squeeze in some work at a mountain school - putting in a flag pole and steps.

2 weeks ago Tristan's truck was broken into and his iphone was stolen. sad day. It happened while he was in the bank for 10 minutes. For a while we were told that we would have to have the glass shipped from the States because we wouldn't find it here. We had people looking all over the country for us (God has given us great friends!) and one of them found it for us! YEAH! So this morning Tristan went and they put in a window they found in the junk yard and also we got a new windshield as well because it had chipped and then spidered out - amazingly it all only cost $160!!!! and we didn't have to deal with shipping it from the States! we weren't nearly as sad about the iphone as we were about dealing with the truck with a black eye. :)

Me. well, what do I do? a little of everything. right now i"m working on promotion for El Ayudante - meaning we now have a flyer made and a booklet of information about El Ayudante that we're sending out to any churches that we know of that might want to bring a team down. We're really praying and hoping for 12 teams for next year - this year we had 5 - so we're aiming high!

I'm organizing a medical clinic in a village on top of the mountain - called La Escalera (the Ladder). there are over 300 homes just in that village - not counting the homes that live beyond - and they have no medical services! So with the left over medicine from the June Medical brigade, we are partnering with a local Christian clinic to do a brigade up there in October. We are also working to connect with the local leaders of the town and the local church so that they have a part in serving their community. So although we are organizing it, the local church is going to be the 'face' of the brigade. I'm really excited about this!

Ok, I am distracted so i'd better go - my house is full - my family of 4, Matt, Jack, and our friends kids are spending the night (Angelica, Allie, and Zack). I like having a full house but I was concerned because we have hardly had water for the last week and a half - and have been very very careful with water - well today we got water and now we have 3/4 of a cistern full! God is good! life is so much harder without water - and there are so many that live without water all the time...i am blessed.