Clay in the Hands

The Weapons of Mass Construction team is home.  It was a great trip.  We are all exhausted but God blessed us beyond any blessing we could have possibly given anyone else.  As I think through and process all that God did last week, I will be telling you about it here.  For now, please know that your prayers were felt and God did amazing things.  Here are a few before and after shots of the home we repaired in Mesquite.

Entrance to the Guererro home before . . .

. . . and after.

The living room and den before . . .

. . . and after.

Bathroom before . . .

. . . and after.

God is good!

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The last two days have been long and full.  Yesterday we began work on the flooring in the home as well as the porch out front.  Today we got to meet the family, including Alfredo Jr. – the 5 day old new addition to the family.

It was obvious why Sofia Hernandez, our contact who helped us find the family in need, chose this family to assist.  They have two girls and now two boys.  They are so appreciative of the help and it really comes through in their humble attitude.  A couple of the guys made a tree swing for Angelica, the younger girl and she took to it quickly.

Tomorrow we will finish up the bathroom, flooring and the rest of the project.  Over the coming week, I will be telling you of the relational outcomes of our efforts here this week but for now, here are a couple of pictures.

The porch at near completion.

Jerry and Ratha McLellan and the mobile Wienerschnitzel waggon fed us at lunch today.

This picture has little to do with our mission efforts but he was at Kinley’s Tea and Coffee House when I went to update the blog.  He said it took four years to grow his hair this long and it takes 45 minutes to make it look like this.

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Day three of Kid’s Heart El Paso and the crew did great.  We got more done than we had planned.  God brought just the right guys together for this trip.  We have two electricians on this trip and so we got some wiring done as well.  Pastor Israel is ecstatic and grateful for the work accomplished this week, but more importantly, his plan to have a place for the youth of Fort Hancock to meet and for a food distribution center are closer to completion than they were three days ago.  Israel has been on the field at this church for two months.  Over the past three years the church has grown and now that Israel is here, the work is going even better.  Pray for him today.   You can see how the project ended for us.  Tomorrow we start in Mesquite, NM, working to ready a home for a family welcoming a new baby home from the hospital.  We found this family through a lady who does social work in the area.  I will tell you more about Sofia Hernandez later this week – she is truly an angel sent from God to the people of the area and it is our privilege to work with her again.

Thanks for your continued prayer!

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Day two has been incredible.  We began the day at 5:30 am and left for Fort Hancock at 6:00.  We hit the site running – or climbing rather.  By church time we had almost finished one side of the roof.  We stopped to attend the service and had a very meaningful time with the church family – even though the entire service was in Spanish, there was a distinct bond with the people.  Afterwards, the church fed us a wonderful meal and then it was back to work.

This evening, we attended a worship service with the other churches that are represented here this week for the Kid’s Heart effort.  Kid’s Heart is a joint effort between Buckner International and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas.  We were blessed tonight to be given a challenge by the President of Buckner International, Albert Reyes.  I really appreciated that he took the time to come to El Paso and be here to meet with our groups.  I also appreciated what he had to say.

I am so excited to see what God will do this week.  Continue to pray for us as we wrap up our work in Fort Hancock tomorrow and move on to the next project.  It is amazing to be around when people’s availability intersect with God’s desire.   Lives are forever changed!  More on that subject next time.  For now, check out some pics from today.

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Day one of the Kid’s Heart mission trip was spent driving from Levelland to Fort Hancock and then working for six hours on the project in the heat.  As you can see from the pictures, we started with walls in place and then moved through near completion of the roof structure.  We have twelve guys on the trip and each worked hard through the heat to do an awesome job.

The pastor of the church, Israel, along with two of the youth of the church were there all afternoon working right along with us.  It was great to work with them knowing that God is using them on a daily basis to make a difference in this community.

Day two will be spent working to complete the roof as well as stopping to worship with the church during the regular worship service.  I am excited to see familiar faces along with all the new ones God has brought into this church since we were last here with them.  Pray that God will continue to grow relationships between our group and the people of the church and community.

It is humbling and exciting to be a part of this group and in a small way being part of what God is doing here.

More to come!

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The Weapons Specialists will be rolling out of our church parking lot tomorrow morning at 6:00 am.  We will roll up on the project site in Fort Hancock around noon Mountain Time and go to work.  For the next week, our crew will be building, roofing, laying carpet and doing some plumbing.  Please pray for us.  You can pray for our safety and for the successful completion of the projects but most of all, pray that God will use us to make a difference in the lives of the people of the area.

Check back here all next week for pictures and updates as to what God is doing.  If you would like more up to the minute information, you can follow me on Twitter @jbrianhill.  I will be tweeting regularly throughout the day with updates from the projects.

As always, thank you for reading my ramblings and thanks for your prayers.

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“Weapons of Mass Construction.”  That was the slogan we put on the back of a T-Shirt in 2007 to commemorate our construction crew that goes each year to build a home for a family in need along the border of Texas and Mexico.  The slogan stuck. It is a crazy and Godly group of men and I am privileged that they let me tag along.

It has been a struggle this year to pull the trip together, but after my trip to El Paso this week, we are ready!  The crew met last night and we are stoked!  It is so amazing to work with these guys and watch how God uses them to make a huge difference in the lives of others.  It has also been really cool to see how God works in each of our lives along the way too.

We will load up and head to El Paso on June 12 and work on two different projects over the course of 6 days.  Please pray for us.  Pray that God will keep us safe as we travel and work.  Pray that God will use us to minister to others, not only in the actual building of a structure but more so in the building of relationships.

You can watch the posts here that week to keep up with what is going on and know how to pray for us.  If you want an even closer connection with the action and progress you can follow my Twitter feeds – @jbrianhill.  I did this last year and plan on doing it again – several times per day I will take a picture and tweet out a progress report allowing those following to be connected to the action in real time.

Thanks for your prayer!

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It has been a hard and long week but very rewarding.  Not only did I have the opportunity to do mission work (which is one of my passions) but I had the blessing of working with some amazing students in the process.  Pictured here is a portion of our “roofing crew.”  Two others were helping on the other construction site when this picture was taken and one other had to return home a day early.

These young adults did a great job this week and I pray they will be blessed for the efforts they have made.  Not one of them complained about anything, even though the last day was a bit tedious getting all the loose ends tied up before leaving.  Each one stepped up and did what needed to be done.

Whitney, Jessie, Coe, Josh, Bob, Sarah, Tree, Benny, Andy and Josh – you all did impressive work and it was my distinct honor and privilege to serve our Lord together with you this week.  Go home and continue what you have started!

Be blessed and be a blessing!

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