North Haven trip to Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico - July, 2007

Check out the emails from Mexico which give you a good flavor for this trip.

SAT, JULY 14, 2007
-------------------
I told Cindy that there is a lot that I could write about, but when it
 gets to be too late it becomes less appealing to send an update.  So, I
 decided I would send one this morning, but now it is 8:15am and we're
 supposed to be leaving in 15 minutos!

Yesterday turned out to be a crazy day as we spent more time than we
 planned finishing off the living structure in Progresso...we all wanted
 to get it done though so we stayed.  We were happy to hand over the keys
 to one of the daughters...Miriam.  Don has video of the whole thing so
 hopefully you will all be able to see that sometime.

Then we were back to the hotel for quick showers...Don had 102 degrees
 in the back of the van and someone said it was 105 when they were
 working on the back of the house.  It didn´t feel that hot so maybe they
 weren't being accurate...or we're just used to it now?

Next we hit the drivethru at McDonalds on our way back to Progresso one
 last time to play games and stuff with the kids.  Five of us then went
 back to Emmanuel to walk around the neighborhood inviting people-kids
 to come to the event.

We ended up with about 30some kids show up for games, puppets, singing,
 etc. and we all feel it was a success as this is the first time we've
 done anything like that at Emmanuel.

Dinner (Domino's last night...very Mexican!) was at the church and
 everyone showed up to sing the "llamamos" song and say goodbye´s.  We said
 goodbye to Manri and Edith and reiterated our committment to our
 sister church relationship.  Arnoldo said that they are already ready for us
 to come again and wished it was next week!  We also left some money
 with them to add a cement floor to the house we were working on.  Oh, and
 we asked about the next steps for the church building in Progresso and
 they will work on plans and information to get to us by November.
  Basically, everyone is looking forward to getting the building going and
 finished.

So...I have to go brush my teeth and get my suitcase.  We´ll see you
 all in church tomorrow...bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Craig

===============
FRI, JULY 13, 2007
-------------------
Today will be a lot of "lasts"...last day working, last day in
Progresso, last night with the people here, and potentially the last time we
see Manrique and his family.

We are off to Progresso to hopefully finish off our "permanently
temporary" structure/house. Pray that we get all of the work we need to get
done completed.

Then we're back to Progresso in the afternoon for games, coloring,
crafts, and fun with the kids there. I hope to beat someone in Chess
today, but we'll see. The boys I was playing with yesterday didn't know how
to play!

We finish off our week tonight with our Celebracion Espiritual at
Emmanuel...followed by dinner at the church. Pray that lots of people in
the surrounding neighborhood would come!

It will be hot again today of course. God gave us clouds and a little
bit of a breeze yesterday, which was good timing as it was the most
work we've had to do thus far. We'll see what happens today!

We were treated to a shrimp dish last night at Manrique's...with potato
salad, mashed potatoes, rice, flan, and of course Coke! I made sure
to have my glass full of it as it helped the shrimp go down easier...I
even learned how to take the head, tail, and peel it!!! It was actually
pretty good stuff! And all of you who feared the spiral staircase at
Manri's will be happy to know that it has been replaced by a very nice
steel and tiled staircase!

So, it´s time for the driver to get people going and fire up the van.

One more day!!
-Craig

===============
THR, JULY 12, 2007
------------------
We just returned from Arnoldo and Gabby's house where we enjoyed the
best meal I have ever had here in Culiacan. I thought carne asada at
Manrique's house two trips ago was good, but this beats it by a hair. Joe
Bigelow agreed (so that must be saying something!). I'll just say
that it was topped off with chocolate flan...as Joe said, "it's all over,
but the cryin'."

We are taking advantage of the "early" night and the team is off to bed
after a short debriefing meeting in the wonderfully air conditioned
lobby...it wasn´t quite as hot today, but the humidity was clearly
evident.

Construction update: the last half of the week has turned into North
Haven's "Casa Cambiar Extremo." We learned that people of Emmanuel
Church got together and purchased land in Progresso for a lady associated
with the church. Her name is Luz and she recently had surgery for
cancer, is now doing chemotherapy, and also has 4 daughters and 1 son to
raise (I realize I related this in my previous update). She has been
living with someone else, but now has to move out. The land was purchased
for $800 and normally would go for $1800, but the owner had to vacate
the land due to an emergency of some sort so they were able to get it
for a good price. So, our task is to demolish the current structure
(nothing more than a rundown makeshift shack, which the backhoe took care
of), level the land, and put up a decent temporary structure that the
family can use right now. Then a YWAM team (including our very own Lucio
and Vanita Berumen) will construct one of their nice permanent
structures sometime after we leave. Thus far we have not done much manual
labor as we've hired guys with big machines to do it for us. It has been
a bit frustrating to sit around so much, but I also told the team that
if we weren't here then the work that is being done might not be
happening. Tomorrow should bring some good manual labor for us to do.

Our evening program in Cofradia went off with many hitches, but the
team was able to adapt to the changes and unknown and we all feel good
about how it went. We arrived at the end of the Bible school that was
going on this week and by the time we started the church was packed with
kids and some adults on the outskirts of the sanctuary. Once again our
plan turned into something mostly different as the order we had planned
during lunch was rearranged to accommodate the fluid situation. I
think we were all fired up to see so many kids looking back at us as we
went through our different parts of the program. It was HUGE to have
Lucio, Tonio, and Nadia there and we thank God for their efforts and
assistance. The puppet show continues to be one of the highlights for the
audience and Erica and Danielle have put together quite a show.

Prayer requests/praises:

Praise God for who He is and inviting us to come and be a part of the
work here.

Praise God for food and chocolate flan!

Praise God that so many kids were there in Cofradia.

Praise God for Lucio and Vanita and Tonio and Nadia.

Pray for Brooke and Erica as they haven't been feeling too well the
past day or so.

Pray for things at the radio station, that they would get done when the
timing is right.

Praise God for sleep!

Buenas noches,
Craig

===============
WED, JULY 11, 2007
------------------
We're leaving soon for Cofradia where we will piggyback with the Bible
school going on there this week with our celebration espiritual. Pray
that many seeds will be planted as a result of our efforts and that
adults would be there and accept Christ tonight!

This morning we began work on a piece of land/shack of a family
associated with the church in Progresso. The lady has recently had surgery
for cancer and is now doing chemo while living at another person's house
temporarily (her husband died a while ago). She has 4 daughters and 1
son. Anyway, people at Emmanuel got together to buy this property and
we will construct a temporary house for her family before the YWAM team
constructs one of their nicer houses.

More updates to come!!! Gotta go...someone needs to drive the
van...and that is me!!!
Craig

===============
TUE, JULY 10, 2007
------------------
Greetings from North Haven Church Culiacán Missions Headquarters. It
is now 11:30 pm our time and our team has just ended another eventful
day and is looking forward to a good night of sleep. I told Cindy that I
would be the guest writer tonight and she happily obliged. So, here
goes nothing!

We began the day at 7:30 am with another hearty breakfast (desayuno) at
el restaurante in our hotel (Santa Fe Dos). I chose the huevos con
tocino (scrambled eggs with bacon), plato de fruta (plate of fruit), pan
tostado integral (wheat toast), and jugo de naranja (fresh squeezed
orange juice). Anyway, then we were off to work in Progresso around 9 am.

Our main objective today was to walk around the neighborhood and offer
trees to the people if they wanted them and to let them know that they
were being given to them by the church: House of Hope. We arrived to
discover that most of the trees had been stolen overnight! While we
were disappointed by this development Pastor Manrique reminded us that
they were for the people anyway and that if nothing else they would grow
to beautify the area and serve as a reminder about where the trees came
from. We also worked to level the larger dirt piles on the church
property. I went along to the 'dirt store' with Manrique and Lucio,
which was actually driving around the area looking for guys with trucks
near guys who were moving dirt around. We struck out the first two
times, but hired a guy for 1200 pesos (about $120 dollars) for 5 truck
loads of dirt. We also had a front end loader to help level all the
dirt, which would have taken us the rest of the week if we had done it
ourselves. The front end loader was donated by the company that a man
from Emmanuel works for and his name is Arnoldo (I think that is spelled
correctly).

We came back to the hotel for lunch and then got ready to head out for
Nuevo Altata - also known as the beach!! While we didn't end up
swimming in the ocean due to strong currents and jellyfish we were able to
use the pool and we all had fun relaxing and experiencing God's
creation. I am in awe of how incredible it is!!!

The plan then was to have a picnic on the beach, but that changed as we couldn't cook on the
beach. Manri scouted out an open area by one of the lagoons and we arrived
to find Octavio slaving away over the grill apron and all. We dined
on a buffet of grilled carne asada, grilled onions, tomatoes, avocados,
quesadillas, watermelon, and don't forget the Coke!! Seriously, I
think I'm on my second gallon of that stuff and we're only half done!!!

The food was great, the fellowship was better, and the night ended
with the guys helping push Octavio out of the sand: it's snow in
Minnesota and sand here!

Joe was at the radio station all day and did much and nothing at the
same time! It seems his plan coming down here has changed and become
something else, which goes along with our ministry's motto 'flex and
obey.'

He's going back tomorrow to set up more 'radio stuff' and
that continues to be an exciting thing. He did find out that there is
a strained relationship between the station and Mission de Paz (the
organization that the station rents space from). Please pray that this
relationship would be repaired, renewed, and made stronger and that Satan
would not intervene in the success of the station anymore. The radio
station is a huge thing as it would be the first 24 hour Christian
radio station in Mexico!!

Don stayed behind to catch up with friends here and also so he could
attend a meeting with pastors regarding the sister church program we are
now starting to form. 7 out of 13 or 14 churches were represented and
Don said it went very well. They now have a committee in place that
will be running things here and nailed down dates for the first 3
trips: this same week of July 2008, November 2008, and then in 2009!! Pray
that God will provide or reveal to us a facilitator for this program in
Culiacan who would be in constant communication with the program in
Minnesota and assist in running the program on this end.

The team is overwhelmed by God's provision, the generosity of the
people here, the clear and evident ways God is moving in this city and in
the various ministries - both ours and those in Culiacan, and how
awesome it is to participate in God's plan.

Please pray for the following:

Brooke has not been feeling well the past couple of days - pray that
this would pass.

Pray for the relationship between the radio station people and the
Mission de Paz people that God would heal this and protect it from future
problems.

Pray for the sister church relationship, the newly formed committee,
and the search for a facilitator. This is a huge ministry in its
infancy...exciting, but much needs to be done.

Pray for our evening programs the rest of the week - tomorrow in
Cofradia, Thursday in Progresso, and Friday at Emmanuel. Pray that more
adults would come to them and that people would hear and respond to the
Gospel message.

Pray that the people we come in contact with would see God’s love for
them through us.

Praise God for safety and continue to pray for our safety and health
for the rest of our time here.

Praise God for his creation.

Praise God for what He has given us.

Pray that God would let it rain and open the floodgates of heaven:
on us, on the people we are working with, our ministry here, their
ministry here, and the whole city (as we heard from Michael W. Smith
tonight).

Thank you all for praying for us and we look forward to sharing our
experiences with you when we return!

Your brother in Christ,
Craig

P.S. The thermometer in Mari’s car said 38 C today - about 95
degrees around 11 am. Don's thermometer said 100 degrees in the back of the
van around 12:30 pm. I commented the other day that being here is
'like living in a sauna.' It isn't unbearable though (thank God for
air conditioning!) and it's great each night on the roof as we unwind
and decompress after each day.

===============
SUN, JULY 8, 2007
------------------
We arrived safely and on time, praise God. Julio, Manri and Octavio picked us up in 3 different vehicles and we were at Santa Fe 2 at 5:15. There was a brief, but much needed rain shower and afterward we went to Renato Vega for their 3rd Anniversary. Other Christian churches were there and took turns singing. We sang Great is thy Faithfulness and then Craig spoke to the people a little about God's faithfulness in the thriving church that he had a small part in helping build. Some of the people were singing along with us.

Manri preached from Phil 2:12-17 where Paul was going away and tellling them to continue with fear and trembling in their salvation.

Philippians 2:12 (NIV) Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

He also spoke about nothing lasts forever except God's Word and his people and how the church must depend on God's power and divine intervention. Afterwards we got to visit with so many people that we've come to love, and enjoyed barbacoa on the roof top. It was nice to see that they've started building the roof (which will be the 3rd floor).

Prayer Requests:

An urgent prayer is about the radio station. No one has been in touch with the rado station people and we need to find a way to contact them (I don't understand why this is a problem). Joe needs to be able to install the equipment we brought down and the best day for that with the schedule is on Tues.

One more request is that we get good rest today to make up for our lack of sleep Friday night since we had to be to the airport so early.

Today after church we heard we are going to a park. Then at night we´re going to Lucio and Vanita's to celebrate Lucio's birthday. He doesn't know it'll be a party with many other people besides our team!

===============
SAT, JULY 7, 2007
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The journey has begun! The North Haven Culiacan missions team arrived safely at Houston today.

Check out the Planned Schedule of Daily Activities posted on the North Haven website to see what the team plans to do each day: http://www.northhavenchurch.org/culiacan.asp

Remember that this is the PLANNED schedule. As frequently happens, plans change. For example, we just recently found out that the construction on the church building in Progresso is not ready for the team to work on. However, someone has donated 100 trees that Manri would like us to work on planting at various places around Progresso (in front of people's houses, etc.). This will be a great opportunity to meet more people in the community and show God's love in a very tangible way.

Please keep us in your prayers as we look forward to seeing God's hand this week.
North Haven Culiacan Team