| Update Emails from Culiacan Team
SUNDAY, FEB 18, 2007
From: North Haven Culiacan Team
Date: Sun, Feb 18, 2007 11:48 PM
Subject: Culiacan Team Sunday evening report
Greetings from the warm wonderful ciy of Culiacan, Mexico. We arrived really late, around midnight. We had a good flight to Mazatlan on Saturday, even though it left an hour late from Minneapolis. We rode from Mazatlan in a large coach bus for 3 hours. A few hours of sleep thismorning, and we started our week.
Our team split into 3 groups and each went to a different church this morning. One to Emmanuel Baptist in Culiacan, one to Renato Vega, and the other group to Cofradia. The last two churches mentioned are mission churches planted by Emmanuel that we have been involved with over the past 6+ years. In the aftrnoon all three chruches met together at ¨the orchard¨ (a retreat area owned by Armando from Renatov Vega) for lunch and volleyball and visiting with each other. There was a nice warm breeze blowing, the sun was shining, fresh fruit was being plucked from a nearby tree, and we were thinking of our loved ones in cold Minnesota. Later in the evening, we continued our eating at the always popular Papas Locas outdoor restaurant.
We are staying at the famous Santa Fe II in downtown Culiacan. We stay here every mission trip. It is simple and clean, and the staff have become friends over the years. We meet together at the end of each night up on the roof of the hotel (4 floors up) and overlook the city as we share about our day, plan for the next,pray and sing together.
It is good to be together with our friends here in Culiacan, meet new ones and worship together. We look forward to our week working in the neighborhood of Progreso and the area nearby now named Los Angeles. We ask for your prayers as we continue our work with the people in this area and hope to start new relationships with the men there through helping with home construction.
We start our day Monday with breakfast at 7am, group devotions at 8:30 and then work projects and preparation for the children and women programs at 4pm in the afternoon. Stay tuned......we will keep you updated when possible.
For the team...
John and Peggy
P.S. Glynae pulled off surprising her daughter and son-in-law, Vanita and Lucio tonight!! They did not know that she was coming to Culiacan for the week. (Vanita and Lucio are missionaries with YWAM, living in Culiacan.)
MONDAY, FEB 19, 2007
Previously in Culiacan.... The team arrived, the team gets ready to work.
The following took place between 7am and midnight. (dramatic music with increasing volume....)
Our name is Team North Haven, and this has been one exciting day in our lives.
After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we started our day together with devotions together at Emmanuel Baptist Church. We prayed that God would lead us and show us what He would have us do in Progreso.
We drove to Progreso and walked around, visiting the families that live in the homes that we will work on this week,inviting people to our afternoon activities, and stopping by the new school building. WOW a brand new school in place of the old 3-sided, tar-paper shack, that we worked on last year. Instead of 3 sides, it now has 3 new buildings for the children! Children were playing in the school yard, happy and of course distracted from their schoolwork when we showed up! An obvious sign of progress in Progreso! We thank God for last year when He showed us the need to pour a cement floor for the old school, which resulted in the government building the brand new one. What a difference!!
After lunch we went back to Progreso and to prepare the site for our women and children program.
We set up in the newly purchased lot that is the future site of a church-plant of Emmanuel Baptist. We had a great day and saw several of the women and children that we have seen the past two trips. The children enjoyed the new puppets and Bible story about creation. We had 25 women sewing potholders for a craft, and they heard some women from the team talk about their faith and Gods love for us all. We even had a small group of men gather for an impromtu Bible study!
Our team assignment was to watch for CONTRAST during the day. If you get to see pictures of Progreso, there is obvious contrast to what we are used to back home. We were also to be prepared to tell a story from our day. Well, there are so many stories to tell already. God´s love transcended our language barrier. It was obvious God had prepared the people of Progreso for our time together. There is much need there. It was one of the most productive ¨first days¨ that we have ever had on our trips here. The depth of the reationships with everyone from the start is better than it has been before.
We ended our day with a wonderful dinner together with our friends from Emmanuel Baptist. We had good food and a fun time. After supper,the the men and women broke into separate groups to talk together about our partnership in ministry, and to get to know each other better. As you can see, we were out a little late!
Weather Report: warm, partly cloudy, beautiful sunset!
Health Report: all well, but all could use some more sleep and energy
Prayer Requests: continued good health, continue to build relationships with people in Progreso, limited distractions during our afternoon activities, that God´s Good News will be heard
Stay tuned........
For the team,
John and Peggy
TUESDAY, FEB 20
DATE: Feb 21, 2007 12:21 AM
FROM: North Haven Culiacan Team
SUBJECT: Tuesday Report
This will be short and sweet. We are really tired and need to get to bed. We are not feeling very creative either so we will just cut to the chase.
Construction began on the homes today in Progreso. The first of 3 cement trucks pulled into Progreso and poured 2 home slabs, footings and a partial slab at the church property. The men whose homes were being worked on came to the afternoon Bible study today along with other men. There were questions asked and some good discussion resulted. Relationships are growing each day. We have had a hard time reaching the men in the past as we have worked in this area. It seems to be a comfortable way to build relationships with us. It is exciting to see God working through us in this way.
Back at Emmanuel Baptist, some of our team was painting the upper rooms of the church, to be a nursery. Preparation for childrens activities were worked on, and a puppet stage built.
The afternoon children´s program had a lively (or chaotic) group of children who were taught the Bible story of creation. The women made a lovely bracelet and had a great time of sharing together. Free haircuts were given by 3 women from Emmanuel Baptist. Haircuts here cost about $3. We learned today that in Progreso, the highest paid person proabably earns $10 a day. We are working with the poorest of poor in Culiacan.
When we are out working in Progreso, it is not just our team from Minnesota. We are blessed to be working side by side with members of Emmanuel Baptist. We are only here for a few weeks a year, but we are helping nurture contacts and relationships that will carry on after we leave. We plough and plant the seeds, they water and harvest.
Weather report: warm and sunny. Cool evenings
Health update: all well, just tired
Prayer requests: For our trip to the zoo Wednesday - safety and organization. Not all the children will be able to go (young ones, and others who haven´t been here Monday and Tuesday), that there will be understanding and no angry moms. For continued construction projects and relationships with homeowners.
For the tired but enthusiastic team,
John and Peggy
THURSDAY, FEB 22
Greetings from Culiacan,
Cindy and Peg called me (Joel) to give a quick update via the phone since the computer at the hotel crashed and they haven't been able to send out emails.
The trip to the Zoo was a fabulous success! There were about 38 kids who got to go, many of them first-timers. We had a safe and fun trip. The mothers were very thankful and expressed their gratitude for this opportunity.
The construction continues. It is hard work, but a lot is getting done. There will be more work today (Friday).
Last night we had a blessed time at the new church site in Progresso. North Haven was given the priviledge of naming the church! The church will be called House of Hope. It was an exciting time for Culiacan, Progresso, and the North Haven team.
Friday will be our last day and we will have a Fiesta. It will be very hard to leave as relationships grow closer and affections deepen in the bonds of Christ's love.
FRIDAY, FEB 23
We wrapped our fresh coat of paint with a wallpaper border in the nursery at Emmanual Baptist.
Seven or eight men have been attending the Bible study in Progresso. We praise God for this as it is usually very hard to reach the men of the community.
We delivered the blankets from the youth group of Mary Tieszen's neice.
Please join us in continued prayer for the new believers.
We are tired, but well.
We praise God for someone getting a back-end loader that we used instead of back-breaking (not to mention slow) 5 gallon buckets to move the concrete.
Again, it will be very hard to leave on our last day as we grow closer and closer to our friends in Culiacan.
Thank you very much for all of your prayers and support. May God be praised!
SAT-SUN, FEB 24-25, 2007
Greetings from Mazatlan!
I hope that you receive this email. I am not able to get into our regular email host, so not sure if this will work.
It is Sunday, and we are relaxing in the sunshine at our hotel. We had a worship service together this morning, reflecting on Christ's sacrifice for us. We will have lunch in a few minutes and then relax on the beach until our vans come to take us to the airport. We are checking the airline updates to see how much our flight is going to be delayed. We have heard that you have a bit of snow in the Twin Cities. WE will have culture shock in many ways when we come home. One will be the cold and snow for sure!
Sorry for the delays in messages, but the internet was down for the last half of our stay at Hotel Santa Fe II in Culiacan.
Our last few days in Culiacan were busy with finishing up projects (painting and wallpaper border for nursery room at Emmanuel Church, the roofs and slabs in Progreso, and preparing for the Fiesta on Friday.) The fiesta was a fun time to spend with all our friends in Progreso, with a clown, games, face painting and many prizes. There were smiles all around from the littlest children to the adults. But then when the time came for us to pack up and move out, the tears and hugs and sadness took over. It was really difficult to say goodbye. We were asked when we will be back. We exchanged addresses, in hopes that we can communicate in between trips. We will not forget our friends in Progreso and will be praying for them until we see them again.
Then later that evening we had a wonderful dinner with our friends from Emmanuel Church. We watched a slide show of pictures from our week and then had to say good bye again. The Minnesota good-bye and the Mexican good-bye together make for a long goodbye! Lots of hugs and kisses and wishes to see each other again soon!
We appreciate your support and prayers for our team this week and invite you to our report on the evening of March 11 at 6:30 at North Haven church where you will hear and see what happened this week in Culiacan! We thank the Lord for a wonderful week where lives were changed and relationships were deepened.
For the team,
Peggy Denham
|
