Tough Goodbye

Roger & Ed treated us to a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and fried potatoes this morning - it's going to be tough going back to cold cereal after these last couple mornings.



We wrapped up a couple small projects this morning then Scott took us on a "Tour of Tijuana" for most of the afternoon. We visited the various churches and missions that Scott & Marcia have helped start including: Agua Viva, Dios Altisimo, Principe de Paz, Cristo Vive, and Emanuel. We also drove up a long rough road to take in an amazing vista of the surrounding area.




When we returned to the rehab center we had a neat prayer & praise service with the men. Lee and Derek shared their testimonies with the men, and two of the men from the rehab center shared theirs with us. We also took time to pray over each other and sing some praise songs. James did a wonderful job of putting together pictures and movies of the week for us to enjoy.

We concluded the service with a grand feast of "carne asada" guacamole, salsa, rice, beans, and tortillas. The grilled meat was Delicious, and everyone enjoyed themselves while listening to the praise music. We also had a surprise visit from our friend Paulino Luna - the foreman that worked with us last year. Giovani had challenged us to a basketball game yesterday so we took them up on it tonight. Steve, Ed, Ken, and Derek took on a couple (young, athletic, practiced) guys from the center. It was a fun, physical game with "no rules" but in the end we called it a draw in the Mexico vs. Michigan contest. The "fans" watching from the sidelines would alternate their cheers by who was ahead :-)




It was an amazing evening that capped off a wonderful week for all of us. Tomorrow morning we have to fly back home to snow, but the residents of Tijuana might be facing 4-6" of more rain over the next few days.

Miles of Tile

Ed & Jeff treated us to another delicious breakfast this morning with eggs & toast and dark coffee. Dinner was an amazing meal prepared by the ladies at church with meat tacos, soup, thick hot chocolate, and flan.

Other than eating, we spent the day on our knees grouting tile. Roger & Lee finished cutting and laying tiles on the men's trough while Ken, Del, Steve, and Derek spreading grout & cleaning tiles. Ed & Jeff built another spectacular set of bunk beds complete with storage boxes for the men that will be installed in the new addition with the fresh concrete roof. They also added legs to a nice dining table top for the men to use and built a set for their Foosball table - the guys were all smiles afterward. The floor looks very nice with the grout, and we hope to wrapup the few open ends tomorrow morning.






Tomorrow is Friday already and that means we're nearing the end of our time here in Tijuana. Scott is going to take us to visit the churches they've planted, and the future site of the Rehab Center's halfway house. We're going to end the day with a "Carne Asada" party with the men of the rehab center that includes 35kg (2.2 lb/kg) of meat that is being marinated and will be grilled tomorrow. Scott, Del, Derek, Giovani (Jon), and Joe from the rehab center leadership team went shopping at a big meat market in Tijuana this afternoon. Sunny (or dry) weather tomorrow would be a blessing, but we'll have a good time and good food no matter what happens.

Concrete flowing up

The morning started off on a humorous note; we had to get up early to start pouring concrete - and ended up getting up a little too early! Through a snafu of phone alarms and time changes one room got up at 2:30 am and started making coffee and eggs before they noticed it... It was pitch black out and the roosters weren't even up yet! Two members in particular were all dressed and ready to go before they checked their watch and and headed back up. The other room was ticked off and wondered what all the noise was about, but everyone was excited to go back to a warm sleeping bag! Things were all smoothed over when the early risers made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. Everyone had extra coffee this morning because it was very cold - frost covered the van.

The men of the rehab center started mixing two giant piles of concrete by hand (5 yards at a time!) As the mix got ready they filled 5 gal. pails and men carried it up the ramps on their shoulders. A total of 15 yards (or 1 1/2 cement trucks-full) of concrete got poured on the roof. It was magical to watch the small army of men and concrete being mixed, scooped, carried, poured, and scraped. The whole operation from start to finish only took about 3 hours.







Lee had the rest of the crew quickly laying tile for most of the day, and we were able to finish off both rooms. But before we could start cutting & laying tile we had to do a bunch of work getting the right tools. Our grinder was burned up so we had to find a new diamond blade and grinder at the store down the street. The storekeeper loaned us a huge grinder for free, and even threw in a free pliers and 3 fresh tamales for us to take. We also purchased a new drill from our shopkeeper friend to mix the tile mud since we had 2 die out on us yesterday. It was fortunate for us that he decided to open for business today after 2 days of being closed for rain.

One of the leaders from the shelter made a surprise visit with a tall stick full of pink and blue cotton candy - the men loved it! We treated ourselves to a few fresh soda pops from the corner market at lunch - Coke is still served in bottles too.


Del the plumber started work on installing some used toilets onto the freshly tiled floor, and Ken punched holes in the cinder block wall in order to get access to the pipes for the shower. Ed & Jeff did such a good job with building bunks the other day Scott enlisted them to "kit-up" another set for the room with the new roof. Lumber is very expensive here, 2" x 4" boards are about $5 each, so these beds will be very luxurious.



We had an "authentic American" dinner tonight at a lovely Michigan-based institution named Dominos. The pizza was good and the comradeship was even better. We were blessed to have an English-speaking waiter who enjoyed talking with us about life in "TJ." A great day of work and fun, but we'll probably get up a little later tomorrow morning! :-)


(Remember: If you would like to see any of these pictures close-up just click on it and it will load a larger copy of it - Enjoy!)

HE created the Sun & the Moon, and it was good!

We had another productive day today - aided by the warm sunshine! We prepared the roof to pour concrete by tying re-rod together, ran electrical conduit, taped seams and put cement forms on the edges. Tomorrow we are going to start mixing and pouring concrete by hand (no trucks allowed) at a very brisk 7am!




The roof is 10 feet up and there is no cement pumper, so Ed, Jeff, and Roger built a custom mobile ramp using a pickup truck, desk, and some old plywood and planks... No one from our group has volunteered yet to carry the 5 gal. pails full of wet concrete up the narrow runway. It took 2 trips, Scott's negotiating skills and five-hundred pesos to acquire 2 old 2" x 12" boards from the used-garage-door-house-building-supply-store.

Ed, Jeff, and Miguel installed the new bunk beds in one of the dorms - the guys were really excited, the beds had ladders and all! Lee & Steve cut & laid tons of tile in the bathroom and "trough" :) We all enjoyed being warmed by the bright sunshine - and even took our lunch break outside today.




We were blessed to finish our day off with a terrific Mexican meal at church of pork soup, sopas, enchiladas, and delicious fruit cake. We'll need all that food to keep us warm in our sleeping bags tonight! Finally we spent some time talking with and praying over the Geurink's and their mission - what a great family ministry they have!