by Mike Murphy
Back to part 1 of reportThursday morning we went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. as instructed. There, we found a nice assortment of Mexican breakfast foods. There was watermelon and papaya. There were also scrambled eggs with a unique blend of spices and peppers (which weren't hot). Then there were hash browns and a tortilla dish that were both a little hot (at least enough to wake you up).
At about 7:30 Howard gave the day's announcements. He welcomed us newcomers, telling everybody how "they plowed through the snow and ice in their four wheel drive vehicle."
After breakfast Howard and Ron Sylvester (the missionary in Mexico) began looking to see which job site we should go to. The project we wound up working on would have been skipped if we hadn't showed up. Because we showed up, they had enough people to do it. John's and my roommates, Ken McKay and his son Chris, along with Ken's daughter Janita had also shown up the night before. They were put on the new team with us. The team consisted of John Jones, Susan Jeffries, the three McKays, and me. An associate pastor from El Paso First Church of the Nazarene, Manuel Rodriguez, and his two sons, Senoi and Juan, also went with us to help and be our interpreters.
Our project was to put in a new tile floor for the Juarez First Church of the Nazarene. The congregation had been worshiping on the first floor. For the last ten years the second floor had been merely a storage area because the roof leaked. A Work and Witness team from Ohio had come just a few months previous and put on a new roof. When the tile is complete they will use the second story to have their adult service and let the kids have the first floor. They did it this way because they thought the kids would make too much noise if they were above the sanctuary.
Working with the local ministers and laymen of the church was the most enjoyable part of the trip. The pastor, Conrado Monterrosa, worked with us every day. Fernando, the youth president, was also very friendly and enjoyable to work with. And there was one more layman, Juan, who worked with us. In all, we had the six members of our team, Manuel and his two sons, and the three local men, plus the different ladies who showed up with lunch everyday.
A layman in the church who was going do the professional tile work had some problems and couldn't make it, so we couldn't lay the tile as planned. Instead, we did various other jobs including chiseling grooves in the concrete walls for electrical conduit for the lights. The wiring was just hanging from the wall to the light fixture. It took a lot of work to cut these grooves in the wall so we all took turns. We also smoothed out rough places in the concrete floor to prepare it for the tile. We put up some rain gutters on the side of the church that ran down to the street, making concrete bases to hold them in place. We re-painted the bottom part of the church because the old paint was faded and had graffiti on it. And we painted the gas pipe bright yellow to comply with city code.
The pastor asked if any of us had electrical experience, but none of us did. So Fernando randomly wired up the lights and turned on the breaker to see if it popped. If it did, he changed a couple wires and tried it again. Susan was helping him downstairs in this process. She would turn on the breaker every time he yelled "ya" (which we found out means "now" in Spanish). Someone asked her what she was doing and she said, "Every time he yells ya' I just do the opposite" (turn the breaker to the opposite side).
While all these things we did made a difference in the appearance of the church, the most important thing was the time spent with our brothers and sisters in Mexico. We bonded to make great friendships, even across the language barrier. We had an awesome time working together, shopping together, sightseeing, and -- with the interpreters -- had some good fellowship.
One of the fun things we did was walk over to the local market. The market was close to the church. One day we were waiting on someone to inspect the floor and to tell us the next thing to do. So, we decided it was a good time to shop. The market was an authentic Mexican market with food and supplies but also had some souvenirs. John and I bought caps. Later I also bought a sombrero (just a small one). Manuel was very thoughtful and bought us some little oranges. They were really sweet but they had big seeds. They told us to just spit the seeds on the sidewalk. Manuel bought some bread and a sauce that was like honey butter. He said it was made from goat milk. We had that for dessert after lunch. He was a great host and you could tell he loved people.
Another fun thing was the Vacation Bible School. Since the congregation hadn't known for sure if we were coming, they didn't announce in church that there would be a VBS. So there weren't many kids. But we had a lot of fun with the five or six kids who showed up. It was also fun to watch Manuel joyfully and fervently present the gospel to these kids. They sang songs, played games, and made crafts, like gospel bracelets with the different beads that explain the gospel. [ web site with more info ]
Every night I couldn't wait to hear what Zach and Biji had done that day. They were at another site spreading tracts from house to house and, because they were both nurses, they had set up a neighborhood clinic. They were having a lot of response. They ministered to about 50 people every day in the clinic and prayed for each one of them individually. And they had a large VBS turnout as a result of the tracts.
Hearing what they were doing gave me ideas for my next Work and Witness trip. And their experiences were just some of the good learning I received from others, because every night Howard paired all the groups together to share their stories and pray. And he picked different groups each night. That's where I met many nice people in the group and heard the good reports.
On Friday Manuel and Conrado took us on a little walking tour of the town. They told us the history of the buildings and of the people. We saw the city jail, which was a fort during the war. We went to the center of town and looked inside the Catholic cathedral. There was a man preaching in the town square, just outside the cathedral, and Pastor Conrado said they have a couple of people there every day preaching. The year before, Conrado showed the "Jesus" film there for a week and got some response. We also learned about Francisco Fryer and Mr. Juarez. We stopped at a Mexican candy store. It had all kinds of interesting candies and snacks, including a bag of cheese-puffs the size of two sleeping bags!
As we were walking along the sidewalks we saw a young man handing out flyers for his business. Some from our group took one. I decided to take the opportunity to give him a gospel tract instead. As he was handing me a flyer, I slipped a tract in between his thumb and the flyer. Thankfully, he wasn't holding onto it too tight so it just went right in there. He looked kind of startled for a second, then saw it and smiled. A girl who was working with him saw me do it and chuckled. I did this without stopping. So, as I was walking away, I smiled and held my thumb up (which I hope is a sign of friendship and approval there too). They also smiled and waved as I was leaving.
Ken and Craig McKay stopped to get their shoes shined by one of the street vendors. They do a really good job of turning a rough and dirty pair of shoes into nearly dress shoes. Ken said he always brings one pair of boots to Mexico. He works in them and then he has them shined before church, and then wears them to the service.
On Friday we bought a piñata for our New Year's eve service. We also met Enrico. He offered to bring rope to hang the piñata, so he was kind of obligated to go to the service!
On Saturday we worked half a day and then went shopping. We went to a market that was mainly for tourists. All the vendors there spoke English, which made it easy to shop although the prices seemed pretty high.
We were privileged to have Ron and Laura Sylvester go with us to church on Sunday. They also brought a couple of Spanish speaking girls to do the translating of the service since Manuel and his sons weren't able to attend because they went to their own church in El Paso. Pastor Conrado preached a good holiness sermon to about 35 people that morning. After the service we gathered for an all-church potluck dinner. Even though it wasn't finished and still had construction stuff everywhere we ate up on the second floor where we had been working.
As the Sylvesters were bringing us back to the hotel, we talked about what we would do that afternoon. There were no planned activities. Back across the border in Texas, there was a state park for mountain climbers close to the Sylvesters' house. Ron was planning on climbing a mountain there and invited us to go with him. John, Ken, Craig and me accepted Ron's invitation. We dropped the others off and went hiking. We had a lot of fun and saw some real nice scenery.
It was Dec 31. So when we went to church that night we were prepared to stay until midnight to welcome in the New Year. We went to church again with the Sylvesters. Their daughter Hannah interpreted the service. Enrico was there again so Ken and I sat by him. After the service we went upstairs for the party. We tried to hang the piñata with Enrico's rope, but it wasn't strong enough so we found some other rope. Then, just before midnight, we all went downstairs to pray. We formed a circle and joined hands to pray and prayed in the new year.
After we prayed a few people shared testimonies. The pastor shared a testimony of how some people had come into the church through the healing of one of their relatives, one whom he had prayed for. These people were there that night and they also had a friend with them. They must have been bringing him for a while because the pastor mentioned that he had been coming for a while and the church was hoping that he would accept Christ. He said that right there in front of him and everybody. I guess they are not ashamed to talk about people's need for salvation, right in front of them. Enrico's wife also gave a praise for how glad she was that her husband was coming to church with her. Since he was standing there next to us, I said "me too" in Spanish so he could hear.
On Monday we got to sleep in till about 9 a.m. There wasn't anything planned, but Howard mentioned that they might take a tour of all the different churches. It turned out that this was a popular option because about 30 people squeezed into a van and a Suburban to tour the churches. I had the impression that Juarez wasn't that bad off but we quickly found out that our church and our area was different from all the other areas. Our church was in the industrialized part of town. All the other projects were in run-down areas that really needed help. The houses were small and made of concrete block and several of the churches were no more than a converted house. One of the projects added public bathroom facilities, to one of these house/churches. Another church actually had one of their Sunday school classes meeting in the pastor's van (shown in figure). So the project there was to build 3 new classrooms. There were only one or two churches on the tour that were as nice as ours. All the others really needed help. Even First Church where we worked would have been considered very poor by USA standards.
After the tour we had a short break and then we went to a big party that all the churches had put together. It's the custom on these SNU Work and Witness trips to have a big party with all the churches. Sometimes they gather on the beach or a park, but this time they all pitched in and rented a big dance hall. There were hundreds of people and lots of food, which the people from the churches had made. We had a great time of singing, eating, and introducing the pastors and leaders. Howard Culbertson and Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester got certificates of appreciation and big colorful ponchos and little sombreros to wear. As the party was winding down Conrado pulled us all aside and gave us some final words and a prayer. We all hugged each other and said, "until next year" (Hasta el ano proxima)." I assured Fernando that I would speak better Spanish when I saw him next year.
After the party the five of us who had come in my Toyota did some figuring. We decided to see if we could leave Juarez on the 4:30 a.m. van (the earliest). That way, everybody could get home in one day. Susan had another two-hour drive to Cleo Springs after we all got to Oklahoma City. So we figured we could get away from El Paso by about 6 a.m. That should put us in Oklahoma City somewhere between 6 and 9 p.m., Thus, Susan would be home before midnight.
At the advice of Pastor Espinoza from Oklahoma City Second Hispanic Church of the Nazarene, we took a route through New Mexico on state highways. It was a more direct route, so it was supposed to take several hours off the trip. The scenery turned out to be better too because it was around mountains. Beside running into a roadblock and backtracking an hour or so we had a peaceful trip and finally made it home about 11:00 p.m. So the trip home only took about 17 hours.
This whole Work and Witness experience was certainly new and exciting, not only because of the road trip but because it was with a different group of people -- a larger group that did different things. It was a very interesting and diverse group made up of an experienced Hispanic pastor and his family, many other families, adults, college students (including some aspiring to be missionaries), and children. And though the group was larger, it was easy to enjoy fellowship with everybody at the group meals and nightly devotions. At these gatherings I met many wonderful and interesting people. I learned new ways of making a Work and Witness trip effective and fun -- like seeing how easy it was to put together a VBS or a clinic.
One of the most memorable things for me was making friends with the people of our Mexican church as we worked with them, ate with them, shopped with them, toured the city with them, and fellowshipped with them. We spent a lot of time with our local church and we were real close by the end of the week. I became good friends with several people who can't even speak my language. I'm looking forward to seeing them next year. And we did all this while at the same time helping their community. What a blessing!
You should come and enjoy this experience with us next year.
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
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