St. John's

St. John's has a group currently in the El Paso/Juarez area.  More specifically, we have one in the Ysleta Mission area of El Paso and a group in Anapra (the old Juarez city dump).  I'll post updates as they come in.  Please pray for the group and those they are serving.

July 10 Update

As of about 4pm, the group from Anapra has arrived back in the Ysleta Mission and are glad to be able to just relax for a bit before we head out to a Mexican dinner tonight. (Word is the restaurant sings for people's birthdays and makes them do the macarina, so Emily Klotz is in for the time of her life tonight!) Also, Dana and Derek built a bench and foot rest for the family that they built the house for, and brought them to more tears. Afterwards, the team headed into the market to check out the sights and do a bit of shopping (I'm wearing one of the cool stone and leather braclets that was a product of this shopping spree) before heading back across the border. Word is an Old Mexican (60s? with white hair) was running from the border guards after getting "caught" trying to get into the states, and gave the guards a run for their money as they failed to catch him when he ran back into Mexico (our van was one of those that cheered him on as he ran along the bridge and escaped.

Last night the group was able to get the children to play card games in the church, and today even saw those children teaching the games they had learned to their cousins and friends, which Karen said was very touching and the reason we came here.

The one interesting bit is that the team from Anapra has been feeling Montezuma's Revenge as of today.

VBS is over in the Ysleta Mission. We had a giant water balloon free-for-all which expanded to include hoses, buckets, garbage cans, and pitchers.

July 9 Update

The team finished the house today, it was done a day earlier than any other house has ever been done! They also painted the interior and exterior of the house.  The team was going to spend this afternoon building the family a special bench which they could sit on outside. They also plan on playing cards  with all the children, they especially like cards. Karen doesn't think the children have ever seen playing cards before!  The team has worked very hard and very well together. Tomorrow morning they are hoping to go to the market and then back to Texas.

July 8 Update

Hola! Pastor Donaldson!

I just got off the phone with Patti and Emily and the report is in. We have set a new record by building our house in 3 3/4 DAYS!!!!!! woot! Apparently since the team was finishing up painting the interior today they think the record will be set as the before mentioned 3 3/4 days instead of a slightly more accurate 3 1/2, but PRAISE GOD!!!!!! The team is going to stay in Anapra for at least one more day and build the church there a bench for outside. They will also be going to the market tomorrow, as well as doing whatever else comes there way.

Karen passed along the interesting little tid-bit that the team finally was able to get some of the wild kids that have been running around the work-site to sit-down to a card game or two.

As for me here in the Ysleta Mission, I helped out with the Mariachi band rehearsal last night and the packing away of new sound equipment for their upcoming tour. I should now mention that in my previous update I said they would be touring California and El Paso. I was corrected last night, and found out they will be touring Arizona and California, not El Paso.

That's just about it from the Ysleta Mission front here. God continues to amaze us each and everyday here! Before I close this update and get back to my music filing, I must say that when the leaders came back yesterday from the site, they said they were more than amazed by our team and that our team was really taking it out of them. This has really been encouraging to me in the work I'm doing here, and gives me all the more reason to continually thank God for this opportunity He has given us to serve Him and further the Gospel.

Tll the next update.

God Bless,
Wally, Karen, Patti, and Becky Schmidt, Derek Yogerst, Emily Klotz, Pat and Dana Benvenuto

July 7 Update

Hey Pastor Donaldson!

Thought I'd give a little update as to what's going on in Anapra (used to be the town dump) on the Mexico side of things, as well as at the Ysleta Lutheran Mission (where I'm at) on the Texas side of things.

As of yesterday afternoon (Monday afternoon, that is), our team had progressed as far as having all walls up, electrical drilled and run, and where as far as other teams normally would be at the end of day 2 (day 1 for our team). As of the end of today (I just got off the phone with my mom), they have drywall and other things up, and have as much done as other teams would have in 3 1/2 days in only 2 days! From the sound of things, they will be done sometime on Thursday, including interior painting, which most other teams don't do, and the family that is waiting for the house will be able to move in (this is roughly a week sooner than they expected, and I hear the wife is estatic to hear the interior will be painted).

At night many card games have been played, and it sounded like only 1 soccer ball has been broken out. In my talks with the leaders (they cross over the border in the morning and night to sleep at the mission), they said our team feels like they're staying at the Hilton compared to last year's trip to Mexico. All in all, a great trip so far!

As for my side of things here in Texas, I've been helping run the first week of a two week long vbs. I've been helping with the music as well as running the games, and let me just say that water balloon games are a huge hit here! We've had to restock several times (gonna have to do that again tonight), and whenever I ask what games the children would like to play, the first thing I hear is water balloons! The age-range of the group here is from 4 to about 14 year-olds.

As the vbs runs from 9-12:30, I spend my afternoons here in the music office, sorting through many milk crates of donated sheet-music and entering it into the computer, creating a database of it all. I've been quite surprised at the age of some of it, and am enjoying seeing many of the composers that I've learned about in my music history classes at school. It's literally a journey through the past, and I'm only on crate 2 of 8 or 9.

Later on today, and possibly later this week, I'll also most likely be helping out test the sound equipment for the only Christian Mariachi Band here. They're preparing to go on a 2 week tour of California, Texas, and who knows where else!

It's been very exciting to see and hear about everything that's going on here and across the border! The leaders here have been impressed with our team so far. They knew that great things were going to happen when they drove in around 9:30-10pm and we were still pouring concrete at the base of the new fence around one of the leader's house (preventing his 2 dogs from digging their way out), and I think I heard one of them say we were crazy as he pulled his truck around so we could see what we were doing as we poured the last wheelbarrow of concrete. Funny enough, the next day, the dogs were let loose into the yard, and by the afternoon, they'd found the only foot an a half of fence that we hadn't poured at.

All in all, it's been an incredible week so far! I've been conversing with a newer Christian here who used to be part of one of the gangs from the LA area and he's been sharing his story with me. God truly is at work here and is doing GREAT things through Ysleta and the people here!

Well, that's all for now. Time to get back to my music filing.

Adios from Yselta Lutheran Mission and Anapra!