Juarez, Day 5

Today is our final day in Juarez and the house is finished. I have very few pictures of the completed house, but if you want to see more pictures, send me an email and I'll give you the login to see them. I probably shouldn't put the login and password on the blog, never know who might read it and put pictures on there that might be inappropriate. Here is a shot of the family inside the completed house:

That is the dad on the left, with mom next, then the daughters. (Gabby the bionic 14 year old is on the far right) The lady in the overalls on the left is Gretchen. She and her husband Garold are the leaders of this mission and are an inspiration to anyone who meets them. Their love of the people of Juarez and their faithfulness to God are beyond my ability to describe. We call her our Mission Mom, and the name both fits and is deserved. The blanket on the wall was made by someone at Hope, my church. We also bought them a cross at the market, to remind them who brought us there.

Here is a shot of the completed house from the outside:

Here is a shot of the inside as the finishing touches are being put on. The small dark blue room in the back is the bathroom.When we were putting the finishing touches on the house, the dad came in and was looking around. This was the first time he had been inside the house. I watched as he stood by the back door with tears rolling down his cheeks. If you ever wanted to know if what we do is appreciated, I now have proof. This is a family that has obviously never had anything given to them. Especially from a bunch of Americans that they didn't know. Think about it. How would you react if someone came to your house and told you they were going to build you a better one, and you don't have to do anything, pay anything or return the favor? It's just, Here, God bless you. I can't even comprehend how that must feel. I love Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Every time I watch I get an allergy attack that makes my eyes water right when the people get their new house, funny how that works out like that every time. The house we build is not even close to the houses they build on that show, but I'm guessing the feeling the family has is the same. We don't buy them big screen TV's or even new appliances, but they get a sturdy, insulated, concrete floored house. There are thousands of people who could use a better place to live. We can help so few, but we can change the lives of a family every year and with the work we do else where in the community, we can help brighten their lives. These are hard working people that just can't get a break, from their government or anyone else. My mission work has changed my life. I would suggest that, if you get a chance, go on one. It doesn't have to be to Mexico, there are plenty of places right here in the USA that need help as well. You won't regret it.

We finished the day with a late lunch at the hot dog place I mentioned, I had the chili slaw dog, which I highly recommend. Then it was back to the hotel for a quick shower, the first hot one in a week and then it was off to dinner. You may have noticed that there was a very small amount of time between lunch and dinner, that wasn't lost on me either. I wasn't very hungry at dinner, but when you have the chance to eat a barbecue brisket, you go for it. We gave out awards for the week, like Sally got the "Sir Edmund Hillary Award" not so much for her climb to the top of the mountain behind the house, but for her decent that was done primarily on her butt. If you don't know who Sir Edmund Hillary was, he was the first person to summit Mount Everest. We gave Holly the Nanuk of the North award because she bundled up every night like she was sleeping in the arctic. We had our final El Paso goodbyes and it was off to bed for my 3:30 am wake up to head home.