Locked and Loaded
After a long six hour drive from south to north and some “killer” BBQ along the way, we are at the POWER home base of sorts, Faith Mission International. Here, we bunk into two large rooms of bunk beds, military style, with our team split between rooms. There is a large meeting room and kitchen where will enjoy some great meals prepared by our team led by Keith Small. This guy is a master in the kitchen. We will be here 2 ½ days to finalize our tour for 2022. We appreciate this place and the ministry here run by a very devoted family.
Allen and Charlene Ehlers founded this ministry in 1963. From their website this is how they describe their work on the Mexican Border, “We are a mufti-faceted ministry based on evangelism, discipleship, leadership training, planting new works, forming and working in teams, presenting the gospel of love, power and God’s manifest presence. We believe God has a plan and purpose for every person including you.” Allen and Charlene have past the torch to Tim and Rosa Ehlers to continue this faithful and amazing work of the Lord. We are so grateful to their practical and spiritual support of POWER on these trips.
We are going to have a unique opportunity on this trip, with a smaller group and plenty of work for our 35 guys. We travel into Acuna, Mexico, just a short distance from the border and Faith Mission. This will be the first time that our entire group will work on the same site in the history of POWER trips. We’re split up to do some projects to add an addition, build a large storage shed, repair a large porch cover and build heavy duty frames for bunk beds that will be used at a homeless shelter and also for this site, an orphanage called “Casa Esperanza”.
White Stone Ministries, founded by Ron and Anna Sherman, were with this site from another ministry that simply was not equipped to continue the work. I had a chance to talk with Ron about the acquisition of the property and their work to restore and expand the buildings on the site. The building here had been abandoned, looted and stripped of air conditioning units, plumbing and electrical wire to name a few, by robbers.
Ron is gracious man, well-spoken and well educated. Anna, is a bundle of joy with an outgoing personality and a kind word to anyone who crosses her path. Theirs is a great relationship, complementing one another with administrative talent and the positive energy that these children and staff will need on a daily basis.
Ron and I spoke of gaining approval for the transition of the facility and the appropriate signatures by the Mexican government to allow them to operate the facility as a an orphanage. I was amazed at what Ron had to Share.
Being from a mental health background and previously working in accredited facilities, my jaw dropped (at least in my head) when Ron explained that the Mexican government has , zero, zip, nada, Standard Operating Procedures by which to run an orphanage! He explained, that he was blown away by the lack of rules and regulations required to manage a facility of this nature. In California and the US, the rules are strict, for good reason, to keep children safe and to guide staff and administrators on what can and cannot be done. It is my understanding, that the previous owner/manager of the facility was under investigation because children were being abuse by staff. My heart broke considering how this impacted these vulnerable children.
The Good News
The good news is that God put Ron and Anna in a place to receive this facility. It was the perfect time and place, in God’s timing, to rescue these children and add to their numbers. In all the exchanges between Ron and the Mexican government officials that oversee orphanages, Ron has set a new standard by which all orphanages are to be run. Perhaps a book of regulations will be generated by Ron and Anna’s work to make all of the facilities in Mexico a safe place for orphaned children.
“Gitter Done”
We land like a swarm of locusts…ah no…bad connotation. We’re not a plague. LOL So, we land like a precision army of soldiers, divided up into small work groups. Each with a leader to bang out these projects in two full work days. Cody Gibbs, Damon Nevatt, Loren Vander Schaaf and Gary Astfalt head each of the four projects. The guys are moved around daily to give us a different experience under the four project leaders. We’re using power tools (ya POWER tools, ha), swinging hammers, hanging dry wall, “mudding” dry wall, mounting insulation and cutting hundreds of feet of lumber, etc.
I’m not gifted, at all, in this environment. I have a desk job of sorts counseling folks. I don’t use my hands much in this way, but all for God’s glory, the leaders tolerate me and I am getting better at these tasks the more I do them.
I later thanked Damon for being so patient with me while hanging dry wall. So, I have to tell you this. He’s moving hand tools from the floor, out of the way to put pieces of drywall in the lower portion of the walls. I put the nail gun down, right where I find it, thinking that is the right thing to do. The guy who originally put it there will need to find it right where he left it , right? NO!, Darn it, right where Damon had just cleared those tools. “Idiot!”, I’m thinking to myself about my actions. Damon didn’t say a word…that spoke to me.
…taking names
We spent the next two days making it happen. A different team each day. On my second day I was assigned to the kitchen crew. Man what an efficiently run crew by Keith Small, “kicking butt and taking names.” This young man has a gift! We all gained some weight I’m certain due to his awesome meals…well, and going back for seconds.
We prepped food and delivered it to the work site. I had some chopping responsibilities in the kitchen in that morning. When we go there, we hit the ground running to make the 12:00 PM lunch time. I had the flat top grill duties…never been a “short order” cook . Now I have an appreciation for those that work in a kitchen. I was sweating bullets over this thing and getting hit by flying grease. I’m saying to myself, “this is all for the kids and my guys working their tails off”, repeating this phrase like a “mantra”, but man this hurts! Folks are rolling up behind me to make certain I’m working through the packages of burgers, hot dogs and hot links. Mark LeDuc happens in to give a word of encouragement and squeezes my shoulder to let me know he’s there. Ok, I think he was really hungry too and like all the others who came my way… “is it ready yet?” was the implication.
We eat, we talk and it’s time to “gitter done!” On to finishing the tasks for the next few hours. The day ends, we accomplished what we came to do. A steak dinner awaits! Ya baby!
Debrief
In our final meeting on Wednesday, March 27th we meet, as we always do, to give each man a chance to recap their experience in three minutes. Marty, our beloved “task master” keeps a timer to make sure this happens. He threatens to stand up if you go over to announce without words, “wrap it up dude!”
This is always a special time of reflection. Each man recounting the moments that impressed them or brought them to their knees over our six day journey. Mark Weber, a quit, introverted man shared a unique experience. Forgive me Mark if I don’t quite remember it as you told it, but here it is as I remember it.
He was in our bunk room searching through his bag in the dark one early morning. He was being conscientious by not turning the overhead florescent lights on, as many guys were still asleep. A thoughtful thing for sure. He’s like that by the way, just plain thoughtful. He shares, he was thinking, “I don’t want to bother anyone by turning on the light”. And then the epiphany and metaphor of it all hits him.
Mark explains, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be like this. We hesitate to turn on the “light”. We don’t want to offend anyone, hurt their feelings or disrespect them in some way. Mark said, “Don’t be worried about bothering people with The Light”, of course referring to the Gospel.
What a fantastic picture God shared with Mark in a dark dorm room during what would seem as an inconsequential moment among a thousand inconsequential moments of his day. Profound! Mark is like this. He doesn’t say much, but when he does it can have weight.
Final Reflections
What a privilege to be among the 35 on this trip. Thirty-five dedicated souls with a mission to serve the needy the orphaned and the widowed. These people are near and dear to the heart of God. This has been memorable and rewarding. Thank you all!
I was a part of the Late Night Prayer group with my coleaders, Martin Foster, Scott Thon, Loren Vander Schaaf, Bobbie Biber and Keith McDonald. This is a faithful group. Thank you to Scott and Martin in particular for keeping me on track to meet at the end of each long day. At times, I’d get lost in reflecting about the day to write the journal entries or I was just plain tired somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness.
Praise be to God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that lives within us. As I said earlier in the week, You alone God, have made a way when there seems no way! In Christ we pray! Amen!
Clark Edmond,
Group 2 Journalist