Juarez, Day One

As you see, I'm writing this after the fact, since in Juarez there are very few, if any places that I could find to update this blog for the parents back home but I would like to keep a record of what we did while on our trip to build a house for Casas por Cristo in Juarez, Mexico.

Day One - Saturday, April 2nd

We, Matt and Sara Sills and Erin and I, arrived right on time again, after all but one student was there in front of the American Airlines waiting for us to check-in. We felt the pressure of the parents again this year but we held our ground and when all was said and done we waited at the gate for our plane for at least an hour. Parents always bug me out in that type of situation, I can't wait 'til they say their goodbyes and head off.

Our flight to Dallas was great, until we landed and had 9 minutes until we boarded for our flight to El Paso where we would rent our vans and stay for a few nights in preparation for our journey across the border. That's another something that our parents brought up that "wore me out." There was a warning for U.S. citizens crossing over into Mexico, including the border between El Paso and Juarez, which was where we would cross. The warning came at just the right time, as we were preparing for our trip. We contacted the organization we work with, Casas por Cristo, and they assured us we would be safe. They've been building for 12 years and they've built over 2000 houses. They were very reassuring with their answer that appeased all of our parents.

Well, enough gripping. We had a good trip to El Paso, rented our three vans, unloaded our stuff at the house we stayed in while in El Paso and off our wives went to start shopping for a group of 23. They got all the supplies, food, water, beverages, crockpots, napkins, paper plates, bowls, cups, etc. They are blessed for the shopping they do on Saturday and Sunday. While they did that, Matt and I took the students to play some basketball at a nearby school.

We capped off our night in El Paso at a local Chili's. We all had a good time, but since we were in Mountain Standard Time we didn't get done with our dinner until after 10 o'clock Atlanta time, we were whipped out.

Day one was a success. God provided for us in many ways, including our travels to El Paso.