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We are planning a basic outreach and getting to know you in the Km. 33 community this Christmas!
We have already found a handful of volunteers and an industrial two oven kitchen that will all help this project along! Many of the folks in the community don’t bake. Mexican culture is one that doesn’t bake. If someone wants a cookie or sweet bread, they go to the bakery down the street. Km. 33 has no bakery. Most of the folks in this community would be able to afford the treat anyway.
Growing up, this is something my folks always did. They would make home baked sweet bread and give it away as gifts!! My family worked in a different area of Mexico, and with a different social and economic group, but homemade bread speaks to anyone!!!
We just got three huge boxes of materials and pillows. Thanks!! We really did mean, “Hit me with a pillow.”
People can really decide how they want to help. They can send money or materials. We would like to be able to give pillows to people in the community for Christmas gifts!
Pillows & Fabrics ranges the same from $5-50.
I got this email from Sarah Fowler with the sewing stuff. It’s a pattern that she put together for us. You may be able to get that put up as a project that people can donate to, or even a womens ministry could sew them and send them.
We can have a handful of women sew them and we can give them out around the community. It could be a big help to them come the holidays.
One of the many ways that YOU can help out down here is with a simple gift!! Currently we are making pillow cases for pillows that we can give away around the community here in Ciudad Juarez.
At the moment of this post, I do not know the cost of a pillow, but I imagine that you can find them from $10 to $100. Depends how therapeutic you want to get. We can also use some more fabric to make the pillow cases for the pillows!! Again, I don’t know the cost of fabric. I assume it could be priced much like the pillows.
If you are interested in being invloved in this project, you can mail the pillow or fabric down here, or donate the funds specifically to the project! Either one works for us!!
Sarah and Hannah are here with us this week. They are teaching a sewing class to a handful of ladies in the community! We had an exciting first class and have seen the need to readjust our plan a little bit!! Seems like the first day is the trial run and then you hope you know what you’re doing come day two!!
We had planned to host classes of 4 women at a time because of only having two machines and just being able to effectively teach how to sew. We arrived and within 30 minutes had SEVEN excited women!! One of our machines was broken, and the electricity could barely handle the equipment!! What a day!!
All in all we had a great first class. The ladies walked away with a set of hand made curtains and big smiles! Tomorrow they will be working on aprons.
The Renteria family has really been enjoying their new bathroom. Chuy has been working on it and has done a great job! He is building a shelving unit for his wife who requested it so she can be more organized. What a blessing it has been to see at least that aspect of their lives become a little easier.
Needless to say, August has been an exciting month for the Onnemi International Ministries missionaries!
After the Portage team left, we had a couple of days to catch our breath and then hit it full speed again. We were prepared for the Romanian church, from Chicago, arriving August 12th. We had planned out the week, prayed for the week, talked with their leaders, prayed for the team, planned some more and then prayed some more.
What’s to expect, what’s to hope for, what’s to come? Oh God, once again you have brought us to this place. That place where we have done everything we can possibly do to prepare and feel confident in our own strength and then show us that you have other plans and your plans are perfect and your plans are complete! Father we trust in you.
Tuesday morning we found ourselves in the El Paso airport waiting…waiting for the unknown. Soon, a group of young people began to file out of the arrivals gate. They were young, they were hip, they looked like Chicagoans, and they were our team! Brief introductions began the week. Excitement and wonder the very present emotions.
The focus of the trip was twofold: build a bathroom for the Renteria family and host a kids club in the community. We wanted the team to have a great week of ministry and service and we wanted them to go home exhausted and energized! Is that even possible? Well, we hope so. Our days were to start at 7:30am with breakfast and end at 7pm with dinner. This may not sound like a crazy day, but when you look at all we were doing in between, it’s exhausting to think about:
Get up/personal devotions/breakfast/travel 45min to worksite/bathroom/kids/95 degree days/sun/no shade/make lunch/eat lunch/bathroom/kids/play soccer/travel 45min home/eat dinner/15 people share one shower/sleep.
We’ve been trying to keep as up to date with pictures as possible. So far, we’re doing a poor job.
These are the latest pictures that we have, but the house is actually quite a ways beyond this point.
The team from Portage Chapel has gone home, and we hope they have had a few moments to rest!
God bless them and the work they have done! We greatly appreciate everything!
