Missions: Fort Gibson Church of Christ: 2009

The June 13-19, 2009 Mexico Mission Team

Church of Christ in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico where we worshipped on Sunday morning after crossing the border and getting our visas.

The preacher (Paco) asked Barrett to lead some songs.

Barrett led I'll Fly Away, Our God He Is Alive, God is so Good, and We Have Seen His Glory.

This is the road into Monterrey where we stay while in Mexico.

This is our hotel (The Ancira Gran Hotel)

The hotel lobby.

Thousands of new houses are being built in the neighborhood of the church building we are constructing in Santa Monica (a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico).

This property is right behind the church building. More houses will be built here.

This was our first meeting on the second floor the the church building. Rick Owens (the man in charge of the overall project) reminded us of the importance of our work for the people of Mexico and to the Lord's church. This was also an informational meeting to let us know what jobs we would be doing during the week.

Glenn Elliott was the project leader for the block laying. Another crew from Fort Worth had project leaders for their group working on putting a roof on the other classroom space.

One of our first jobs was to move a lot of block up to the second floor so we could start laying block four high. A window overlooking the auditorium will eventually go on top of the blocks.

The above is a "before" picture of day one.

Below is the "during" pic.

above: the "after" picture.

Classroom space on the first floor (under where we were laying the blocks). Notice the stairway and the concrete floor that weren't there when we left in February. Lots of progress has been made. Identical classroom space is also being building on the other side of the auditorium.

Ladis Gordiano is the preacher for the church in Santa Monica. He also works construction. The church here has already doubled in size in the last year or so. It is now up to about eighty members (50 adults and 30 children). The church currently meets in what has been a storage shed large enough for about forty people. The new facility will accommodate about 400 people!

The Mexican ladies prepare lunch for us everyday on the jobsite. Mmm Mmm Good!

A few minutes of play made for a well rounded day.

Each night we have a devotional/Bible study. We are studying Nehemiah chapters one through seven and taking a look at the challenges in rebuilding the Jerusalem wall.

This is what the building looked like at the end of the week.

Work on the jobsite shut-down a half hour early on Wednesday of our trip so Barrett Vanlandingham could baptize 72-year old Joveta Martinez Vasquez of Santa Monica, Mexico.