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Field Reports From the Mission 2002

The Mission to Mexico, August 3 - 10
Field Report 1  Field Report 2
 

Volunteers in Mission

On Saturday, August 3, RBUMC will send a team of 11 persons to Pitorreal,
Mexico for a Volunteers In Missions work-trip.  The group, led by team
leader Margo Cardos will do  finishing work on the dining hall at a United
Methodist Camp in the Copper Canyon Mountain region.  The Missouri area made
a commitment several years ago to build this camp "from the ground up."  Our
team is the last team scheduled to go and it is hoped that we will be able
to complete the work. Other team members include Lillian Ball, Jean Fetters,
Wendy Brownson (Jean's daughter who will serve as interpreter), Suzie
Norris, Court Fischer, Ron Hess, Steve Walker, Larry Friedberg, Russell
Brown and Dustin Cooper.  The team will return on Saturday, August 10th.

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Field Report 1
Monday - August 5

Hello friends and loved ones;
I should probably not start off by saying it is a cool 68 degrees at
noon here in Pitorreal at noon as I write this. You might not
appreciate that if you are having the really hot weather that was
predicted for K.C.
We are here and on the job... although not without a little bit of
adventure. We had some pretty severe thunderstorms happening in Houston
on Saturday night as our flight was coming in to land. The pilot was
told to circle the airport until it cleared up. We finally landed after
interminable circling and found out later that we were within about two
minutes of being diverted to San Antonio. I am not sure how we would
have handled that, but once again... God provided. Fortunately there
was a three hour layover between flights, so we really didn't lose any
connections at all.
We finally got to the hotel rooms (4 for all 11 of us) in Chihuahua at
about midnight and experienced a very short night as we had a 6:00 a.m.
train to catch the next morning. More challenges as the man at the
train station had no record of reservations for us or tickets on hold.
Thank goodness for credit cards!
We had an absolutely beautiful, 7 hour train ride from Chihuahua to
Pitorreal with gorgeous mountain scenery and brilliantly colored
rainbows escorting us most of the way. We passed by village after
village of typical Mexican rural settings where poverty and
peacefulness seemed to mingle side-by-side.
This morning (Monday) the work begins! We will be building tables and
benches and chinking (technical construction term) the cracks between
the logs in the main dining hall building at the camp. So far, it seems
that Jean Fetters and Lillian have the best approach to the chinking
technique.
Oddly enough there is another team here from Atlanta that is building
another church building for Obed, the local pastor. I think they will
be eating with us at Jack and Marie's house, but that has not been made
clear to us yet.
That is all for now. We continue to be reminded regularly that God does
provide and that God's love is touching the lives of all involved in
this wonderful project. Any email messages for the team can be sent to
this return address and I will pass them along.

As we say in Mexico...
via con dios!

Your faithful servant,
- Russell B.

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Field Report 2
Friday - August 9
Greetings from your friendly mission team in Mexico!
It is now Friday and we have finished our work for the week. All are 
looking anxiously forward to flush toilets, hot showers and a little 
strawberry and cream dessert here in Creel. We apologize for only 
sending two reports, but there were only two trips into town! Our fair 
weather continues, although we experienced one of the heaviest rain 
showers any of us have ever seen... here or there. It put a little 
damper on the steaks Jack was cooking on the grill... especially when a 
bolt of lightning hit the transformer and knocked out all the power. 
But we had a nice candlelight dinner with the other mission team (from 
the Atlanta area) and a wonderful communion service performed by the 
newly installed Methodist bishop for the area. He has been here this 
week overseeing one of the first sessions at the camp we have been 
building. There have been about 50 children running around while we 
work. At first we thought it would be an inconvenience to us, but it 
was really good to see the camp being used for the purpose for which it 
was intended. We even interacted a little with the kids a bit... 
throwing a football around and looking at the frogs they had caught.

We miss all of you and are anxious to see you on our return on 
Saturday. We have seen the Lord do some amazing things this week during 
our stay. Please make sure to add Jack and Marie and Obed and Eunice to 
your prayers on a regular basis. They are doing amazing things here 
with so few resources. Truly shining examples of faith in action.

Blessings,

- Russell B. 
Your humble correspondent

P.S. I love you Joanie and miss you a LOT!

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