Isaiah 55 Deaf Ministries

added pictures

work site photos have been added to the "NPC meets Tulsa" album.  Mon, Tues and Wed proved to be hot work days for the team.  Thankfully they have been staying well hydrated!  Monday they worked at the school and hospital.  Tuesday and Wednesday were mostly spent working on Kelly's land.  Tuesday night the team got a little break. !/2 the group went to the Clow's while the other 1/2 went to Kelly's for some dinner and down time.  Thursday the team will be returning to work at Kelly's.  After work they will spend dinner and playtime with the deaf students.   Friday they will work 1/2 day at Kelly's finishing off with lunch at La Casa Verde and an afternoon of shopping.  As always, the team will end their week on Friday evening by sharing what God has taught them.

NPC Meets Tulsa

A group from Naperville, IL meet a group from Tulsa, OK.  Everyone arrived safe and sound on Saturday night.  After dinner and a short orientation, the team experienced dorm sleeping in MX.  This morning they awoke to breakfast, worship service, lunch, orphanage visit, dinner, down time and lights out.  It's time to sleep so that they will be ready for a full work day in the MX sun tomorrow!  Check out the album and see what the team did today.

Blufton

Blufton, you finally have photos!  Thank you for all the hard work that you did last week.  Sorry that this is the first entry for you guys.

The team from Blufton worked with I55 from 3/22 to 3/29.  They worked at all three locations: Kelly's, Hospital and the School.  At Kelly's the did some roofing work, at the hospital cleaned and stained the concrete floor and painted at the school.  Check out the photo album to see all that they did.

PICTURES!

  Check out the photo albums to see the work from all the spring break teams.

Illinois Heads Home while Tulsa Meets Auburn

    Friday nights at La Casa Verde are share nights.  A time for the team to reflect and share all that God has taught and shown them through the week.  It is always a special time and the IL team was no different.  The most exciting thing shared that night was that one girl decided that it was time to give her life to Christ!  Another story shared: On Sunday afternoon at the orphanage there was one little boy who would not let go of one of the team members neck.  He clung to her and no matter what she tried to do he would not let go.  She said that God spoke to her and asked,"Do you cling to me like that?  Do you hold on tight and don't let go?"  I am not sure that there was one person in the room who was not encouraged that night to hold tight to Christ -- cling to Him with everything you've got.
    After Share time was over, the team loaded up and headed out.  They drove all through the night and all the next day to get back to IL.  THANK YOU IL FOR ALL YOUR WORK!  A special special special thanks to our extra staff that week from FL -- we really appreciate your help!

    The I55 staff didn't have long to be sad about saying goodbye to IL.  On Saturday evening a group of over 100 from Tulsa, OK met a group of almost 30 from Auburn University.  This team has made history as the largest team that La Casa Verde has ever seen.  Everyone got settled right in and the week has been incredible!  The leadership of the team is awesome and they have everything very organized making it a very productive week.  They are working hard, eating a lot and sleeping soundly (well....)!!!  There are four different job sites this week:  Kelly's Land where they are pouring lots of concrete.  The hospital site - again lots of concrete work.  At the orphanage they are painting murals  and at the Deaf school they are repainting the walls.  They have been returning in the evenings ready to eat eat eat.  Last night the cooking staff made 700 tamales.  There may have been 50 or 60 left over.  The team also gobbled down 12 pans of peach and blackberry cobbler with a few gallons of vanilla ice cream!  As far as sleeping goes - they are getting some great rest - as well as enjoying the 2am drive by of the train! 

    We finally got some pictures downloaded last night and we will work tonight at publishing some photos of the IL team as well as this weeks team.

    God bless you all and thank you for your prayers for the I55 staff as well as for the teams!

a weeks worth of work

I think the title should read a months worth of work!  The team here has put heart, soul and sweat into this week.  They have been spread out over four job sites: Kelly's land, the hospital site, the orphange and laying a basketball court in a neighborhood park.  Tonight they will be cooking out in that park and getting to know some of the neighbors.  As well, the deaf students will be coming to "hang out" with the team.

Speaking of the students:  they were in a parade today.  March is Special Education month here in Reynosa, MX.  A lot of the schools got together and walked from one large shopping center to another.  At the end of the parade there was a special ceremony.  The deaf kids signed a song that brought tears to the eyes of all of our teachers and the moms.  Of course, we teared up too.  They did an INCREDIBLE job!!! 

Illinois Invades I55

A group of 51 (mostly university students) arrived late last night from Illinois.  They enjoyed a restful day of worship, some good steak fajitas for lunch, an afternoon of orientation, playing with the kids at the orphanage, light dinner, special presentation by a local Mexican high school and then finished the evening off with worship.
Tomorrow they will be shuffled to several different job sites.  This week they will be working at a local park making a basketball court, as well as continued work on Kelly's land and the hospital site.  Please keep the team in your prayers for safety as they travel and work around the city.  Check back for more updates throughout the week!

PICTURES!!!

We now have pictures from this week!  Check out the Hope and Grace photo album.  The pictures tell the story better than words.

Mid Week

The guys continued to work hard at both Kelly's construction site and the hospital site yesterday and today (WED & TH).  The majority of the work that our teams do is concrete and laying block.   Big John, as he is affectionately called, has been coming down to MX on work teams for years. In all those years he has NEVER laid block.  Well, now he can add that to his resume.  This week he got to lay block.  And did an excellent job -- as did all the gentlemen. 

Pictures from Sunday

Here are some pictures of the men at the orphanage on Sunday! Click to see a larger version.