Month: December 2019

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By: John Tilstra

Our trip has come to a close and we are sitting now in a 2 hour border lineup to go into San Diego from Mexico. We left our town of Vincente Guerrero this morning saying goodbye to our wonderful committed hostess Michelle from Welcome home preschool for the less fortunate families.

We then said good bye to Juan and his family at breakfast and gave him the remainder of our clothes, shoes and other donations for their use at the group home or for the workers.

They really do the heavy lifting in life by taking care of the old folks. Initially we thought why would we help but the answer came clear as we worked and ate lunch every day with the elderly. This was about finishing your life with dignity and respect even thou you have nothing to give back to society from a long life. Each person gave us hope in the world with respect and quiet love they could show.

They all said good bye and I’m sure Martin will miss the Centra Cares Crew. It was very humbling how this ministry works to get volunteers to help from EFCCM, local people bringing lunches and working only from donations to administer the ministry financially.

We have created another boost of hope in the world with our 12 member team.
I am so proud of our entire team and on behalf of Corinne, Steve and I, we thank each of you for your dedication to the project at hand. We all got along excellent and our memories will last forever.

Thanks to Pat Place and Lanson Foster for thier support and help on our trip. They both worked extremely hard with our group to accomplish our goals of helping others.

You all gave so much and for this I’m thankful.

Special thanks to Steve Neufeld (EFCCM missions) for all his organizational skills and organizing our trip. He took care of everything from materials needed, housing, food, and shoveling with the concrete crew. You truly are a special person with the patience and gift of making the world better. God has truly blessed you with the heart of giving.

Heather thank you for all your help with the entire organizing of our Centra Cares Crew on pre-trip planning.

Many blessings to all.

By: Kyle Hoekstra & Ian Bradley

Today we woke up to more rain and high winds. The bus to pick up the kids for daycare did leave this morning but only came back with 7 children. We were treated to French fries and eggs for breakfast.

As we arrived at site we found a little bit of flooding due to no drainage but a quick self-made drain took care of that.

As the day went on we all worked on finishing the forms for our concrete pour at lunch time while a group finished the plumbing. The concrete arrived on time and we began our pour. We had a small issue with some forms blowing out but after all hands on deck, it was resolved and we could finish the pour. We finished everything on the plumbing, pouring, and the work on the trailer and even built some shelves in their storage room.

After a hard week of work we were off to celebrate with Juan and his family at the taco stand where they presented us with a plaque thanking us for our help.

By Roland Calapiz

I woke up early this morning excited to be able to pick up the kids again with my partner Kyle Hoekstra. We were surprised by the wet surroundings when we opened the door of our dorm as it had rained overnight. Waited for 25 minutes only to find out that due to road conditions, moms or dads will not have work due to fields that they will work at will be closed and so children stay with them at home instead of going to schools This also mean that no income for the family. Rain for 1 week means 1 week of no Dinero!!!

We all sat together and enjoyed our pancakes and egg breakfast to make sure we have energy to start our day. We stop by the local hardware store to pick up some panchos to make sure we’re fashionable at work, oh and of course DRY! Unfortunately, no luck on panchos so we picked up rain gears instead. By the way, size selection is very limited. All 2XL…

Carey Day partnered with Corrine for building support beams, while I joined the team of Lanson and Ian Bradley swinging our hammers on putting rebar’s and form boards.

We were served turkey, egg mustard, beans and corn with the side of gravy for our mash potatoes for lunch the same time with the seniors.

As wind blows the lovely sewer tank smell appears around the site, everyone is busy staying task to make sure we have a strong finish for our last day of work. Centra owners working with our local Civil engineer (Imanuel) tying rebar’s together, while Patrick is busy setting up scaffolds for tomorrow’s concrete pour. Andrew and Stephen plugging away on their plumbing project not to mention their helper that sweeps after them, Kyle and Heather providing cuts for all that needs it, meanwhile, Brendan continued on building the trailer box.

All in all it was a great day, even the Rainbow decided to take a peak of our great works.