Thursday, July 5, 2007

Wow! Reverse Culture Shock!

Well, we have been in Phoenix now since Saturday. On our second day here we went to a grocery store and were overwhelmed! Wow, we forget how much is available here in the US. We are definitely a blessed nation when it comes to freedom and access to the luxuries of life. No wonder so many people come here illegally. We have always heard of reverse culture shock., but this time, we think we are feeling it the most. The excess, although not always bad, is incredible. We are proud to say that we know many people who share their riches with others and make small efforts to help those who are in need. Many times we may wonder how can we make a difference when the need is so great; however, that is not what we need to think, we need to think small and meet the immediate needs of someone as Christ has instructed - for what you did for the least of these, you did for Me.... When we do this people will come to know the love of God as we know it.

Our trip to Saltillo, Mexico was great. We went with our church from Colorado Springs, Eastside Church of Christ. Besides having the oppurtunity to work with the church in Mexico we were also blessed to work alongside our church family, including the new youth ministers family. During our time in Saltillo we worked on building some internal walls with block, formed and poured 9 strutcural concrete columns, plus some window headers. Then we are started the framing for a concrete roof and took down the framing and support for another concrete roof. We have always been impressed with the youth from this church and this time they continued to impress us - congrats to the parents as they have done a wonderful job teaching these kids the idea of service - we had 30 youth and 20 adults/parents. We were blessed to have mild temperatures compared to previous years. Below 90 degress! Excellent!

As always we met some gracious and humble brothers and sisters in Christ in Saltillo and we hope one day to be able to visit them again.

Once here we realized that we left our camera in our car, so we are pictureless. Our next trip is to Colorado Springs. God bless and maybe we will see you soon!