Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

Painting Completed Meeting Room

In my May 2^nd (my birthday) Blog, I mentioned that a work team from Landmark Christian Fellowship had been here over the last week of March and through the first week of April to complete a building on the top floor (the roof) of the church which had been begun last year.

Any of you who have been to Cd. Valles, or to Mexico in general for that matter, will know how building is done here. The roof of the church, as almost all buildings here, was simply poured concrete.  Many times rebar from the columns still extends through the cement roofs. The uncut rebar allows for a subsequent level to be added if the need were to arise.

Indeed, this is exactly what was done when the second story was added onto the then-existing roof some twelve years ago when Doctor Heinlein and I first arrived in Cd. Valles.

Roof of Church Circa 1998 - Where VitW Staff Housing Now Sits

At that point the only thing on the roof of the church was the pastor’s house. All of the rest of the roof was open floor.

Steven in Front of Ezequiel's House On the Roof of the Church - Circa 1998

The need at that time was housing, and Dr. Heinlein and I asked if it would be possible to build rooms onto the front end of the church roof.

Work on VitW Staff Housing in Progress Circa 1998

These have been extended and improved over the intervening years, and there is now very adequate staff housing, and storage rooms on the second level, along with the pastor’s house.

VitW Staff Apartment Hallway Today - Looking Towards Ezequiel's House at End

VitW Staff Apartment Living Room Today

Last year the need was for Sunday school rooms and meeting room facilities for the church.

The church – Esfuerzo Magdiel, has grown over the past years, and was bursting at its concrete seams.  There was simply no room for the many, many children who came for Sunday school and other church functions. The nurseries for the little children already occupied the cramped space under the stairwell, and there was no other place than the street. Many times indeed, the children were forced to sit outside in the roasting sun in order to find space for their “classes”.  There is also very active evangelism outreach happening in the church, and facilities were needed for new-believer classes. Also, each Saturday morning new-believer breakfasts are held at the church to welcome those who have made a decision to accept Christ’s offer of salvation at one of the various meetings held throughout the week.  New believers who have made a profession of faith during the week are invited to come to the breakfasts. There they receive an invitation to cell groups, and other church related activities where they can continue to grow in their faith. Of course, this also requires some sort of facility.

With these needs in mind the church in Landmark, Manitoba, Landmark Christian Fellowship, decided to do something. At the end of 2008 they began to raise funds to build a metal structure on the roof. It was to cover the whole width of the existing building, and run from the back of the roof almost 100 feet towards the front of the building, leaving only a relatively small amount of space for hanging out laundry, and other activities that required access to the outside.  The fund raising and preparation continued on into the beginning part of 2009, and in March of last year a team of twelve or so men and women came to Cd. Valles and began to build.

A Building Takes Shape - 2009

Amazingly, the whole structure was put up in the span of two weeks, and all inside partition walls were in place. What was lacking though, was any wall coverings or insulation.

Uncompleted Interior - 2009

This year, a team from LCF returned to complete the work which had been begun last year.

The team was again headed up by Larry Reimer. Larry kept us all working and “whipped into shape” as the heat continued to rise, and sweat ran freely.  But the job got done – and done well.

Dustin Reimer Spraying Insulating Foam - 2010

The finished product is a beautiful building with five Sunday school rooms and a large front room which is being used for multiple uses from English and Bible Institute classes to new believer breakfasts.

Larry Reimer - The Sheeting Goes On 2010

Over the weeks since the Landmarkteam has returned home, the remaining staff here has been finishing off the odds-and-ends of work which remained. Walls and ceilings were painted, doors hung, and concrete work completed. The only thing remaining is window and door jams and frames which need to be cut, installed and painted. The new extension is a tremendous blessing to the outreach of the church.

A matter of prayer for us, and something which I would like to present to you, is the need for a kitchen facility and bathrooms in the upstairs. The need for bathrooms is obvious since there is heavy use of the third floor rooms, and the only available bathrooms are on the entrance level.  The little children can not always make it down the full four flights of stairs and across the whole building to get to the current bathrooms.

The need for the kitchen is to facilitate church functions, but more specifically to be able to be used for the new-believer breakfasts. There is a wonderful area in the new front room which would lend itself beautifully to an “L” shaped kitchen.  The staff and volunteers of VitW (Ben and Anna, Len and Leona, and Steven and Theresa) have been able to raise half of the money for a kitchen range / oven for the new kitchen project upstairs. It is felt that the church itself must be willing to raise the second half so that it can feel ownership for it. However, there is still a need for a refrigerator, kitchen cabinets and cupboards, a sink, as well as chairs, dishes, cups, cutlery, etc., etc. to make a kitchen operational.

If any of you feel God tugging at your heart to help with these projects specifically, please contact either Pastor Fred Erb (Canadian givers), or Pastor Marty Dyer (U.S. givers), or me, and we will direct you from there. If you tab over to the www.vitwministries.com website you will find contact information for both pastors.

I will close off now until next time…

P.S.   Incidentally – as a total non sequitur – I knew the other day that I would jinx myself if I began speaking about the “coolness” of the weather. Well, May has indeed struck with its usual vengeance, mocking my words.  We have been sweating our way through days in the very high 30s and into the 40s (for our American friends, this means into the very high 90s and low triple digit figures) – hot on either scale. The trouble is that this comes with a relative humidity in the high 70s. The rather wilting news is that there is only more to come. There is no point in complaining as there are about seven months of this, and much hotter to look forward to, and constant complaining makes no sense. In fact, we can only wait until the actual heat comes – and it most assuredly will. Sigh!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 7:54 am and is filed under VitW Blog.