First Christian Stillwater Mission Report

Our work is not finished

2010-06-04T21:02:00.006-05:00

Monica has a clean room in which to sleep. The new bathrooms will now meet code with the sheetrock in place, but there is more work to be done. Two year old Alexsandra needs surgery to elongate her Achilles tendon so that she can learn to walk. She and her twin may have a hearing loss and need to be evaluated so that the proper treatment can be determined.
Poverty, diabetes, and lack of basic medical services continue to cause suffering. Dr. Nancy Rodriguez and Larry Cox with the help of many volunteers just like the FCC Stillwater M3 mission team and members of the Humanos Derechos community have built Casa Bugambilia, "a community center," in order to respond in a compassionate manner to those who are suffering.
Casa Bugambilia provides:
• medical services for an underserved population
• nutrition counseling for diabetics and their families
• hospice care for the abandoned (17 patients currently)
• school readiness tutoring for children
• homes for families with special needs
• employment for people of the colonia
M:3 finished some projects this year, but the work will go on.

Sheet-rocks

2010-06-03T22:04:00.005-05:00

Rick Hendricks and Maurice German hang sheetrock in a bathroom, shower room, and hallway which will be used by residents of Casa Bugambilia.

Renewing old friendships

2010-06-03T21:52:00.001-05:00

Erin Nordquist and Keyla play. Barney's "I Love You, You Love Me" is popular in Mexico also.

A new living space

2010-06-03T21:35:00.005-05:00

A clean, dry, tight, living space for two women and a child with asthma. FCC Stillwater trimmed, built and hung doors, sealed and painted this new home.

Curtains for patient rooms

2010-06-02T21:34:00.003-05:00

Rusty Smith and Linda Apman make curtains for patient rooms. After meeting patients and taking measurements, Linda and Rusty went shopping for the fabric in Matamoros.

Light in the darkness

2010-06-02T21:29:00.004-05:00

Glass blocks provide light on a 120 foot wheelchair ramp leading to the second story of Casa Bugambilia where Hart Chapel and patient rooms are being completed.

Winston and Chuy

2010-06-02T20:50:00.005-05:00

Exposed pipes are protected by safety cages constructed Winston and Chuy, a Mamamoros local, who has assisted FCC's mission projects for the last 5 years. Winston and Chuy may live 804 miles apart, but miles cannot separate the connection that has formed over the years. Children learn at the desks and residents dine at the tables they have built.

Crossings

2010-05-31T21:38:00.000-05:00

This makes two days in a row now for crossing the border back and forth into Mexico for me. It has been quite an experience…much different it seems from my memory of going back and forth into Canada. Razor wire, armed border patrol on both sides of the border, high fences all surround designed to keep lands separate.

It occurs to me that there are always some borders it is easier to cross than others in relationships as well. The language boundary can be difficult to overcome, and is probably necessary for more than a superficial working relationship. Yet, hand signals and pointing can be helpful in working together. A smile or a laugh can do wonders to bridge the gap. Even overcoming difficult obstacles together can go a long way to establishing a friendship.

Working with Claudia this morning to help bathe 5 of the patients at Casa Bugambilia, she gained my profound respect. I watched her be so gentle with those for whom she was caring, pouring water on wounds and sores as she removed bandages very slowly so as not to cause any pain. She went about her work diligently and carefully doing her best to communicate with me what she needed me to do. She spent time in conversation with the patients, often laughing with them in casual conversation, but also taking care to ask them what they need from us.

Then there was ‘Joe’ who happened to know a bit of English. He has a condition that causes his body to be very rigid. When Claudia and I went to take care of him he was smiling and shared some laughs with us. Joe definitely has personality!
I look forward to crossing more borders during my time here. I hope that maybe when I get home I will cross the easier boundaries more often to build relationships.
Shalom,
Pastor Owen

Celebrations that Span the Distance

2010-05-31T21:33:00.000-05:00

This morning during worship as Iglesia Christiana Ebenezer celebrated their graduates, I looked at my watch and realized at that very moment the First Christian Church, Stillwater was doing the very same thing. It seems our worship on this day spanned the miles and connected us in a number of very specific ways. In our respective places: we all celebrated the accomplishments of our youth and their hard work and persistence, we all shared together in the Lord’s Supper, we all heard scripture, we all proclaimed the gospel, we all sang songs of praise, and we all prayed. In my mind and heart I was in both places at once.

It strikes me how similar people are even though we may speak different languages, have different customs, live in environmentally different atmospheres (driving to South Texas we went from May weather to August weather in a day!). In particular, we are all very proud of the accomplishments of our children and our youth. We are excited by the possibilities that are open to them. We are concerned for their safety and hope that they make good decisions. And we pray that God will be with them on their journeys of life.
God bless you as we are away from you, though connected in worship and embraced as one body of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Shalom,
Pastor Owen

Perfection is not required

2010-05-30T14:49:00.003-05:00

Practice makes perfect. We made record time today. It usually takes 16 hours to get a mission team to our home base in Los Fresnos, Texas where we stay in a church dorm, but the trip home can be done in 14 hours. 14 hours 10 minutes was our time today. Don’t worry – no speeding was involved. The new bypass around Austin, great directions, a medicine bottle with 24 quarters (thanks Bill), and 2 stops at McDonalds for meals helped us make great time.
But perfection is not a requirement for a successful mission trip. Cara said it well today when she said, “Jesus should have also said, ‘Where two or more are gathered in my name mistakes will be made.’” We have made some over the years. But we have also learned a few things which helped us make good time today.
Tomorrow is a new day. God does not require perfection – two commandments will do: The first is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. So we will do our best and then we will be gentle with ourselves and the others in this group.

Juntos Servimos

2010-05-30T14:36:00.002-05:00

Juntos Servimos means “together we serve.” Larry Cox, the coordinator for Juntos Servimos, started as one of us, a mission trip volunteer. One mission trip became many. Finally, he left behind his former life and started a new one, serving those in need of compassionate care. Casa Bugambilia provides hospice care, nutritional counseling, nutritious meals, tutoring, and educational support for children in a community that is making progress for its residents. When Winston, Rick, and I came with the youth to serve in 2002 there was no running water or electricity. We have seen progress. Groups like the M:3 Mission to Matamoros, Mexico, from First Christian Church in Stillwater, OK are helping to make a difference.
This week members of our team will transform a former warehouse space into rooms for residents, build furniture to fill those rooms, provide interaction and play therapy for children with developmental delays, and renew old friendships and make some new ones.
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. It won’t just be buildings that are being transformed.

Our hearts go with you

2010-05-30T07:41:00.002-05:00

LeAnn and I didn't go on the trip this year because of Andrew. But, mission trip has gotten into our blood and so all day yesterday we were visualizing where they must be on the journey down to Los Fresnos. I saw the McDonald's near Ardmore where they ate breakfast. I anticipated the traffic in Ft. Worth, saw the lunch exits in Round Rock, and felt the urge to sing rude songs while traveling past the UT campus.
Those familiar sights are all part of transporting our minds and spirits back to Matamoros. Each one we pass takes us deeper into our mission minds so that when they walk into church on Sunday morning it will be almost like they were there just last week.
The rituals that we participate in each Sunday do the same thing. They take us back into a place where our world is filled with songs of praise and the tang of the communion cup, almost as if we had never left and gone back home during the week.
The mission team carries our spirits with them even as they are the Holy Spirit for each other and for those whom they serve.

-Aaron Sapp

Another intern

2009-06-04T20:44:00.002-05:00

Those of you who followed our exploits last year may remember Matt the intern who worked with us. This year we have enjoyed the company of another intern, named Garrett. He has a degree in Latin American studies from OU and still lives in Oklahoma. Garrett's time here is supported by our denomination through the Division of Homeland Ministries. This was his first week here so he spent most of his time being oriented to the work of Southwest Good Samaritan ministries.
Even though he didn't work with us until today we tried to make him feel welcome by feeding him dinner each evening. I'm afraid that Sharon has set an awfully high bar for the groups that will follow us.
The Division of Homeland Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) sponsors several mission internships around the country, including Garrett's work here and the work of an OSU student named Kelsey who is spending the summer at the Yakima indian reservation. Your support of the larger church makes a difference in the lives of students like these, and in the lives of all those they work with and work for.

Sometimes it's all about giving up

2009-06-03T19:52:00.002-05:00

When people first hear about my participation in these mission trips they usually ask if this is a medical mission. So far the answer has always been no. When I'm here I'm not a doctor, I'm usually an unskilled laborer. This year I've actually had some skills that have been of use. Between my work at Ace Hardware during college and my experience remodeling our bathroom in Midwest City I've learned a fair amount of bathroom plumbing.
When we came here the tub in the women's dorm at Iglesia Cristina Ebenezer was rusted out and badly in need of replacement, so I got the call. The faucet seemed in pretty good working order so I tried to leave it in place to save money. After several trips to Lowe's looking for flanges and extentions and handles to fit the old faucet it became clear that it was going to have to come out. Twenty minutes later and it was done. For us to move forward we had to stop holding on the the old.
That is what our faith is about. When we try to add our new life to cherished elements of our old life it just won't fit. We have give up and pull out all of the old bits to really be transformed.

Relationship building

2009-06-03T07:45:00.003-05:00

I've said before that one of the things about our mission effort that makes me proudest is that we aren't just dropping in building something then moving on to the next place the next year. Since we have been returning to this area for 8 years we have had the opportunity to build relationships and to see things change over time.
Three years ago a group added a couple of rooms on to a ramshackle house in a rural area for a woman named Alma and her ten children. Last year when we were here she asked if her children could help us work on our projects. So, this year her oldest son George is working with one of our groups. George will be a senior in high school next year and says that he would like to be an architect. He has surprised us by needing less direction than we thought he might. The first day he jumped right in and dismantled the sink and countertop that needed replacing. He has shown proficiency with a circular saw and some creative problem solving to make pieces fit.
George is joining us late today because he has to register for school.
I've told George about the architecture school at OSU. Maybe next year he'll be registering for school in Stillwater.

Work began today

2009-06-01T20:55:00.003-05:00

Our work began in earnest today. Erin and Judith did a lot of stucco. Cara and Jane painted. Ron and I pulled a rusty tub out of a bathroom and replaced it with a new fiberglass one. The things that we found delight in today didn't come out of our work. Some students in another group staying here found a fascinating beetle. LeAnn watched a storm come in over the ocean from the beach at South Padre Island. Later the remnants of that storm provided the most brilliant rainbow that I had ever seen, and clouds that had grown men standing around oohing and ahhing.
The best things in our life don't come from our hard work. They come as gifts. They come as grace. All we contribute to the matter is our response.
Our oohs and aahs were one response to grace. So was our work today. How are you responding to the beautiful grace in your life?

Pentecost Sunday

2009-05-31T21:31:00.003-05:00

It has been neat each of the last two years to worship in a Spanish speaking congregation on Pentecost Sunday. Our group has better Spanish language skills than Beavis who "the only Spanish you know is what you learned at Taco Bell, and half the time [you] don't get that right," but sometimes it is just barely better. For us to get anything from worship thus requires the movement of the spirit opening our ears to hear. Today that came through the music. Most of the hymns that we sang were familiar and so as the congregation sang in Spanish we each heard them singing as if in our own tongue. I did not see any tongues of flame, but I did hear a sound like a rushing wind as the congregation each prayed their personal prayers aloud around us during the pastoral prayer.

Supplies were purchased today and our work will begin in earnest tomorrow. Casa Bugambilia has been transformed since our last visit. It is much larger than before. We will work to build rooms for the hospice care that happens there. On the Texas side of the border we will be making repairs and improvements to the dorms where groups like ours stay when they come to work.

I'll let Bill tell the story of his remarkable day in our first video.

Arrived Safely

2009-05-30T21:30:00.002-05:00

On our way out to the Bayview site where we are staying this year we drove through acres of citrus groves. Only one of the trees had any fruit and we went by too fast to see what it was in the early twilight.
The work we do here, like the trees, was here before we arrived. The work we do will largely not bear fruit until after we leave. But, someday far away from here we may taste the sweetness.
Tomorrow we will obey the commandment to enjoy the Sabbath. We will worship and relax. I hope you will do the same.

Getting ready to go

2009-05-29T09:10:00.002-05:00

Extra loads of laundry have been done, trips have been taken to Wal-Mart for sunscreen, bags have been hauled out of the attic for packing.
It doesn't seem like it has been a whole year since we last took this trip. Everything seems familiar and at the same time different. This year there is new concern about epidemic influenza and violence in border cities in western Mexico. Some of us have had family members call us worried, and some may have decided to stay home because of those concerns. We'll be staying at a different location than we have the past few years so that work can be done on the dorm at the church where we had been staying.
The weather report calls for rain. We ask for you to rain prayers down on us and those we go to serve.