Dear Friends:

(This is an update from Scott McLean of the "Pedal 4 A Purpose" organizing committee that went to Juarez on January 31st.  Scott and the committee are putting on the annual P4AP family bike ride (www.pedal4apurpose.kintera.org) that raises money for the ministry.)

Team,

I thought I would update you with some good news and then tell you  a bit about our trip to Juarez. I have secured a tentative commitment from a new sponsor, MacKenzie House, for a $5K donation. Yahoooooo! We are now up to $16K and have only $9K more to go to meet our $25K Corporate Sponsor commitment by the end of February; on our way to our lofty overall goal of $100,000. Our efforts with this fund raiser are desperately needed by Missions Ministries.

The trip to Juarez was inspiring. God is at work in Juarez. All we did was show up and we joined Him in his work. We left Wednesday and we were back Saturday night which is a typical short-term trip. Here are the highlights of our trip:

We erected a 300 s.f. addition to one of the pastor's houses (replacing a dilapidated and crumbling portion of his house) in just 1½ days of work. We had help from seven capable assistants who are part of the MM staff. We hammered and hammered and hammered in 40 mph winds. By far the most vivacious worker there was Connie Hensley. This girl knows how to work construction!

We loved on all of the 29 MM staff and their families (almost 100 persons) by putting on a dinner/fun night (thanks again  to Connie for buying all the food at Costco and for Dave Pasque and Jeff Baker for graciously funding the cost). This was held in the Ministry Center cafeteria. By the way, the food here is UNBELIEVABLY GREAT, the best Mexican food I've had. Carlos is a full time chef (and quite a character) and has a staff of six helpers. Al Medina gave a couple bikes away to members of these families. They were thankful! Josh, Al and Connie took pictures of each family and printed a portrait for each family!

We visited a mom of four kids whose sister was recently killed leaving her (and Grandmother) to care for another four kids, that is one mom and eight kids. She is currently living in a 10 X 15 shanty with a blanket door, no electricity, no running water, only a propane stove, a small wood burning fireplace, and only two beds for all to sleep in. We prayed over her as a team.

We observed a team of doctors from Cherry Hills Community Church provide needed care to over 150 children and adults over two days. There is a modern clinic at the Ministry Center. We attended church service in one of the three churches in the colonias. We were blessed by the thankfulness of the many, many locals who came to worship with us. We observed Jeff (fulltime missionary who lives with his wife at the Ministry Center) dance a local jig along with lots of kids surrounding him. These are very loving people who genuinely appreciate all that is done for them.

Each one of us that visited Juarez were blessed by our experience. Thank you Jerre, Josh, Al, Tim, Connie, and of course our leader, Casey.  At our next meeting on Feb 21st, we will show a slide show which will tell a thousand words that I could never appropriately articulate.

Best regards,
Scott A. McLean
P4AP Volunteer