This month I got to hang out with my good friend, Peter.  He and his wife, Nikki, have been a great encouragement  to us and  our work in Mexico.  Peter was down from the Northern California area with his son, a high school senior, and his annual school (Kings Academy) building trip to Tecate, Mexico.  Each year, this group of 400+ come down, and build multiple houses for families in need in just over 3 days.  It is wonderful to see a ministry group continuing their commitment to Mexico, inspite of  any recent concerns about crossing the border.  This time, 19 small houses, and a school building were completed.  It truly is a sight to see all of these young people, and their leaders,  who take their spring break to come and be a blessing to others.  They stay in tents on a local ranch near the building site.  This sea of tents, 100 in all, in the middle of a huge cow farm industry, is another site to see.  It is like an invasion of gringo’s here, to help our neighbors, south of the border.  VOB benefited from this group, in that I was in the right place at the right time, when they were discarding some tents for one reason or another.  But I quickly knew that my buddy Vicente would have those tents up and useful.  And within a couple of days (see photo) one small family was happy to have the tent to live in as it better suited their present needs.  Imagine that?  The look on the boys faces was priceless.

While connecting with Peter and his group in Tecate, I also got to connect with my new friend Ken LaPoint.  Ken started the “Mi Casa Children’s Home” in Tecate where we (Peter, I and a group of men) put roofing shingles on the new dining hall last fall.   But if you also remember, this is where I delivered the 50 mattresses for the bunk beds.  I wish you could have seen the smile on my face and my relief at getting to sleep on one of these donated mattresses for 2 nights.  Sleeping in a tent does not fare too well with my body these days. God Bless the teenagers who loved it!  I love Ken’s heart and most of all, his long term vision for the children and families he is connected with in Mexico.  I also look forward to a long term relationship with Ken and Mi Casa Children’s home.  We see this facility as a great place to accommodate future VOB mission teams.  I love how God networks his Body together.  Again meeting Ken was through my friendship with Peter who I met while working for Desert Stream in Kansas City.  Don’t you love stories like that?

One last fun story:    While in Tecate, we were out, picking up some needed supplies.  After parking my truck, and walking across the parking lot, I hear, “Wayne Wayne”.   I look, but do not recognize the man, so I keep walking and figure, who would know me in Tecate (a little east of Tijuana)?  But the calling does not stop, and the caller reaches me.  It was Rudy, whom I truly did not recognize, as he went on to explain that he got bread from us on Tuesday nights for 2 years as a drug addict.  He goes on to tell me that he ended up at a Christian rehab and had been clean for 3 months.  He had 1 more month to complete his discipleship.  Again, I wish you could have seen the beam on Rudy’s’ face!  His was a brand new face, that was truly unrecognizable.  He was a new man!

UPDATE:    Our first “WorldWide Intercession Plan” worship & prayer event was held on March 26.  Our prayer ‘target’ was the Middle East, in particular, all those nations with uprisings going on.  We also prayed for Japan, in light of the recent earthquake & devastating tsunami, as well as the nuclear power plant breakdown.  The evening went well, with many prayers going up for these nations.  This is the first of what we hope will be many, many such events.  We have another scheduled this Saturday, April 30th, targeting California & Mexico with worship & intercession.  We will be praying & worshipping & asking the Lord to come & bring His Kingdom into our state, as well as our neighbor, Mexico.  We know that prayer changes things.  We hope to be a part of changing the world for the Kingdom of GOD.

See  www.ipcprayer.org  for a 21 day (April 15th-May 5th) prayer guide for Mexico.