By Dave Gladson, Year-Long Intern

It’s funny when the student whom you thought wasn’t paying attention is the one who teaches you something…

It gets pretty busy down on the worksites, trying to show everyone how to do all the different jobs that come together to create a house, while at the same time trying to keep them safe and making sure that the house gets built well.  It’s easy sometimes to focus on the ones who are eager to learn and who seem to get it.  When there is a student who seems to lack a desire to work it’s easy to lose track of them while you are running around doing everything else.

Last week there was a girl in one of my groups who seemed like she would rather be anywhere else than in Mexico working on a house.  I tried showing her some of the basics, like how to hold a hammer, and found her some projects to work on.  But about ten minutes later I would usually spot her sitting down playing with the children from the family and after 3 or 4 attempts at this I shifted my focus onto other participants.

On day four we finished the house and spent some time praying with the family.  Then it was time to head out.  Guess who the family said the warmest goodbyes too?  Yup, the one who I had thought wasn’t very engaged in the project.  She had spent a lot of time hanging out with the family and playing games with their children, and she had built up a great rapport with them.  It was then that I remembered the house that we build is not the most important part of the trip.  The relationships with the family and with the local church are way more important than the actual building that we build.

That girl, who I had been trying to teach all week, taught me a great lesson!

By Stacey Davidson, Amor Ministries Year-long Intern

Here at Amor we love to tell stories. And we know that each and every participant and group has a special story to share. Whether you come on an Amor Mission Trip by yourself, with a church, or with your co-workers, each experience is special and we want you to share it with us.

Last month, we had the opportunity to meet a group of 24 co-workers from Orlando, Fla.-based boating company Nautique. This group traveled from their homes in Central Florida to the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Ariz. to spend a portion of their vacation building homes for families in need.

These Nautique employees helped continue building onto two houses in progress by installing doors, beams, windows and roofing. This is the fifth service trip Nautique employees have taken outside of the Central Florida in the past four years. The previous four trips have included two trips with Amor Ministries to Mexico to build homes, a trip to work at a center for homeless mothers in Nicaragua and last year’s trip to build beds for disadvantaged families in Guatemala.

The Nautique team had the chance to meet the Apache families who will soon receive a house.

“Meeting the families made the work all that much more personal and increased our team’s already high motivation to do a great job,” Bill Yeargin, President and CEO of Nautique wrote in his blog.

Steve Carlton, a Nautique chief designer, is heading up a project at the Nautique headquarters to continue assisting Amor Ministries by designing a fiberglass mold that will help groups easily pour concrete into the load-bearing beams of the home, and a simple, durable jig that would allow volunteers of any skill set to easily bend the stirrups that support the rebar inside this beam.

These two tools will allow the San Carlos build to run even more smoothly and utilize more volunteers of any skill level. We are excited to continue partnering with Nautique to make our build in San Carlos even more efficient.

Read more about the Nautique trip to San Carlos on the company’s Website or CEO blog.

For more information on Correct Craft, Inc., the manufacturer of Nautique boats, please visit www.nautique.com.

This post is the fourth in a series of six written by our Project Nexus team members. Project Nexus is a 10-week summer internship experience for anyone ages 18-25. These Project Nexus team members are splitting their time between three of Amor’s locations working with groups in Tijuana, Rosarito and San Carlos.  To read the last post in this series click here.

By Greg Lesnewich, Project Nexus Intern

Two weeks ago, I had the chance to visit a house that my home church, The Presbyterian Church at New Providence, and I built back in 2009. It was in Maclovio Rojas, a neighborhood due west of Rancho camp, centered around a giant, 30 foot or so statute of the Lady of Guadalajara. Most of the houses were built on extremely loose dirt, and supported by retaining walls made of tires. Going back to see the family, especially in such a memorable neighborhood, with the Lady of Guadalajara statue and hilarious moments experienced by my group was amazing to re-live by itself.

Walking up the crumbling dirt towards the sites I had worked on brought on a feeling of accomplishment, but not for what I had done. Seeing what God had used me for, and for those blessings that were evidently multiplying in all of the Amor houses in the neighborhood was incredible. Coming up to the house seeing the stained glass cross my church had given them still hanging in the window, two years later, made me incredibly happy, especially to know that the house is under the Lord’s protection, and that the family has not forgotten that He has blessed them with a home.

Knocking on the door and entering the home to see a family completely living in, using and appreciating the house my group built was indescribable. It literally made me feel warm and joyous and just… awe-struck. It was awesome in the true sense of the word. I remember floating for the entire rest of the day. The daughter at one of the houses the group built remembered me, which was unreal. To be remembered, to be appreciated, to see our hard work put into use… indescribable.  Easily the highlight of the summer, which is ironic, seeing as how I can barely describe what occurred that day. I will forever make sure that groups nail their fire blocks in straight, after seeing the family use almost every fire block for storage or display inside of their house. They had set up a kitchen in the front room, and a bed area in the back with a crib for their 18 month old toddler. They had art, posters, flowers, bottles, a refrigerator and a television, but they said that the walls were the most important part and the most beautiful thing in the house.

To have the rare chance to go back and see the work of the Lord multiplying and bringing joy to those who served and who were served was just plain awesome. The happiness and laughter brought from both sides of this mini-reunion showed how evident it was that God really made a change in the hearts of both me as a builder and the family. Just know, after you complete the house, it will continue to bless the family, day after day, for years and years to come, and let that be a source of encouragement, to know that the Lord continues to work, before and after we have leave.

This post is the third in a series of six written by our Project Nexus team members. Project Nexus is a 10-week summer internship experience for anyone ages 18-25. These Project Nexus team members are splitting their time between three of Amor’s locations working with groups in Tijuana, Rosarito and San Carlos.  To read the last post in this series click here.

By Sarah Woods

I have a playlist of songs that I put together after a very challenging and life changing Amor Mission Trip exactly three years ago.  It contains the songs that we had listened to and focused on during our week in Mexico, songs that came to mind during those bittersweet moments that brought our team together and made us a stronger family.  As I’m listening to these songs tonight for the first time this summer, I’m taken back to that trip and I can remember it like it was yesterday.

I participated on one more Amor Mission Trip after that year and I somehow felt even more connected to Mexico and the integrity of the trip with my youth group.  I missed the annual trip in 2010 because of a summer job opportunity, and I was really bummed.  When I made the decision to apply for and later accept this Project Nexus opportunity I was really excited that I was going to be experiencing this week-long mission experience that I loved for a whole summer.  It wasn’t until two weeks into the program when we were building our training house that it really hit me: I get to be a part of something bigger this summer, because not only do I get to witness God’s love being shown to these families every week through the house-building process, but I also get to be a part of a new group each week experiencing that same love and camaraderie that I loved so much about my Amor Mission Trips in high school.

It has been an adventure these past five weeks working in the field, but I have noticed one common pattern.  The Mexican people are full of never ending hospitality and over flowing joy, no matter what their situation.  This past Sunday two other Nexus and I went to Pastor Cesar’s church in Rosarito and were invited to lunch at his house after the service.  Pastor Cesar serves on Amor’s Ministry Planning Board in Baja California.  I speak very limited Spanish so there wasn’t much I could do at this lunch except eat the wonderful food and just watch.  Even though I had no idea what was being said for the most part, I could feel an overwhelming sense of love and fellowship to the point where I had to join in on the laughter even if I missed the joke.

I’ve realized this summer that coming to Mexico is about so much more than building a house and bonding with your team.  It’s also about building relationships with the Mexican people, even if there is a language barrier.  Because God’s love overcomes any barriers.

This post is the second in a series of six written by our Project Nexus team members. Project Nexus is a 10-week summer internship experience for anyone ages 18-25. These Project Nexus team members are splitting their time between three of Amor’s locations working with groups in Tijuana, Rosarito and San Carlos.  To read this first post in this series click here.

By Allegra Vieux

The typical day in the life Project Nexus team member looks like this:

6:00 am- Wake up.

6:30 am- Breakfast.

7:30 am- Leave for worksite.

8:00 am- Arrive at worksite. Start working on the house.

12 Noon- Eat a brown bag lunch.

1:00 pm- Continue working.

2:00 pm- Greet Mexican vendors, stop to shop.

2:30 pm- Resume work.

5:00 pm- Clean up worksite.

5:30 pm- Arrive at camp, open Amor Store.

7:30 pm- Eat dinner while working Amor Store.

8:00 pm- Close Amor Store.

8:30 pm- Connect with group at campfire time.

10:00 pm- Sleep.

One may think that doing the same thing day after day, week after week would become tedious and redundant, but its weeks like this past one that attests just the opposite.

This past week another Project Nexus team member and I worked together with a group from Iowa.  It was a youth group of approximately 45 students who had traveled for three days before arriving in Rosarito, Mexico.  They were incredibly eager to build a house.  Being from Kansas City myself, it was nice to experience some Midwestern hospitality in Mexico.  We built two houses in the same area of Rosarito, separated only by one large hill and lots of dirt.

When we first arrived at the site, we met an older woman named Jimena who was living in a very run-down trailer.  She introduced us to two teenagers and three young children who were all living with her.  As I got out my paper and pen and drew the plans for the house, I experienced the most humbling moment in my life.  Jimena explained to me that she did not want the interior wall we usually include, because the house was not just for her family.  She wanted to use it for church services and to help the homeless in her community by giving them a place to stay if needed.

She had confidence that God would take care of her so long as she took care of the orphans and widows.  How cool is that? It’s not every day you meet someone with that kind of faith.  Stories like these are the reason I can love what may seem like a tedious daily schedule.  I am learning it is so much more than redundant.