VBS Kids In Juarez, Mexico - July 8-25th, 2009

Return from Latest Mission to Juarez - July 8-25, 2009

I have recently returned from yet another mission in Juarez, Mexico. I visited a 2nd children's home that I became aware of in November, '08 called Juventud con Vision and stayed there with the kids from July 8-25, 2009. This was a special trip fo me as I traveled alone to help celbrate the 13th birthday of a special girl there named Damaris. I first met Damaris when she was only 3 years old. At that time she was living in another children's home called The Tree of Life. The first time I visted the Tree of Life was in November, 1999 with a ten person team from Buffalo, NY. We were there not to visit an orphanage but rather to build a home for a poor Mexican family. When we completed our project it was then that we decided to visit the Tree of Life.

I have watched Damaris (pronounced - Dah-mah-reese) grow up over the years as we returned time and again to the Tree of Life. So in March, '09 when I was at this 2nd children's home where she is currently living, she asked me to return for her birthday. I prayed about it and felt I needed to go and help her celebrate her special day. I traveled alone this time except for the new guitar I brought with me for her birthday present. Here is the moment she received it.

View From The Top

One morning we decided to take the boys at Juventud con Vision for a climb up to the top of a local mountain. Here's what it looked like as we reached the cross at the top.

From - Mission to Mexico July 8-25, 2009

Back From Juarez

I've been back in Buffalo since last Monday (Aug. 10th) and memories or the mission to Juarez and my time there and in Carlsbad, NM and Dallas, TX are still with me. In the photo above you can see me and my friends at the children's home climbing to the top of the mountain in Juarez.

Mercy Ships- Sea Going Hospital and Relief Ships to the Nations

I first became aware of this sea going ministry to the developing nations of the world in 1987 as I walked along the waterfront in Seattle as a newly born-again Christian and came across the then flagship of the Mercy Ship fleet; a ship called the Anastasis. I was immediately drawn to the concept and idea behind this ministry because of my sea going background.

Ten years earlier I had worked on vessels in the Bering Sea off the coasts of Alaska as a fisherman on a commercial herring boat but it wasn't to be until ten more years went by in 1997, when another ship named the Caribbean Mercy found it's way to Buffalo, NY that I signed on as a deckhand once again. I sailed twice on the Caribbean Mercy and also served with a land based Mercy Team in Leon, Nicaragua for about six weeks in 1998.

My first mission with Mercy Ships was from Buffalo up through the Welland canal, out over Lake Ontario and then the St. Lawerence Seaway around New Foundland and down the Eastern Seaboard all the way to Jacksonville,Florida where I served for several weeks before heading over to Mercy Ships home office in Tyler, Texas where I was offered another assignment which I accepted and followed through with to Leon, Nicaragua where for about 6 weeks I served as a communications officer for a land based mission team called Operation Sea Legs. The mission of the team was to man a clinic that made prosthetic limbs for victims of land mine accidents.

My third mission with Mercy Ships was on the West Coast of the U.S.A. We sailed from Seattle to Portland, Oregon where we docked for several weeks during the Portland Rose Festival for a first world promotional tour designed to raise financial support for the third world missions of the Caribbean Mercy. Below, you can watch a video and learn a little more about ship board ministry.

Living Water International - Providing Clean Drinking Water In Jesus Name

Here is another missions opportunity that may interest you. Although I have not personally served with Living Water International, I became aware of what they do through a friend I met while in El Paso working with Casas por Cristo years ago (Nov. 1999). Organizations such as this are doing the work that God has called us to be doing in the generation in which we live. We are called to reach out to those in need. That includes both material as well as spiritual needs.

Here is your opportunity to get involved either by going and working with them or supporting them in what they do, in Jesus Name. By the way. I was in Leon, Nicaragua for six weeks back in 1998 working with another missions organization called Mercy Ships. You can read and watch the video of Mercy Ships in the post above.

Brother Nick

Casas por Cristo - House Building MISSIONS opportunity in Juarez, Mexico

This is what started it for me. The first of many mission trips to Juarez, Mexico over the years till the present (2009) began in November, 1999 when I formed a ten person team and raised the money for building materials for a home for a poor Mexican family through an El Paso based ministry called Casas por Cristo We built the home in three days through this organization that has been building hundreds of homes in Juarez with teams like the one I was there with from different parts of the United States.

Watch their official video and ask yourself if maybe you could find the faith for doing something like this, that is guaranteed to change the lives of those who receive the gift of your labor of love and your life as well for having gone and seen another culture and another way of life and given of your time, energy and talents for the Lord and for others. You won't be the same after having gone. Your eyes and heart will be open to the burdens of God's heart and to what He can do in and through a willing vessel.. You will find their website address in the sidebar to the right.

Brother Nick