Author: GMSM

Ground hog day…… up early again. Went over some requests with the pastor, said our good byes and headed back over the mountains towards Oaxaca. Another long drive. Seems like that’s all I’ve been doing is driving. It was hard leaving our knew friends not knowing what our next move will be but for sure we’re gonna try to get more tarps down there. We are headed to Mitla to have a late lunch with the family that we visited earlier on our way down south. From there on to Oaxaca. As we ere driving through the mountains I was seeing fresh rockslides from the mountains. I figured it was from the daly tremblers that keep occurring. Once we got to Mitla, Avalia the lady of the house we would be eating lunch at meet us with the news that there had been another earthquake. This one seems to have caused some major damage in the city of Puebla. It also did some damage to the Mexico City International Airport. After lunch my focus turned to wether or not I will be able to leave the country. We headed to Oaxaca and got a place to stay and started the phone calls to Delta. With all the craziness, no one can me any info. I’m gonna head to the Oaxaca airport around 5:00 AM and keep my fingers crossed. As far as the tarps go, we left about 50 and the pastor will distribute and assist in installing them. He will send us some pics. Totally good with this. This was a short trip but now I wish we could’ve stayed. I anticipate a quick turnaround trip. We are surly gonna need your financial and prayer support. This is not a good situation. There are sure to be more quakes on the way. Only God knows for sure and He will somehow be glorified through all this. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

Up early and back on the road in search of tarps. We hit the banks to exchange US dollars for pesos and then headed off to the mom and pop hardware stores to locate tarps. We did locate more tarps. I think we have about 50 or so. That will be a good start. This is an all day affair and we are headed back to Oaxaca tomorrow. The plan is to leave the tarps with Pastor Juan and allow him to distribute them as needed on a case by case need. It is unfortunate that we can not be a part of the distribution but have total confidence that the tarps are in good hands. Pastor Juan will take pics and report to us and as he does we will post pics for our followers. In the morning will make our way back to Oaxaca stay the night and fly out early Wednesday morning. At least that’s the plan. When we arrived back in Iztaltepec with the tarps you would have thought we were carrying the holy grail. The folks were so excited. Pastor Juan was not available when we got back late this afternoon so he will start the distribution in the morning. Usually we are a part of the process but this is a unique situation so all we can do is turn it over to him which is what needs to happen anyway. We will bed down for the night and get up early then have a conversation with the pastor before heading out. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny

We did make it to Oaxaca and painfully negotiated a vehicle and found a killer hotel for a great price. Pastor Felipe was not able to join us so it’s just Nataniel and I. After a much needed nights rest we rose early to start the 4-5 hour drive over an incredible mountain range. Fortunately pastor Felipe did some leg work via coconut telegraph and touched bases with some folks on the way down and got us a contact once we arrived. Our first stop was in a really cool little town called Mitla. We are going there to meet a sister from a church that pastor Felipe and his wife Anna knows. Here name is Evelia. We ate breakfast with her family and she had some great info and contacts at ground zero. They are 4 hours from the epicenter and while we were eating a trembler started and our chairs were beginning to shake. Crazy! After our food we took off over the mountains and headed to Juchitan pronounced, who che tan. A beautiful drive on a very curvy two lane road. We were trying to get to Juchitan before dark due to potential road thieves. We did make it to the town and was met by a pastor named German. He immediately took us on a destruction tour. As I expected there was much damage and at count 98 deaths. They say they are still expecting the count to rise. There are a lot of police and army dudes everywhere. They look very intense. It looks as though in the town they are maintaining some sort of relief effort. Hard to tell for sure. I asked the pastor about small communities outside the town so he took us to a place called Ixtaltepec, pronounced es tal ta pec. There we hooked up with a pastor and we did a night walking tour of the community. There are some heavy issues here. Everyone is sleeping on the streets because so many homes are damaged or lost and trembles happen several times a day. There is no place to stay here. A family has taken us in and we are sharing their safe space. Tomorrow we will have to make a plan. I know He will give us discernment. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny

Once again Conscience International and Give Me Shelter Ministries will partner up and head deep into Mexico to the town of Juchitan in the state of Oaxaca. This was the epicenter of the earthquake that struck last Friday the 7th around midnight. I will meet my friend and son of one of my Latino pastors, Nataniel Hernandez from Nuevo Laredo in Mexico City. From there we will fly together to Oaxaca, rent a car and find a place to stay. We will do a four day assessment, do what we can and head back home with a plan to hopefully come back. I expect it to be much like the Haiti earthquake minus the massive condensed population that Haiti has. We will see.

Kenny

Kenny is joining Pastor Felipe and his son Nathaniel in Oaxaca, Mexico today for an assessment of earthquake damage in that area. Kenny will report back and let us know what we can do as a mission to help those in need in Mexico.

Kenny will also be working closely with his church, Seeker Fellowship, and The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, to find opportunities to help here in the states. Stay tuned for your opportunity to serve and support!