Saturday, March 24, 2007
Spring Break 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
First off I want to thank you all for your support and prayer during this journey I went on! God truly moved not only in the lives of those we helped, but in mine as well. My team and I accomplished many things, but none of that would have happened had we not gotten there.
My journey begins back here in Longview. We were supposed to leave around noon on Friday March 9th. We were first told that the buses would be late, which was understandable, then a little late turned into 2 hours, which turned into another 2 hours, and so on. Finally around 11:30pm the VP of student affairs came and said “look, the buses aren’t here, so why don’t you guys go back to your rooms and go to bed, we’ll figure this out in the morning.” So we went back to our rooms not knowing until the next morning that the buses had shown up at 12:30am. After basically what turned into a 24 hour delay we were on the road!
The trip to Guadalajara was uneventful which was good. We made it there in about 30 hours, that’s one long bus ride! We arrived to the place where we thought we were staying; a very nice church in what I was told was the richest part of Guadalajara. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty comfortable with this; a nice safe neighborhood, we each would get a mattress, and Starbucks was just down the road! So, after we had everything moved in a lady came out and said that we weren’t staying there. I was pretty disappointed, not only was the place really nice but we had moved all of our stuff inside. So after talking with some people we loaded everything up into 3 trucks and drove to the place where we would be staying in the slums of Guadalajara. If you recall I wanted to get out of my comfort zone on this trip, the first place didn’t do that, this place did. It was a two story pieced together house the church was hoping to use to house groups such as ourselves; we were the guinea pigs. Just the guys stayed there. We ended up sleeping 5 guys in a room about the size of a dorm room all on the floor in sleeping bags. There were two showers in this building, but little water pressure and no hot water, but plenty of cold water (I am now more grateful for warm showers!)
Once we got settled in we went down to the church to see what we would be doing. The church was only a few blocks away from the missions, which was nice because we wouldn’t have to drive to the church, we could just walk. The pastor showed us what he wanted us to do; build a bathroom. There was already an existing men’s bathroom, they wanted us to build a women’s bathroom. He also wanted us to start working on a sitting area/pastor’s study next to the church. We ended up putting in a new window and getting the roof nearly complete before we had to depart. But the bathroom was our main goal.
Working on the bathroom consisted of digging a couple of large holes for footings, pouring a foundation, and slapping concrete onto styrofoam and metal framed sheets. Working on this project was frustrating at times because I don’t know Spanish and I don’t understand engineer language, so there were parts of this project where I just stood there and wondered what the heck they were talking about as the engineer major in our group talked to the translator who talked to the Spanish speaking pastor. Then all of a sudden we were doing something. But, in the end we completed the project and it is now ready to be painted and plumbing put in!
We were supposed to do VBS but that never happened because something wasn’t communicated, which was fine because we still got to interact with the kids during lunch, random breaks, and after we got through for the day. The last night we were there we also had plenty of time to play with the kids.
Our last day there we got to go to downtown Guadalajara and do some shopping. While in downtown we had a guide show us a couple of buildings before we went to the market. The market was a three story building filled wall to wall with any and everything you can imagine. It was intense! But at the end of the day I walked out with a t-shirt and a hammock which I’m still trying to figure out where to put.
After our time at the market we went back to the church where they had dinner for us. After we ate and played with the kids some we gathered in a circle and the pastor and the people of the church gathered told us how grateful they were for us and all the work that we had done. It’s always touching when you can see how the people you help react to the work that you do, even when it’s something like building a cement bathroom.
In the end God taught me a lot. While I didn’t necessarily get the spiritual mountain top experience I was looking for I did gain a lot more respect for the blessings that I have. Having a government regulated roof over my head and walls around me is truly a blessing I never really thought of (they don’t have building codes in Mexico). Having a water system that filters out all of the bad things that made much of my team sick during the trip is another blessing I’m truly grateful for. I’m also grateful for hot showers! I think if anything God gave me a gut check that showed me how blessed I was to live in America, to attend a Christian university, and to be surrounded by an amazing support system of friends and family. I am truly blessed to know each and every one of you and I am so thankful for your support not only in this trip but in my life!
In Christ Alone,
Adam Pautsch
Please feel free to contact me with any other questions or comments you may have, you can contact me through:
o Email: adampautsch@letu.edu or Apautsch@comcast.net
o AIM: theonlyamp12
o Phone: 651-269-6450
View Pictures (facebook photo album) & Video (you tube upload) here:
Album 1 : Album 2 : Album 3 : Album 4
First off I want to thank you all for your support and prayer during this journey I went on! God truly moved not only in the lives of those we helped, but in mine as well. My team and I accomplished many things, but none of that would have happened had we not gotten there.
My journey begins back here in Longview. We were supposed to leave around noon on Friday March 9th. We were first told that the buses would be late, which was understandable, then a little late turned into 2 hours, which turned into another 2 hours, and so on. Finally around 11:30pm the VP of student affairs came and said “look, the buses aren’t here, so why don’t you guys go back to your rooms and go to bed, we’ll figure this out in the morning.” So we went back to our rooms not knowing until the next morning that the buses had shown up at 12:30am. After basically what turned into a 24 hour delay we were on the road!
The trip to Guadalajara was uneventful which was good. We made it there in about 30 hours, that’s one long bus ride! We arrived to the place where we thought we were staying; a very nice church in what I was told was the richest part of Guadalajara. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty comfortable with this; a nice safe neighborhood, we each would get a mattress, and Starbucks was just down the road! So, after we had everything moved in a lady came out and said that we weren’t staying there. I was pretty disappointed, not only was the place really nice but we had moved all of our stuff inside. So after talking with some people we loaded everything up into 3 trucks and drove to the place where we would be staying in the slums of Guadalajara. If you recall I wanted to get out of my comfort zone on this trip, the first place didn’t do that, this place did. It was a two story pieced together house the church was hoping to use to house groups such as ourselves; we were the guinea pigs. Just the guys stayed there. We ended up sleeping 5 guys in a room about the size of a dorm room all on the floor in sleeping bags. There were two showers in this building, but little water pressure and no hot water, but plenty of cold water (I am now more grateful for warm showers!)
Once we got settled in we went down to the church to see what we would be doing. The church was only a few blocks away from the missions, which was nice because we wouldn’t have to drive to the church, we could just walk. The pastor showed us what he wanted us to do; build a bathroom. There was already an existing men’s bathroom, they wanted us to build a women’s bathroom. He also wanted us to start working on a sitting area/pastor’s study next to the church. We ended up putting in a new window and getting the roof nearly complete before we had to depart. But the bathroom was our main goal.
Working on the bathroom consisted of digging a couple of large holes for footings, pouring a foundation, and slapping concrete onto styrofoam and metal framed sheets. Working on this project was frustrating at times because I don’t know Spanish and I don’t understand engineer language, so there were parts of this project where I just stood there and wondered what the heck they were talking about as the engineer major in our group talked to the translator who talked to the Spanish speaking pastor. Then all of a sudden we were doing something. But, in the end we completed the project and it is now ready to be painted and plumbing put in!
We were supposed to do VBS but that never happened because something wasn’t communicated, which was fine because we still got to interact with the kids during lunch, random breaks, and after we got through for the day. The last night we were there we also had plenty of time to play with the kids.
Our last day there we got to go to downtown Guadalajara and do some shopping. While in downtown we had a guide show us a couple of buildings before we went to the market. The market was a three story building filled wall to wall with any and everything you can imagine. It was intense! But at the end of the day I walked out with a t-shirt and a hammock which I’m still trying to figure out where to put.
After our time at the market we went back to the church where they had dinner for us. After we ate and played with the kids some we gathered in a circle and the pastor and the people of the church gathered told us how grateful they were for us and all the work that we had done. It’s always touching when you can see how the people you help react to the work that you do, even when it’s something like building a cement bathroom.
In the end God taught me a lot. While I didn’t necessarily get the spiritual mountain top experience I was looking for I did gain a lot more respect for the blessings that I have. Having a government regulated roof over my head and walls around me is truly a blessing I never really thought of (they don’t have building codes in Mexico). Having a water system that filters out all of the bad things that made much of my team sick during the trip is another blessing I’m truly grateful for. I’m also grateful for hot showers! I think if anything God gave me a gut check that showed me how blessed I was to live in America, to attend a Christian university, and to be surrounded by an amazing support system of friends and family. I am truly blessed to know each and every one of you and I am so thankful for your support not only in this trip but in my life!
In Christ Alone,
Adam Pautsch
Please feel free to contact me with any other questions or comments you may have, you can contact me through:
o Email: adampautsch@letu.edu or Apautsch@comcast.net
o AIM: theonlyamp12
o Phone: 651-269-6450
View Pictures (facebook photo album) & Video (you tube upload) here:
Album 1 : Album 2 : Album 3 : Album 4
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