back on the ground…

prayer, originally uploaded by James Matthew.

{photo caption: it is an important tradition that we pray with our team and family around the foundation of their new house before we begin building. Everything stops, while we pray a blessing on the family, on our work, and on what will be their new home}

We’re home from the amazing TJ 09 drop and house build.

Wow.

This trip was mindblowing to say the least – here’s the short:

1 house build for the Maqueda family – a beautiful family – we got to spend 3 fantastic days with them… Gustavo, their middle son (the Maquedas have 7 children), is our sponsor child. We got to work, play, and even cook alongside these beautiful people.

1 Factory RESCUE – probably the most important thing we did on this trip. Thanks to some of my students from last trip, we were able to offer Ana, 14, a chance to get out of factory work, child labor, and go back to school. This was life changing! We’re so happy she said yes to rescue, and we’re in the midst of setting up her school registration…

52 Fair Trade Soccer Balls – 20 of which were given to a school for children who can’t afford normal school.

76 School Bags - hand delivered to kids who need ‘em.

40 food packs – handed out @ the river (aka ‘No Esperenza’ = no hope) – an illegal squat that is surrounded by factories. We were able to assemble 40 bags, with rice, beans, and the bags for families with children included vitamin enriched milk.

Countless other stories. We’ll try to get some up asap.
Stay tuned…

-james