Alfonso is 17 and a member of our church here in Mexico. This summer he is serving the Lord in South Carolina as part of our 3 way Partership with Ocean View Bapitst Church....
Hi, my name is Alfonso Torres and here I am on the third week of mission in Myrtle Beach. These past weeks have been incredible. I have met some amazing people both inside and out of church.
The Saturday after I arrived, 27 youth left for a mission trip to Charleston, West Virginia. Our way up there was a little tough on my stomach but other than that the trip was uneventful. I had no idea what we would be doing for the next week but it was a pleasant surprise to find that some other 320 teenagers were also involved in this mission. By the next day, we had been separated into about 30 different "crews." The crew chief for my crew was Coleman, the youth pastor whom I'm staying with. There was also another girl from Ocean View in my crew. It was pretty cool to be separated from your church and into a random crew because it is a very easy way to make new friends. Our assignments for the week were given to us on that same day. Since our crew was so small, only 10 people, we shared our assignment with two other crews. For our assignment, we had to re-roof a house. I had no idea on how to do that since roofs in Mexico are so different from roofs in most of the US.
On Sunday we went to church along with two other crews different that the ones we shared the assignment with. It was a nice experience to see other ways of teaching and praising God. On that same day, we went to the house we would be working on and met the owner. He was a very polite and calm man, probably 60-something. His house had three layers of shingles on any given spot, but over-all, it was in pretty good shape.
The week went by pretty quickly and the work was progressing a lot every day. The relationships that people make in that week are amazingly deep ans so it was hard to say good bye on friday afternoon. I hope to be able to see all of the people that I met that week again.
On Wednesday, we had our afternoon off, so the whole youth group went to the New River Gorge. It was very nice, we got to walk around the woods for a while and went all the way down into the gorge. On the week from the 22 to the 29, I was in Myrtle Beach for only three days. On one of those days, I went to play tennis with Dana (a neighbour and church member) and her family. On Wednesday, we went to Atlantic Beach and prayered walk the area. This area is the one in which Coleman wants to work this summer but we have run into some trouble lately, regarding the use of the Community Center to host block parties. Please pray that God will move the hearts of the people that could give the necessary permissions. Also, if this doesn't work, there are several areas in side the city in which we can work for the remaining month.
Hi, my name is Alfonso Torres and here I am on the third week of mission in Myrtle Beach. These past weeks have been incredible. I have met some amazing people both inside and out of church.
The Saturday after I arrived, 27 youth left for a mission trip to Charleston, West Virginia. Our way up there was a little tough on my stomach but other than that the trip was uneventful. I had no idea what we would be doing for the next week but it was a pleasant surprise to find that some other 320 teenagers were also involved in this mission. By the next day, we had been separated into about 30 different "crews." The crew chief for my crew was Coleman, the youth pastor whom I'm staying with. There was also another girl from Ocean View in my crew. It was pretty cool to be separated from your church and into a random crew because it is a very easy way to make new friends. Our assignments for the week were given to us on that same day. Since our crew was so small, only 10 people, we shared our assignment with two other crews. For our assignment, we had to re-roof a house. I had no idea on how to do that since roofs in Mexico are so different from roofs in most of the US.
On Sunday we went to church along with two other crews different that the ones we shared the assignment with. It was a nice experience to see other ways of teaching and praising God. On that same day, we went to the house we would be working on and met the owner. He was a very polite and calm man, probably 60-something. His house had three layers of shingles on any given spot, but over-all, it was in pretty good shape.
The week went by pretty quickly and the work was progressing a lot every day. The relationships that people make in that week are amazingly deep ans so it was hard to say good bye on friday afternoon. I hope to be able to see all of the people that I met that week again.
On Wednesday, we had our afternoon off, so the whole youth group went to the New River Gorge. It was very nice, we got to walk around the woods for a while and went all the way down into the gorge. On the week from the 22 to the 29, I was in Myrtle Beach for only three days. On one of those days, I went to play tennis with Dana (a neighbour and church member) and her family. On Wednesday, we went to Atlantic Beach and prayered walk the area. This area is the one in which Coleman wants to work this summer but we have run into some trouble lately, regarding the use of the Community Center to host block parties. Please pray that God will move the hearts of the people that could give the necessary permissions. Also, if this doesn't work, there are several areas in side the city in which we can work for the remaining month.
