“How many fingers am I holding up?” The question I most despise because I am someone who has been wearing “coke-bottle” glasses since I was five years old. People looked through my glasses, without my eyes, and assumed that all I could see was a blur.
But, for Jonathan and Alejandro, two brothers from a village on the outskirts of Ensenada, the “how many fingers am I holding up?” question wasn’t an insult, this time. Jonathan and Alejandro have grown up trying to see the world through their cataract blindness. Watching them, you’ll see that they hesitate. They feel their way forward until the next object comes into their obscured focus. They stumble.
Someone was watching Jonathan and Alejandro closely. They were seen on a DVD from a church group ministering through the EOC to Jonathan and Alejandro’s colonia. It was obvious to someone watching that these boys had a problem with their eyes. At the prompting of the church, the boys were able to see a doctor and be diagnosed for their eye condition. At hearing the prognosis, the church pledged the funds to have the Jonathan and Alejandro operated on.
After the first operation on one eye, Jonathan and Alejandro’s bandages were removed and tested by Dr. Samuel Leon Beal of the Instituto de la Vision. The institute is run by the 7th Day Adventist church and has the mission of “Following the healing ministry of Jesus”. When Dr. Beal asked Jonathan and Alejandro “how many fingers am I holding up?”, I wonder how they felt? It wasn’t an easy question. They both moved their heads and eyes around to try and focus their vision. They both didn’t get all the answers right.
A mighty deed that Jesus performed several times was to heal the blind and let them see. I have grown up skeptical of Jesus’ healing power in today’s world, “it doesn’t happen anymore”. Jonathan and Alejandro aren’t healed, they are healing. It will take at least one more operation and time and exercise to allow their eyes and the brains to come into focus (like looking through your new lens prescription for the first time). But, when the Spirit causes someone to see that Jonathan and Alejandro couldn’t see and provide the funds for the Institute to follow Jesus’ healing mission, how can we say that Jesus doesn’t heal anymore?
Jesus came to announce the coming of God’s Kingdom rule. Jesus spat in the dirt and rubbed mud into a blind man’s eyes, demonstrating the mighty deeds of God’s coming Kingdom. With observant eyes, giving hands, open wallets and professionals committed to healing in Jesus’ name, people living under God’s Kingdom rule are bringing Jesus’ healing to boys like Jonathan and Alejandro.
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Well, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Andrew Schrempf, and I am an oh-so-proud Canadian citizen, and I have been working down here at the EOC for about 5 ½ months. And I must say, it has been quite the ride! I have so many great memories of times where I grew, times where I learned, and times where I laughed. This is a place that will forever be in my heart, and I know that I will miss it dearly.
Tomorrow I head out with a group from Northpark Church from Fresno, California, at around 6:00 AM. They are taking to me to San Diego airport where I go back to the snow-covered plains of Canada. And I am not the least bit excited.
From the beginning, way way back on New Year's Eve, I have been meeting people that would change my life forever. I recall the first time I met Kayleigh and Gagan, the two interns here at the time. The conversation was generally rather awkward, beginning in awkwardness and ending with the word “anyway” and walking way. I guess I do not meet new people easy. But eventually we found out what we had in common, and grew together in community. That was basically how it went with the others around camp: talking, learning, and growing together. They all have been a great source of growth: Scott & Ana as intelligent teachers, Kimyco as a straight-forward gardener, Mardy & Brenda as loving parents, Kayleigh & Gagan as amazing friends, and Andrew & Jessica as awesome...coaches (hehehe). The newer interns, Brittany & Sarrah, I am sorry I didn't get to know them overly well, but I know that they will have a great time of growing and just having fun, and I really do appreciate them coming down!
Now the National workers. All I can say about them is AMAZING. Actually, that doesn't even cover the nationals. Stupendous might come close, but doesn't quite describe this group of men. For about 4 of my months while I have been here, I worked with a young man, about 19 years old, named Marvin. I knew a little bit of Spanish (enough to answer “yes” and “no” to questions I did not understand), and he knew a little bit of English, a lot more than me and my Spanish. It was quite difficult at the beginning to communicate, much less teach him. See, I was working on teaching him how to make videos for the groups, and it's amazing to see how he has excelled so quickly at it. He went from not owning a computer to using one everyday, from not taking pictures to being a great videographer, and from not ever being involved in video editing to understand and using the Sony Vegas +DVD package to create DVD's for the groups. He taught me a lot of stuff about his country and even about myself; where I need to grow and such things. Roberto and Marvin have been the closest of the Nationals to me. Roberto is just one amazing guy (and for the ladies, yes, he is single, and a good-looker too!). Smart, hilarious, and just a great friend to have. I will miss him! All of the people on staff have been a huge encouragement!
To see God move down here has been awesome. He has shown me so many things I have never seen before, or noticed. Both about myself and about the world around me. In my time down here, I have seen easily over 20 houses built for families that live under tarps, at least 100 kids and adults given food and clothes, and 2 little boys supported financially into the process of gaining their eyesight back from cataracts. And God keeps bringing people down, changing their hearts, and using them to help these people that need it, instead of buying that nice new video game system. It is all extremely encouraging. I have been blessed by the people I have met while I have been down here.!
This is my first day of missing this place and the people... and I haven't even left it yet. I will see both again though, this I know.
God Bless,
Andrew
Hello Everyone!
Less than 2 hours of my arrival I found myself in a conversation that I believe began like this, “So Brittany, tell me, do you know what blogging is?” My answer: “Yea actually, but I’ve never really written one before.”
Immediately after that I was “hired” and now here I am, writing my very first blog.
I have been here about two weeks now and we just received our first group to work with four days ago. However, up until their arrival we were kept very busy here at camp to make sure everything was in order. Very early on, I found that re-sheeting and rearranging ALL camp mattresses, bleaching and rinsing out ALL the coolers and scouring the camp office were very necessary in the upkeep of YUGO. Luckily, with a little music and the company of Andrew and Kayleigh, those tasks went by fairly quickly. But, needless to say, I really love when the groups are here.
Besides spending time at the camp, Andrew, Kayleigh and I have visited an orphanage called Pequeños Hermanos twice this past week. It was my first time visiting an orphanage and I was pretty nervous to go because I didn’t know what to expect. But I just couldn’t stay behind so I went and I’m so glad I did. There are about 25 kids that live there from about 4 years old to 15 years old and the staff has the sweetest women I’ve ever met. I’m really glad I got to go and hopefully we will get another opportunity to visit before the summer is over.
Recently, Kayleigh and I have been tagging along with a team from Georgia each day as they build a house for a pastor. I’ve been pretty exhausted and I can’t say it’s been all the building, because…I really haven’t done much. It’s been the “Simon Says”, Duck-Duck-Goose, blowing bubbles, running aimlessly up and down hills and all the piggyback rides with the neighborhood kids that have worn me out; but it’s been worth it. They are really amazing kids and the pastor’s wife has been so generous to prepare great homemade lunches for us every day. The United States has nothin’ on her food. She’s amazing.
Today we dedicated the house to Pastor Juventino Silva and his wife. The dedication involved everyone who worked on the house and each of them were able to share a little something about the past week. It was really beautiful to be a part of something like that and where there were no words to describe the love during the dedication, there were many tears that did.
I’m starting to really like it here and even though I’m homesick (HI MOM!) I think I’m finally finding my place here. I’m excited for the following weeks and will update soon, thanks for reading! Dios le bendiga.
-Brittany
Last week, 4 EOC Staff joined 4 Ensenada ministers on a road-trip to Guerrero Negro, 600km south of Ensenada (see map). Our mission was to support and be part of Iglesia de Dios en Christo Jesus Amor Y Misericordia’s (Church of God in Christ Jesus - Love and Mercy) 3 day Campaña Evangelica.
This Guerrero Negro church is 8 months young, and meets in the garage of the Pastors, Luis & Imelda. This weekend was a special time for the church to meet over 3 consecutive days to worship, be taught from the scriptures, conduct the church’s first baptism’s (14 people), commission the elders and the pastors for the ongoing ministry of the church, and of course finish the Campaña with a seafood fiesta of: fresh clam, fish and squid ceviche; whole fried fish; much singing; and good times together.
EOC does the majority of its ministry work in Ensenada, but has a desire to reach out and support the ministry of churches further south on the Baja peninsula. Through the pastors we work with here in Ensenada, we have formed a relationship with Luis & Imelda in Guerrero Negro. We were also able to support them with our presence along with our in-house pastors, Abraham and Lupita, who preached, & helped with worship, and provided counsel from their years of experience.
We were able to visit and pray a blessing over a block of land that Iglesia de Dios en Christo Jesus Amor Y Misericordia has purchased for the construction of a church building. The church also plans to use the facility as a community centre that will bless Guerrero Negro with the arts, a pre-school, a library and an employment centre.
After being warmly welcomed and very well fed by our new friends in Guerrero Negro, we are especially keen to build our relationship with them and look for ways to support their ministry, as they bring the good news of the Kingdom, which Jesus of Nazareth announced, to the people of Guerrero Negro.Click here for more pictures of the trip.
This week at camp there is a group all the way from Atlanta, Georgia. They have divided their team in two in order to build 2 homes. Yesterday Brittany and I went with one of the house crews with the intention of playing with some of the kids at the site and connecting them with the group. We were expecting 4 or 5 kids but lets just say that the three bottles of bubbles and small pack of pipe cleaners was proving to be almost usless when we ended up with about 45 kids to play with. As we were playing games and running out of things for Simon to say, I turn to Melissa, one of the girls on the house crew and she tells me that she has some baloons, soccer balls and coloring sheets that we can use as well. And as she was collecting some of these items she simply states that she had been, "praying for kids."
Wow.
God definitely answered her prayer.