Day 2

Busy day today...

After meeting Dorothy and Jessica for breakfast in the hotel, we all traveled to Fort Hancock. Fort Hancock is about 4o miles Southeast of El Paso, and it's where some of our group is building a church building for a local congregation in the poorest area of town. Fort Hancock is easy to find; the church site is not. After we got to the town itself, we spent about 30 minutes driving around making phone calls trying to find the church site. We finally found it, and when we did, we were overwhelmingly blessed at what we found.

Brian Hill and the crew from First Baptist Church in Levelland, along with some help from two men from First Baptist Church in Clint, had the exterior walls, the roof trusses, and the roof decking completed. Teenagers were on the roof finishing putting the last of the roofing nails in the decking, and three men were on the other side beginning to roll out the felt, in preparation for putting the shingles on the roof. All of this work had been completed in a sum total of THREE DAYS!!! A miracle, by any account!

As we walked around the site, given the grand tour by another volunteer from First Baptist Church in Levelland, we came across lots of boxes, all filled with shoes. Each box was meticulously labelled with the gender and shoe size. In all, there were 500 pairs of shoes that had been donated, ready to hand out to the wonderful people of Fort Hancock. The shoe distribution will be on Thursday.

Dorothy led me, Brandie, Jessica, and Mario (a Buckner intern) in laying hands on and praying over the boxes of shoes. We prayed that the parents and children who received these shoes would also receive blessing from God, as that is the intent behind our delivering the shoes to the community.

And before we left, I got the opportunity to climb up on the roof and help finish nailing down the decking!

We came back to the hotel for a brief time, to prepare for the evening. At 5:15, we loaded up and headed back to Fort Hancock for our opening meeting / worship at Benito Martinez Elementary School. I lead the music, and Tommy Speed, Mario, Brandie, and Dorothy spoke. There was a wonderful feeling of family, camaraderie, and single-mindedness among all the volunteers.

After the service, everyone loaded up and drove to the new church building site to see the progress on that project, and to know where to meet tomorrow at 3:00 for that congregation's very first service in their new building!

I have to tell you, the new church structure is incredible. I told Dorothy that as I was walking into that building, I felt like I was walking into the ark. Through Noah, God miraculously built an ark to save His people from destruction. God used that ark, in the middle of the desert, to protect a remnant of the people for Himself. I believe, with all my heart, that God will use this building, made of wood, metal and concrete, to bring hope, joy, peace, and LIFE to that community.

Just as Noah had his detractors and nay-sayers, so this church is not without opposition. At least two other local churches in the town of Fort Hancock oppose this church building a building. Whether they are opposed to the church constructing a building, or just upset that we are helping them build it, I do not know. But this I do know -- God has a work in mind for the town of Fort Hancock, Texas. It's HIS work, and He'll do it with or without permission from the local church.

Please pray for peace in that community, and that a spirit of cooperation and partnership would rise up from the ashes of jealousy, or competition, or whatever is causing the strife.

Speaking of local churches, I would also ask you to pray for a church in the area I heard of today. It has less than 15 members, but has a very nice building with plenty of seating. Buckner has made arrangements to have another, Spanish-speaking, church meet in the building as well. The Spanish church has 40-45 members, but the host church will only allow them to use a very small room in the building, along with one hallway, and will not allow the Spanish church to become members of their church. As a matter of fact, the pastor of the host church has asked, on numerous occasions, "when are they leaving?" How sad.

Please pray for this church. I've left the church's name out purposefully, but God knows the situation all too well.

Tomorrow, we worship with the congregation in Fort Hancock in their new building. I can't wait...

Grace and Peace,
Ken Noles