I Would Like To Sing a Hymn
Thank you, Hope! How kind of you to want to help Emmanuel Evangelical Church. Carrie gave you the best directions…
UPDATE, APRIL 2015: A generous family has offered to donate funds to help rebuild Emmanuel Evangelical Church in Los Cabos! For every $1 given, they will match two and a half times ($2.50) up to $35,000. If this goal is met, this will provide all the funds needed to begin construcion on a new worship center in May. Will you join us in supporting this church and help them meet their goal? Click here to give!
We asked Vicki Reyes, TEAM missionary in Mexico, to provide an update on how their community is rebuilding after Hurricane Odile ravaged the Baja California Peninsula in September 2014.
“I would like to sing a hymn,” eighty-three year old Gilberto spoke out into the candle-lit room. We could hardly hear him over the raging winds of Hurricane Odile. TEAM missionary Art Reyes had driven through the early part of the storm to bring Gilberto and his wife back to our home to wait out the night. At first, they wanted to remain in their borrowed one-room wooden house. As the storm got worse, however, they were glad to move in with the Reyes family for the night.
In a trembling voice, Gilberto began to sing a ranch-style Mexican hymn about the Lord as the potter and us as the clay. It was a beautiful moment. It helped us to resist being like Peter, focusing on the wind and the waves, and focus instead on our protector, our potter.
The next day, we found Gilberto’s home destroyed. He and his wife stayed with our family for several weeks. Thanks to funds sent in to TEAM for hurricane relief, Art and a few other Christians were able to build Gilberto and Maria a much larger one-room wooden house with a full bathroom. They were very grateful! Other relief funds provided members of the community with food, construction material, potable water and more.
Many businesses, homes and churches suffered extensive damage in the storm. Photo courtesy of Vicki Reyes
Thanks to the help of Operation Blessing, several cement block homes have been built, roofs have been replaced, and shoes and food items were distributed during a time of great need. Millions of dollars of damage and looted stores had left the area without many necessary items.
Two of the three TEAM-related churches in San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas were also very damaged. Funds have been coming in to enable the believers to repair or begin to reconstruct the buildings. The re-construction on Emmanuel Evangelical Church of Los Cabos should begin this month.
Beto attends Adonai Evangelical Church of La Playa, a TEAM church plant. His home was destroyed in the hurricane. Photo courtesy of Vicki Reyes
Please continue to pray for the families and churches in Mexico who are still working to rebuild their lives, homes, schools and businesses.
If you would like to make a donation to the Baja Hurricane relief fund, click here.
Vicki, have been praying for you, your husband and the Emmanuel Evangelical Church of Los Cabos. First alerted about the request through my mom’s church, Calvery Bible Fellowship in Coopersburg, PA. Became interested because my daughter is getting married in Los Cabos in October 2015. We picked this part of Mexico because it has been a long time since a hurricane has hit the area and wouldn’t you know then Hurricane Odile happened. Let me know if I can send a donation directly to Los Cabos to the pastor. I have been trying to research the internet for information and can’t figure out how I would be able to do that.
Hi Hope! Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. You can email donors@team.org for more information on how to support the disaster relief in Mexico and for more information on how to give directly to the pastor. Have a blessed day!
Thank you, Hope! How kind of you to want to help Emmanuel Evangelical Church. Carrie gave you the best directions for sending in a donation. Please come and visit us when you come down. Will be praying for your daughter’s wedding!