This morning several of us went back to the flood zone in Chalco to serve hot breakfasts to a few of the flood victims. Refried beans, eggs, bread, hot coffee, and water.
Just getting started, serving breakfast in Chalco
Quite a few people came, but it’s difficult to get to a lot of people because of the water.
Fortunately, there were people in boats coming and going that helped us out. We served out the food, covered it up well in bags, and they loaded it onto the boat. Then they would go to houses, climb ladders or send up buckets with food and supplies.
We hope to be able to serve breakfasts for 10-15 days, so we’ll see how it goes. So far so good. Later on we’ll also be giving out more necessities.
This afternoon I went to SAM’s Club and picked up 279 litres of bottled water to bring down to the flood zone in Chalco. I followed our co-worker, Rod, who had some clothes, some water, a grill, and some other odds and ends.
The plan is to set up a headquarters where we can serve breakfast to people for a couple of weeks. This should be a tremendous help in a place where people have little left, including food and clean water.
We’ve been able to make some contacts there, and so are building relationships so that we can make sure the help gets to people who need it most. And that means a lot of people.
People wait for a boat on the sidewalk, by what should be a normal street, not a river. Many are taking supplies back to their families in the flood zone.
We walked along the highway in the late afternoon, and I was able to get some pictures and video. Since we didn’t have access to a boat, this is only the edge of the flood zone you’re seeing – there’s much, much more. But the video will give you an idea of how bad the flooding is, even if you can only see a bit of it. You’ll also see some of the work being done to try to stop the flow of sewage water.
Here’s the video from today:
You can help by sending a few dollars in as a donation. Just contact us, and we’ll be able to go ahead and purchase what we need – as long as we know the money is coming. Lord willing tomorrow will be the first breakfast. Thanks to the two couples who have already donated!
I’ve posted some photos as well in our Recent shots… album.
Amigas del Alma…
Sorry to mix topics here, but both of these things are important! Thanks for all who prayed for the Amigas del Alma Valentine’s Event. It was this morning, and it was a big success! About 50 people came, and heard about unconditional love and about the Gospel. Please continue to pray for the relationships made with many new people.
Taking a break from flood news, Shari actually has a very big event going on this morning.
The Amigas del Alma baking experts are going to be putting on a very public event in Jesús María. It’s themed around Valentine’s Day (also called Day of Love and Friendship here).
The women who come will enjoy some wonderful cookies made by the baking class, and there’s a guest speaker speaking on unconditional love. See the poster below (designed by our friend Samuel).
There’s still a lot to be done this morning – setting up and all stuff like that there. It starts at 9:30am (Lord willing!) and will go into early afternoon.
I know that Shari and the other two Amigas would appreciate your prayers – this really will be (Lord willing) a BIG event.
I won’t be going (since it’s a women’s event) – I’ll be doing something even more fun than eating cookies – getting a blood test and doing errands! 😉
In spite of the fact that there hasn’t been any rain in the last few days, in some areas the flooding actually seems to be getting worse. This is because water is still pouring out of the sewage canal. As our co-worker Rod put it, can you imagine sewage water in your refrigerator, your stove, your pantry?
Of course, if the water has gone down in your area, your fridge and stove may have been bulldozed out of the way, in an attempt to clean the streets. The filth is a huge problem, made worse by the fact that people don’t have enough clean water.
The good news is, you can help! Our mission has set up a specific project for the disaster relief. Here’s what you can do…
To help flood victims
You can send a donation either to CAM International (in the USA) or CAM International of Canada. Make a note with your donation that it’s for Project #062250. For information on how to donate, click here.
Next, please let us know that you’ve donated. Then we’ll be able to buy what we need right away, rather than waiting for your actual cheque to go through the system.
We’re already collecting items for our neighbours who have lost everything in this flood. There’s also talk of setting up a kind of a soup kitchen to serve breakfast to people.
Even a few dollars would provide something – some clean water, a meal, etc.
More updates
Here are some more videos so you can see the current extent of the flooding here. They’re in Spanish, but they still give you an idea even if you don’t understand the language.
But to give you an overview – people are concerned about disease with the lack of clean water. If they have anything left, they’re concerned about looting, and so many have gone back to their houses, in spite of the growing danger from the sewage.
Recent news coverage:
From above (yes, those rivers used to be streets):
There’s also reports that more rain might be coming later this week. Hopefully, this won’t happen.
The flood waters are still high a few minutes down the road. Because the sewage water is still draining, it’s been hard to make much progress getting the water out of the buildings and streets.
The President recently toured the area, which has been declared a disaster zone. Apparently, many hundreds of homes in other parts of Mexico City were also flooded. It adds up to several thousand homes in our state.
Obviously there is concern about the spread of disease in these areas. And again, with sudden flooding like this, many people have lost everything – furniture, appliances, clothes, computers – everything awash in sewage water.
As a group here we hope to get some relief supplies tomorrow, and start distributing as soon as we can. Obviously, it’s been hard thus far to get organized, with water levels still rising (although thankfully we haven’t had any more rain).
Cold and wind is also a concern – though hopefully the wind will help to dry things up.
If you’re interested in helping us provide relief supplies – even a few dollars will help – feel free to contact us by phone or email. Thanks to those who are praying, and the couple who have already donated.
On the 17th and 18th of January we had a visit. Some new friends from Christ Chapel Bible Church (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) came down along with our mission‘s director, to investigate how they could be involved in the things God is doing in Mexico.
This gave us an excellent excuse to go out for tacos. Oh, and also to show them around Ixtapaluca! And what a beautiful clear day it was.
We went up to the local ancient ruins, looked out over the thousands of houses in the town and many housing developments. We visited Jesús María, the new house we’re renting there, and of course the building where Sendero de Vida (our church) meets here close to where we live.
So I put together this brief video with some views of the area that you may not have seen before. It was a windy day, so there was a lot of wind noise, but you can still hear some of what our pastor Martín and Rod Fry had to say about the area and ministry here.
