Armando Arrioja Castro

July 3rd:

Hi everybody!! Guess what? God continues doing his work with amazing grace in Juarez and in Acuña. I want to tell you what we have been doing from the third week till now.  The third week, the interns were split in pairs and we built with a staff member, some of us went to Ciudad Acuña, to build. It was an awesome week, the family was very thankful for us, the team who came, is a wonderful team, they work so hard and were so kind to us and to the family, God blessed me by meeting them. The family cooked for us delicious meals and they invited us to visit them, whenever we go to Acuña again. That week Zach and I built with Brandon Culp, he is an awesome guy, he continued teaching us a lot about how to build.

The fourth week, all interns (except David Kruh, he is in serving in Guatemala) built a double house in Juarez, it was the most challenging week so far, we were few people for building a double, we had to deal with unusual problems, and it took us 5 days instead of 3 but God helped us all the time, and we finished the best we could. That week we, the interns, got to know each other in a better way. It was a very good week.

The fifth week, a huge group came and built three double houses, with different staff members and also different interns, it was a huge blessing for Juarez and for those families too because they had been waiting almost 4 years for their houses, I am just so thankful for God, he is blessing this ministry enormously.

The six week we built with Team Casas, and it was a great lesson of God’s love. The family we built for was numerous and they were suffering emotional pain; because the mother had just passed away 3 months before from a serious illness. The father now has to take care of 4 children, but we are praying for these family, and praying for this house be an encourages gift from God, and that they can search God, more and more every day.

May 26th:

Hello everyone! It's been a pleasure to share a little bit of what we've been living these last 2 weeks. God has giving us the chance to come and share the gospel to the families here in Juárez and Acuña through our work by building the houses/ their home. At the begining it was kindda hard for me because of the language, English as you may know its not my native language, by the other hand I wasn't even familiarized with the metrical system! , but let me tell you how great is the Lord, He has allowed me to adapt well and quickly. In the first week we learned how to build a single house, the staff members showed us from how to lay the foundation up till cover the walls with Stucco, it was such a tough week due to everything was a whole new experience.

We (the interns) began the construction on Monday, ending our first simple house on Wednesday. Later that week, on Thursday we've had the privilege to help the staff of Casas por Cristo out to finish the house 4000!, on Friday there was a church gathering in Monte Santo, because of this great event; there were also delicious food and a Christian band group that entertained all. I'm so happy to be witness of all of this.

Although it was a double house, the second week was a little easier because everything was very similar to the single house, only with some adjustments. God is giving us strength and intelligence necessary to learn how to build and how to lead teams. On Thursday 24, Jason Laffan a staff member, has invited everyone including the other staff members and interns to his house where we had such an amazing time meeting us each other and so on. Thank you all for your economic support and prayers. God bless you.

Armando Arrioja