Genesis construction's Blog

New house for Iris and Laureano

genesisconstruction — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:16:22 +0000

Hey friends!

Happy New Year (I won´t bother to throw in an extremely belated Merry Christmas…)!

After a very short Christmas break we had the great pleasure to work with a wondeful, hard working team from Michigan thanks to our friend Rodney. Together we were able to build a house for Maria Teresa and her family in Los Anonos, a nearby neighborhood in which Genesis Construction has worked before. It was a wonderful build because, as stated by a member of the team from Michigan, even though the group of 5 was small, they got a lot of cordial help from the family and members of the community. We have pictures on our Flickr page (have you checked it recently?)

However the real news with this post is that I am overjoyed and humbled to announce that we have broken ground on a house for Doña Iris, her husband Laureano, and their kids (Wilmer, Gabriel, Micheal, Arvey, Joel, and I can´t remember the name of the girl). With men from the center, Alexis and Rodrigo, Big Dave, Chuck (or should I say Hombre Dulce?), my brother Lars (his first Genesis Construction experience) and I, we were able to lay all the foundations for the house by 2:00! We worked hard, we played hard, and it was alot of fun!
Please pray for safety and all around blessings from the Lord as volunteers from Escazu Christian Fellowship and a few other new comers will be working tomorrow and Sunday!

God is great!
Bless you all!

East 91st Trip

genesisconstruction — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:26:20 +0000

Praises are abundant here in Alajuelita!

Thanks to a large team from East 91st Church from Indianapolis two more families in Alajuelita have yellow houses! Through a lot of hardwork and love two houses were reclaimed for the kingdom of God. We were able to finish Noylin`s house that was started by the group from Parkview and Xiomarra del Socorro and her children now have a house as well!

It was a marvelous time, with lasting, affecting relationships formed (on Sunday at church Kenneth asked where all his friends were) and much learned from both sides. Its hard to summarize such an impacting time as this was into simple words. So we must simply say, thank you so much for everyone who came and showed this community the love of Christ! It was awesome!

Love from everyone here at CCA and Jazmin, you are all missed!

There are many many many fotos at our flickr page.

God is cool.

genesisconstruction — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:47:11 +0000

Hey so I have an awesome story to share,

I was just minding my own business, being antisocial at church, when a young lady, named Elizabeth, approached me. “Are you the one working on houses thing?” She asked, I told her I was was.

“I was reading this book about a Mexican girl who all her life wanted a nice house to live in, and as I was reading that book I found $25 dollars in the pages of the book and I figured that money should go towards getting someone an adequate house!¨

I thought that was really encouraging, because sometimes it can feel like we are working alone here, but this incident reminded me that we do have God on our side always and he has a plan, and he also has a sense of flair in providing for us if just trust in him. It also reminded me of the story of the poor widow and her two pennies in that it`s not the size of our gifts but the love behind them. With love God will work miracles, not with money.

Thanks again Elizabeth!!!

Tis the season!

genesisconstruction — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:40:39 +0000

Greetings!

Exciting news happening in Alajuelita these days!

Christmas season (and winds) if officially here, and with that Genesis Construction is starting to enter what, to put it in simple, unworthy terms, could be called our ¨high season¨

We just sent off a team from Parkview, Illinois that did a lot of work at the children`s feeding center but also laid most of the bases for a house for Noylin. We at CCA are very excited for that house, because the girls of that family hold a special place in the heart of many of our members and supporters. Not that we favorites or anything like that, but we have been searching for a solution for that family and are glad to finally be making some progress!

Today Larry and Carole Pribel arrive in town, and then after them we have the rest of the team from East 91st Church (except for a couple of guys who snuck in on Saturday). All in all they are about 40 people!!! While here they will do many things, one of which is, praise God, build a house for one of our aforementioned families, Doña Xiomarra del Socorro. A women truly in need of help. We are anxious to get that build underway and look forward to the blessings and challenges that God will sure put before our path on the way. Please pray for all those involved with the build and the going-on´s these coming days, as well as safety, health and provision for the impending team.

Immediately after sending off the team from East 91st, we have a team of Lutherans (or the ¨Luteranos¨ if you are Chuck) coming in to help us out with ANOTHER house! How blessed are we, and how much shall God bless the people of Jazmin this December! I have not been informed if the family for which the Lutherans will build has been confirmed, it was slated to be Maria de Lopez (See next step, pt. 2) but she has actually moved out of Jazmin, hopefully to a better area and a better life.

Hope all is well,

Merry Christmas, and God bless you all! (especially if you are reading this blog that means you are awesome!)

Soren

Financial Education Workshop

genesisconstruction — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:16:10 +0000

This blog may be called Genesis Construction, but those who have worked with us know we try and go way beyond just construction and try and meet the needs of the community where they are. If we just build houses to satisfy our consciences but ignore other with which we could easily help, then are we really loving the community. It is sort of our motto scripture but Matthew 25, doesnt simply talk about the foreigner that was given a room, but also about the hungry who were given bread and the naked who were given clothes etc.

Anyways this all goes to say that what we are really about here is serving our community, and we were able to realize that mission in a special way this Sunday by facilitating a financial education workshop for Jazmin. There can be no doubt that the people there are poor, but it seems to us that some live worse than they need to.

Like my grandfather who tells the same jokes over and over again, many may be familiar with this story but it is highly illustrative of a common problem in Jazmin. When Maximo asked a woman, ¨does your famiy ever go hungry?¨ she replied ¨Yes, truth be told, at the end of the month, sometimes we go with out food.¨ ¨Why the end of the month?¨ asked Maximo. ¨Well, we have to pay the electricity bill and the telephone bill, and the payment for our home theater system…¨

Sometimes it is the poor financial choices that really hurt families, so it seemed to us that as a problematic area, we should try to somehow resolve it. (Of course when I say ¨we¨ I mean other smarter, more capable people than myself, I have been merely a fly on the wall for this undertaking, although I did draw up the initial budget for the snack ) Andy Valenciano (I feel like I can just say Andy by now) organized a financial education workshop, through some contacts with Habitat for Hummanity, and on Sunday we went up to the local church Lluvia Tardía to carry it out. Many thanks to Luis (who you could say was the leader of the worskshop), Andy, Marianne, the wonderful girls from City (I´ll post them names when I can remember them) and Lluvia Tardía!

Although at the beginning we were nervous when only two women shopped up at the originally slated time, eventually we actually went over our maximim capacit and had about 18 people from Jazmin at the workshop! It was great! Now we can`t really reasure the efficacy of this workshop now, but I feel confident that this was an important step in nuturing the slum and giving the people the means to liberate themselves.

Here are some pictures so you can see what it was like (it was fun!)

Mission Accomplished: Doña Felipa!

genesisconstruction — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:19:17 +0000

Greetings friends!
After a LONG hiatus I have much to tell!!!

Most importantly through an eclectic partnership (those are the best) of the people at Purdy Motors (the CR Toyota Dealership), Blue Valley School 9th graders, CCA, Andy Valenciano and friends, and a slew of other volunteers including Chuck, Stephanie and even my dad, Torre, and sister, Ingrid we managed to finish a house for Doña Felipa and her many relatives.

It certaintly wasn´t the easiest built, seeing as the house was at the very top of the hill and due to the savage rains of late the roads were almost impossible to use. But with determined volunteers and the help of some pretty beastly Toyota pickups we were able to haul up the materials needed and build the house in a timely fashion!

It was a true victory for the Lord, and Felipa and her family were/are all so thrilled to have such a lovely, safe house now!

Thank you to all who served so tirelessly with us, you have made a real difference!!

Testimony: Jesse Swanson from Victory Family Church

genesisconstruction — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:48:27 +0000

Hey there,

at the beginning of this blog I think I expressed a desire to share the words of others and not just my own, now I have the priviledge to do so.

Jesse Swanson came down in August with Victory Family Church of Pittsburg, Pen. and helped build two yellow houses in Jazmin, one for Doña Luz and one for Doña Laly. They were a really awesome group with a lot of heart and maturity and after they left I came across Jesse`s blog, which I thought was really cool.
He had a really good post about his thoughts on his trip down so I thought I asked him if I could share it and he agreed. Check out his blog at www.iamswanson.blogspot.com

¨I could spend the rest of this blog telling you all the awesome and amazing things that happened there, but it wouldn’t matter. Most of you reading weren’t there. Instead of telling funny and crazy stories that won’t affect your lives in any real way, I’m going to stick to telling you the lasting impact we made there.

In just 1 week, we made 2 homes for 2 families, that otherwise would have nothing. It was all possible because of God. God used us to make an impact on these families and that community. Every time people look and see these houses, they’ll be reminded of the 20+ Americans who gave up a week of their lives so they could change someone else’s. Those houses will stand as a symbol of what God does for his people. Those homes will be the symbol of hope for that community.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “why should I go on a missions trip?” here’s the answer. At the end, after all the hard-work, after the proverbial “sweat and tears.” Your reward is seeing those families, seeing how thankful they are that you did this, seeing their hope restored and their faith renewed and the overwhelming joy you feel in your heart. That, my friend’s, is what a missions trip is all about.¨

Thanks for serving with us Jesse!

Our Next Possible Steps… pt 4

genesisconstruction — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:54:59 +0000

The last family is a sort of mix of several families. The house would be for an elderly lady named Doña Felipa de Carmen who as Maximo has said, is sort of the ¨grandmother of everyone¨. Doña Carmen has many children and is constantly caring and providing for them when their parents, her children cannot. She is about to start a used clothes shop in Jazmin where she can make enough money to support herself and care for others. When we showed up to visit, three of her grandchildren were showering together, but they didnt have enough soap to go around. ¨someone took it all¨ claimed one of the children. Her house, while larger than usual, is still dirty, shaky and inadequate.

Our Next Possible Steps… pt. 3

genesisconstruction — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:57:22 +0000

The third family is a couple named Iris and Lauriano. They live with their five kids in a disjointed, messy house. We do not know if the kids are school or not. Lauriano works whenever he can but does not have an very steady job, so income fluxuates and resources are, as usual, very scarce.

Our Next Possible Steps… pt. 2

genesisconstruction — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:57:10 +0000

The second family belonds to a woman named Maria Lopez, another single lady, who, having worked for over about 15 years in a center filling out registries and forms, recently lost her job and has been unable to replace it. She supports her two children, both in their teens and both studying. In addition to problems with the rain, she also suffers from a lack of security and has had several items stolen from her house when she has left her house to search for work. In order to be able to continue searching for work, she has had to pay a neighbor to watch her house against thieves.