God just threw us a curveball

So I haven't written in a while because there was really nothing to write about. I've been slowly buying everything I need to go down there, getting my intern information in the mail, looking for flights home for the summer, etc.

Well yesterday my life was thrown a little curveball. Around noon I was just going along my merry little way, waiting in line for some free Red Mango, when I got the call. It was from Janette, the intern manager from Casas, telling me that the intern program would be cancelled for the summer. Wait, What? Yup, definitely my first thought process. There just weren't enough teams signed up this year for us to have work when we got down there. This year around 150 teams signed up to come build. This is down from 200 last summer, and way down from 2007 when Casas was able to provide houses to over 400 families!

My first reaction was to cry, well more like have a complete breakdown. Then I said a short prayer to my father in heaven then picked up the phone again and made a call to my daddy. Through that conversation came questions, lots of questions... What am I gonna do this summer? What do I do with the money that's already been raised? Am I really trusting God in all of this? The answer to the last was was that initially I was not trusting God at all. Actually that's putting it lightly. I was angry at God. I was really really mad at Him. I was confused with how He made a spot for Juarez in my heart and He took away an opportunity where I would be able to show God's love through serving His people.

So as I'm sitting on campus having a pity party and wondering what God wants me to do this summer, it clicks. I am still being called to work with Casas this summer. However, it is not as an intern, it is as a team member. I knew that I have no other open doors in front of me right now; I turned down a camp counselor job to be an intern, I can't take classes with out it messing up my schedule later, if I go home I would just sit on the couch until I could hopefully find some job stocking shelves or waitressing. I already spent last summer working at a job that I HATED and I could spend another summer feeling worthless.

The plan begins.... sitting there in my state of confusion I check my e-mail and see I have a new message from Kevin, one of the other interns. he talked about how he wanted to make a team of us interns, raise money, and build houses all summer until we run out of money. Sounds crazy right? Yeah probably, but you know what? As Christians we are SUPPOSED to sound crazy to the world! We are not of this world and we should have an eternal mind set where we care more about people and showing them the love of Jesus than we care about people thinking that we are crazy. We serve a BIG God! A HUGE, GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS God who can do anything! We serve a God who can move mountains and stop the Jordan river dead in it's tracks and raise people from the dead! We definitely serve a God who can bring in $60,000 or so for a few 20-something-year-olds to spend their summer building houses for those in need!

The reality... as of this very second we have 3 interns who are on board for this plan and we need probably 2 more of us to join in for this to become a reality. Single houses cost $4,700 a piece to build and we are hoping to build them all summer long if this plan is carried though. We have the funds already to build 2 houses so the plan is to start with those two and hopefully have the money to continue once those are finished or just pack up and drive back home if we don't.  Bascially, I still don't have set plans this summer but things are starting to come together for me and the other interns to still go to Mexico.

Pray~ That first and foremost we listen to God's plan for our lives. That if it's in His plan, we are able to get enough people to have the man-power to build all summer. That God will provide money for project costs, housing, food, gas, and other expenses along the way. That we not do this in vain but keep God in the center of this whole process.