As I write this, we are just drying out from a lot of rain and flooding that hit our area. Several inches of rain fell in the course of a three day storm that hovered over El Paso and Juarez. Normally we get around 4 to 7 inches of rain a year, but in this storm we got 3 to 5 inches in less than a week. For this semi-arid part of the country, that much rain means major flooding.
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View from the van — water completely floods the streets
near our Las Alitas ministry center.
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One of the locations hardest hit was on the eastside of Juarez where our ministry center called Las Alitas is. Our team almost didn’t make it back on day 2 of the storm (see picture at right). When they returned a few days later, many of the homes, which are built of odd assortments of cinder block, wooden pallets and cardboard, were heavily damaged. Sinkholes had opened up in the saturated ground, sometimes running right through someone’s living quarters, since the houses are constructed on the dirt with no foundation poured underneath them.
Lupita, pictured here with her 3 girls, is a single mom whose home was one of the most damaged in the neighborhood. Right now we are working with a local hardware store nearby to supply the families with the materials they need to rebuild and repair their damaged houses and rooms. Everyone in the community is banding together and assisting those affected by the storm. With great enthusiasm and hope, and beautiful sunny weather that the Lord is providing, the reconstruction has already begun.