Se habla Espanol? Odessa group return to San Felipe

Even if you don’t speak Spanish, you can join us on a mission trip as we return to San Felipe in Baja California, Mexico. On November 7, 2015 a group of Odessans will depart Spokane and fly to San Diego, where we will rent a van and drive to Mexico. Rest assured, we will not be driving through the crime-ridden area of Tijuana. Instead we will drive through Mexicali to San Felipe, which sits on the east coast of Baja California.

The last time we went to San Felipe, we partnered with former Odessa resident John Gilbert, who heads up 99plus1 Ministries in San Felipe. John and his wife Bonnie have lived and served in Mexico for 18 years. We will be joining them again to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and work alongside them on some new projects. We plan to help with whatever their current construction project is, do some outreach similar to Vacation Bible School, and hopefully assist at the Casa de Fe or Sonshine Hacienda orphanage as well. We’ll also do some prayer walks and take oatmeal, powdered milk, small toys and Bibles around as we share the Gospel with the locals.

John and Bonnie Gilbert will be at Heritage Church on Sunday, August 3, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. to give a ministry update on current projects and a forecast on future ones. We’ll also have a potluck lunch meeting right after church for anyone interested in going on the mission trip, helping with funding and fundraisers, helping with preparations, or for information and prayer support. An added bonus will be the ability to meet Daniel and Carla Roldan who runs Dani’s Donuts and is on staff with 99+1 ministries overseeing the music and sports ministry teams in San Felipe.

We anticipate the trip will cost about $800 to $1000 per person for travel, food and accommodations. In addition, we will be raising funds for our VBS program and whatever construction materials that may need to be purchased. We will host several fundraisers from now until November 2015 to offset the costs. Our first fundraiser will be to bring back the popular harvest lunches. We will once again be offering sack lunches at a reasonable cost.

We will also have a beautiful quilt made by Sherie Heimbigner to raffle off in conjunction with a Deutshes Fest parking lot sale at Heritage Church. A “three-fer-Taco Thursday” in October, combined with a silent auction, is another event on the agenda. To obtain additional information about the mission trip, harvest lunches or the raffle, please contact Barb Schlimmer at 509-988-0377 or Pastor Jon at 509-988-7050.

The mission trip is open to anyone with a heart to serve, young or old. God will find a way to use you. Children ages eight and up are welcome to join us but must be accompanied by a parent. We have faith God will provide everything we need for the trip: emotional, physical, financial and spiritual. We hope you join us.