Short-term teams build a church in Mexico City

Three American churches sent short-term work groups to assist with the building project at the Northside Christian Church (Iglesia Cristiana del Norte) in Mexico City between September 26 and Oct. 31. As a result, there has been major advancement on the project as the Mexican-led church prepares to celebrate its 14^th anniversary.

The first work group came from the Tomoka Christian Church of Ormond Beach, Florida. Before they arrived, only a few partial walls and the main auditorium floor had been completed. The team went to work on the bathrooms, with the goal of pouring the floor. Due to the sheer amount of preparatory work that was needed, however, the floor-pouring had to be delayed. The team did get almost all of the prep work done for the bathroom floor, poured several columns and put in a retaining wall in the parking area. They also took down a tree that was in the way of the building’s new second floor.

The second work team came from Whitewater Christian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. They arrived just in time to finish the preparation for the bathroom floor and pour it. The team members also served in the homework and English clubs at the Eagles Church and laid sod at team members’ Casey and Terri Hancock’s home.

The third team, from Willamette Christian Church of West Linn, Oregon, cut and built supports for the wooden forms that would be used to pour the second floor. Some of these supports were 10 feet high. This complicated and time-consuming process also involved tying rebar to reinforce certain areas of the floor. The team also cut down 11 trees, cut and put up many plywood forms and painted the large metal columns.

A Mexican crew completed the actual pouring after the teams had to leave. It will be dry in about two weeks, and then the supports can be taken down. In the meantime, the crew is beginning lay the brick for the second-floor walls.

None of this would have been possible without the work of the tireless volunteers, according to CMF missionary Steve Carpenter. “None of our teams complained about anything,” he wrote. “And in fact, they kept asking me for more work to do when the job they were doing was done. But that’s the spirit of a team that’s here to serve.”

Northside Christian Church met in a home for many years before buying property for a building a couple years ago. They have been building it in phases with the help of short-term teams ever since. To see photos of the work progress please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/sknbcarp