Wendell and Deb's Wonderful Wandering

If you have been wondering what the Brenneman's have been up since our last blog post, here is our February 2022 update. After finishing our Sower Project in Tucson, AZ we packed up our camper to head west to Yuma, AZ. Yuma will be our home away from home for the rest of our Winter 2022 adventures. We are "camping out" at the Villa Alameda RV Resort. We have wintered at this park for a number of years. Villa Alameda is an older privately owned RV park with a combination of permanent park model units and lots for campers. We were pleased to learn that the park was almost full of our friends from Canada and the US and once again very active(meaning the pool, park clubhouse and the shuffleboard courts are open). We immediately connected with friends from Minnesota and Wisconsin who are wintering in a neighboring RV Park.

Life at our winter home has become routine with a few high points. Deb is involved with the Villa Alameda (VA) sewers, making quilts and other sewing projects that are donated to several organizations in the neighborhood. Wendell goes to coffee early in the morning (6:00 am or earlier), then reads the Argus Leader online, prints the crossword puzzle, and enjoys a leisurely breakfast. On Monday, Wednesday and Fridays he plays shuffleboard, and then takes a 2 to 3 mile walk on the irrigation dyke behind the VA park.

We have several long-time friends in the Yuma area so we enjoy visiting with them also. I find many people return to a certain area or park mainly due to the friendships made early in their winter snow-bird experience.

A very important ministry we are involved with CASA la de Esperanza (Homes of Hope) works out of Yuma. Homes of Hope builds homes in San Luis, Mexico about 20 miles southwest of Yuma. We enjoy helping Curt and Kelly Van Ekeren, the leaders of Homes of Hope. They began the ministry over 13 years ago, and have built over 60 homes for the poor residents of San Luis. Many of these residents live in an area of San Luis set aside for the poor on the south side of San Luis, Mexico. Many of the mothers and fathers of these families cross over the border to San Luis, Arizona to work in the fields and farms surrounding Yuma, and the area towns. If they can't cross the border every day, they work in San Luis, Mexico's numerous manufacturing plants. These residents barely make $100 a week. They work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day and often only have enough funds to feed their families. Homes of Hope provides them with a safe, dry and often their first home without dirt floors!

So, one of the reasons for us to winter in Yuma is to help Homes of Hope whenever needed. Teams come down from the upper mid-west (South Dakota, Nebraska, etc) to build the homes after raising the funds to complete a house. Curt and his teams usually build one house a month. So one week each month is designated for the house build. Homes are built during the cooler months in this area, December through at the latest April. The teams will have anywhere from 10 to 15 workers. Curt augments the teams as needed with local San Luis, Mexico residents. This month the team was large enough that we were not needed to help build the house.

For more information on CASA de la Esperanza (Homes of Hope) view our website at Homes of Hope

We also work with a mission organization called Mission Jamaica. Mission Jamaica supports an orphanage up the mountain from Montego Bay, Jamaica. Over the years Mission Jamaica has made a huge impact on this orphanage for "social orphans". All the residents of the Westhaven Orphanage have some form of physical or emotional challenge. A good portion of the residents of Westhaven have family, parents or grand parents, etc. But the families can not take care of the residents, so they give them to the state or the orphanage to provide care and support.

On February 11th we flew to Jamaica to meet up with the CHAPS (Christ's Hands Around People in Service) team. The team is consisted of individuals from Sioux Falls, Windom, Minnesota, California and this year several individuals augmented our team with a couple from the Minneapolis area and one from Nashville, TN. The Mission Jamaica week is called a "vacation with a purpose". We work for three days at Westhaven or with Jamaica Abode (J'Abode). J'Abode builds homes in some of the area communities. This year the First Reformed Church sponsored a J'Abode build in Bounty Hall, Jamaica. Wendell worked three days on the build site, and Deb worked two days on the build and one day at Westhaven.

Mission Jamaica houses the teams at the Holiday Inn Resort in Montego Bay. This all-inclusive resort is on the beautiful water of Montego Bay. The team has daily devotions every evening with the sounds of the surf echoing in our ears, the smell of salt water in our noses as the beach is literally outside the half wall of the pavilion! On our three work days we meet early for breakfast in the large open air dining hall, pack our lunches for the day from the ample buffet. Bacon sandwiches are Wendell's favorite! Then the team splits up, half going to the J'Abode build and the other half up the mountain to Westhaven.

Our drivers are Jamaican and all have their PHD certification (Pot Hole Dodgers). Roads outside of Montego Bay are very, very, very rough! For a half hour or more we weave all over the road hanging tightly to the nearest handhold. We are grateful for their skillful driving skills, and have always arrived at the sites and back home safely.

What follows are some pictures from our Mission Jamaica week. We are grateful for safe airline travel, negative COVID tests and safe arrival back home. The pictures which follow give you some idea of our February activities to this date. Keep us in your prayers as we seek to serve our Lord! For more information on Mission Jamaica go to Mission Jamaica

Wendell and Deb

First stop Charleston, NC airport. Awaiting flight to Montego Bay

Sunday's view as we relaxed and prepared for the work week.

Lyle leads our evening devotions, with his portable piano!

Day one began with sizing up the job. The home owner had started building her house, we picked up the work with a few studs in place, and some rafters holding up half of the zinc roofing on the house.

One of the first tasks was to paint the siding, beige (Pawpaw) on one side and Jamaican yellow on the other.

Deb picks up the hammer!

Wendell, Tanya, Deb and Phil spent two days putting up siding.

Deb and the home owner Marlene

The team covered the walls with scripture passages, then knowing the second coat would cover them wrote all the passages in a book that was given to the owner. She was literally surrounded by prayers/scripture, God Word watches over her.

DAY TWO

Deb painting at Westhaven

Residents singing

Painting the new shed

New storage shed being painted

Back to Bounty Hall - Installing windows, you go ladies!

Tanya always with a paint brush in hand

Hand up the zinc roofing!

Day Three

A morning shower produced a double rainbow!

Marlene and Miss Murray

Miss Murray is the "Mother Teresa" of Jamaica caring for the forgotten and pour of Jamaican society

House ready for the concrete floor to be poured

Above bathroom plumbed and ready for concrete

Mixing concrete Jamaican style on the ground

Handing the buckets of concrete to Phil and Nassie

House blessings along with gifts of dishes, Jamaican colors comforters and household items

Laying hands on the house!

Enjoying some beach time!

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Wendell & Deb's Wanderings and Wondering

Welcome to Wendell and Deb's world! The very first "real" sermon I, Wendell, shared publicly was in a small Church in Maurice, Ia. That sermon used the scripture passage from John 13 where Jesus washes the feet of His disciples and demonstrates for them what I term the Servant mentality. After humbling himself in this act of love he states:

"Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them. You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." John 13: 12b -17 The Holy Bible, New International Version, Zondervan Bible Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996, p. 910

The concept of serving God by serving others has been the driving force behind our life of wandering the world! This blog tells the latest in our "Wanderings and Wondering" for our Lord Jesus Christ.

SERVANTS ON WHEELS EVER READY ASSIGNMENT

JANUARY 2022

Our SOWER work project this year has been at the Tucson, AZ Gospel Rescue Mission, Women's Recovery Center. The Center is a 9-to-12-month residential recovery facility for women seeking to return to a life of purpose and wholeness. Women, and sometimes their young children live in a safe environment as they go through a Christian focused life recovery program. They are mentored and taught life skills, worship together, live together and move from brokenness to wholeness.

We arrived at the Women's Recovery Center (WRC) on the 6th of January after a largely uneventful trip. Wendell was a little anxious early in the trip down (not unusual for him), just because we traded our Ford F350 for a new GMC AT4 3500 Sierra. The new truck only had 1800 miles on it when we left! It pulled our Sunnybrook 5th wheel camper nicely, and the weather was overall OK as long as we kept heading south!

We worked the past 3 weeks with another SOWER couple from Utah. Our homes on wheel, or "tiny house" as Deb refers to our camper, are parked in the parking lot of an old motel located on the famous Tucson Miracle Mile. Miricle Mile was where many of the movie stars of golden age of movies like John Wayne stayed as they filmed classic films of old. The Gospel Rescue Mission of Tucson purchased this old motel many years ago, and it now houses the WRC.

SOWERS come alongside their project hosts and do whatever is needed. Our hosts this month had mostly facility maintenance projects for us. The first days of our project we painted, cleaned and reinstalled ceiling vents for all the hallways of building 7 (classrooms, offices and dining hall). Deb and Linda then reorganized the "Linen trailer". They went through all the donated linen items, sorting, reorganizing and making new resident linen bundles of linen, towel and other linen items. Wendell and Lou spent several days installing a new door on and re-organizing the "maintenance trailer".

Deb and Linda then went through the food storage room, re-organizing and sorting the donated food items used by the Center to feed the residents and staff. Wendell and Lou spent a few days installing a new exterior door on the Transition House. The Transition House is a large home used by some of the women in their final recovery stage. They live in the house which is located just south of the recovery center on the same block while they work at their new community jobs, etc. After completing the door replacement, they spent some several days painting the closet and bathroom near the exterior door.

Wendell and Lou took an afternoon to repair several bicycles. The WRC has a number of men's, women's and children's bikes in various states of condition. They were able to swap parts from several

bikes to make a couple of functional bikes. Deb and Linda went back to painting! They were able to give the admin office areas a fresh coat of paint. Wendell and Lou spent several afternoons working to repair and replace damaged flagstone cap for the Center's front planters. Lou replaced the drapes on the Transition House French doors, after he and Wendell repaired the doors. Deb and Linda spent one morning cleaning the admin office/kitchen area.

Well that pretty much concludes our SOWER Project summary. We enjoyed worshiping with Lou and Linda several weeks at the Northminster Presbyterian Church. After worship one week we shared a brunch meal at Cheesecake Factory. Our evenings were cool with temps in the high 30's to mid 40's and the daytime temps in the high 60's to mid 70's! Much better temps here than back in Sioux Falls.

Following are some pictures showing the facility and work we accomplished the last three weeks. Thank you for sharing this journey as we felt your prayer support. We dedicate all our time and efforts to our Lord Jesus Christ. In His Name we serve!