For the following nine months, the youth, parents, and chaperones worked to raise the money for this mission trip.  With the help of the congregation, over $7,000 ware raised in order to fund the trip. 

On Friday, July 9, 2004, the group of 8 youth and 3 adults, prayed with their, Pastor Chris Bushre, and their parents, and  pulled out of the parking lot at 6:30am.  It would take two days to travel south to the border.  Along the way, we made stops in Okalahoma City, OK, to pay our respects to the victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing that occurred in 1995; we stopped at the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere in Groom, TX along I-40, and we stayed our first night in Amarillo, TX, where we met up with 2 churches from St. Louis, whom we spent the rest of the week with in Mexico.  On Saturday, the group from Amarillo traveled to Las Cruces, NM, where we met up with the last two churches from Arizona and California.  As a group, all 97 participants traveled to White Sands National Monument, where we played and had a communion worship service together on the sand dunes. 

On Sunday, July 10, everyone worshipped together at Mission Lutheran Church in Las Cruces, NM.  From there, we participated in some group building, and then traveled south to El Paso, TX.  In El Paso, we had dinner, adults went and bought the food we would need in Mexico, and around 6:00pm, we headed across the border into Juarez, Mexico.  In Juarez, everyone stayed together at Rose of Sharon church.  That became our home for the week. 

On Monday, we began building the homes with Casas por Cristo (Houses because of Christ).  In all, we built four homes for four families.  The houses went up and were finished in 3 ½ days.  On Monday, we laid the foundation, built the walls, and some groups even began black- boarding the walls.  On Tuesday, the walls went up, the roof was built, the black-board was finished, and the chicken wire went on.  Wednesday, the chicken wire was finished, the roof went on, the electrical wiring was run through the house, the dry wall was begun, and some even began stucco this day.  By Thursday morning, it was stucco time for most, painting for some, and finishing up loose ends with dry-wall, roofs, electric, etc. 

By 1:00pm that afternoon, we were able to have the “Handing over of the Keys” ceremony, where we give the family the keys to their new home and a new Bible.  There were many tears of joy and thankfulness, and much praise was given to Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the work He did through us.

Once the work was done, we were able to check out a little more of the Mexican culture as we shopped at the Mexican Market.  We all were able to barter for our souvenirs and then go back to get ready to head home. 

On our way back to Nebraska, we stopped in Denver, CO to get a shower (which we hadn’t had all week) and to “play” a little.  On Saturday, July 17, we were able to go White Water Rafting out of Fort Collins, CO.

On Sunday, July 18, 2004, the group from St. John’s traveled back home, changed forever from this experience.  We all were stretched and pulled out of comfort zones, and through this trip, the Lord grew us through His Grace into better servants and faithful leaders for Him, to work for His good and glory.