Back From Mexico, Group Has Memories, Slideshow To Share

Sat., Sept. 23, 2000

Compiled By Jeannie Nordstrom

How many people do you know who would willingly live with 14 to 20 other people in a three-story, 1,400-square-foot building? Global Village Project knows of many who would be thrilled at the chance.

Global Village, based in Americaus, Ga., is the international division of Habitat for Humanity, a Christian organization that builds homes for those who wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Global sends about 200 teams a year to foreign countries.

One of the teams sent recently to Mexico City included 19 members from Kootenai County Presbyterian churches. It took them about a year to plan and raise the $30,000 needed for their trip.

Just four weeks before they left they found out they’d be sent to Mexico City to start tearing down a 36-foot by 22-foot dilapidated building so a new one eventually can be built in its place.

The group, excited to leave after the long wait, departed Aug. 5 with a teacher from Vancouver, British Columbia, to serve as a translator.

Once there, Kris and Rich Morrow of Coeur d’Alene, and the rest of the team settled into a nearby house owned by a Quaker group. Soon they started breaking cement into small pieces with sledgehammers. The pieces were put into plastic mesh cocoa sacks and hauled away by hand.

Mexico Mission 2000 team members were Rachael Robnett, Richard Clutter and his mother, Sally, Chris and Robert Turner, Kenneth Landon, Richard and Marilyn Bruce, Katharine Martinson, Martha and Kim Riley, Jeremy and Julie Morrow Kasner, Kristine and Richard Morrow, Amielya Bailey, Rebecca Thilo, Loretta Murphy and Linda Gable.

The team returned Aug. 13 with its work completed and memories to share.

A slide show of the trip and a potluck dinner will be held at 11:45 a.m today at the First Presbyterian Church, 521 Lakeside Ave., Coeur d’Alene.

Coeur d’Alene Bible Church Women’s Ministries will have a kick-off luncheon for its fall Thursday morning Bible study classes. The luncheon is at 11 a.m. today at the church, 5350 N. Fourth St. Bring a dish; beverages will be provided. Julie Hardy, the senior pastor’s wife, will be the guest speaker. Child care is not provided. Short classes offered for ladies include:

Spiritual Gifts - eight weeks from October to December; discover what gift God gave you.

Bad Girls of the Bible - eight weeks; a character study on the lives of nine “bad girls” and why they’re recorded in the Bible and how God can use them in our own lives.

Nehemiah - 10 weeks; how did God use him and how does it apply to us today.

A Heart Like His - 20 weeks; an in-depth study of God’s attributes.

The church also offers these six year-long studies: The Excellent Wife; Way of Agape; Experiencing God; People of Faith; Introduction to Bible Study; and Dispensations.

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