February 6 – 26, 2022 SOWER Project #18 Gospel Rescue Mission, Tucson, AZ

We’re serving at the Womens Recovery Center located on Miracle Mile Road – perfect name for this location! Currently there are about 26 women and 10 or so children living here. They have been rescued by God’s grace! They have survived various challenging and destructive life styles and are now in various stages of recovery. We love the motto the staff have – to love them with Jesus and treat them with dignity and respect!

We are serving with two other couples this month, Tim & Cindy Klein and Craig & Karen Burrell. We’re sharing RV space in the parking lot – it works! Notice the shape of the buildings on the property – another reminder of the cross of Christ. There is much healing taking place on this campus!

First item on the list – The french doors on the Transition House needed to be replaced – the guys were able to remove the old doors without disturbing the stucco work on the exterior (how’s that for a plus!) The new door needed to be put in “backwards” so it would open to the outside. This added another challenge but we were succesful!

The first week the girls got to paint (surprise!) and help with some of the office work. They kept busy and cleaned everything as they went. Great job!

The H.S.Lopez Family Foundation Center of Opportunity!

One of the highlights of the project was getting a tour of the Center of Opportunity operated by Gospel Rescue Mission. A significant hotel in its’ day was purchased by the Lopez Family and sold to the Gospel Rescue Mission for $1. Since then the buildings and property has been in a constant state of refurbishing and remodeling – with a spirit of excellence. The vision is to provide opportunity to the homeless and broken in the Tucson area through various programs. The gospel is shared and the love of Jesus radiates throughout the staff and facility! We kept hearing that they strive to show dignity and respect to all guests no matter what background they come from. We had chills as we slowly toured the property and heard the stories of changed lives. Many of the staff used to be the “guests” and are now passing the love of Jesus on to others!

I think our work assignments were enjoyed and completed with a bit more heart in our work after learning how God was bringing HOPE to the lives of so many. More days of cleaning and painting in the administration areas. We worked as a team and made great progress! These weeks are going by so fast!

Each weekend, we’ve enjoyed worshipping at a variety of churches with our new friends and then going out to eat at some local cafe’s and even a food truck – serving the delicious Sonoran Hot Dogs! This is a Tucson exclusive: bacon wrapped fried hot dog with beans, and all the goodies – and a mild (hot!) pepper to go!

One of our SOWER highlights was meeting up with other SOWER friends and alumni at the Golden Corral – we shared and reminisced and learned a lot from each other at this mini-reunion!

The guys spent the last week serving at the Gospel Rescue Mission – Center Of Opportunity. We helped with the beginning install of a barber shop to help meet the needs of the men and families that are being cared for there. We also tracked electrical wiring (whew – that was a challenge!) and installed some new outdoor wiring for gate locks etc.

The ladies continued painting, cleaning, organizing, and building friendships with each other and several of the guests at the Womens Recovery Center.

…and just like that – three weeks of work were over! The time always seems to go so fast. Just like that helecopter’s spotlight is shining down from the sky, God has His eye and love directed toward this special ministry.

It was great to serve with Tim & Cindi Klein and Craig & Karen Burrell. We’re so thankful we’ve had this oportunity! We will remember the time, work, and fun we were able to accomplish here – this ministry will continue to be on our hearts and in our prayers..

AND … we are returning!

We’ll be here another month (March) serving with another SOWER couple. Wonder what fun and meaningful jobs we’ll be assigned. Check out our next blog for our next SOWER adventure!

January 31 – February 5, 2022 Arizona adventures with friends and family!

We’re feeling great after our extended rest during January. We’ve booked 8 different SOWER projects for the year and its time to get on the road and see what adventures God has “booked” for us!

Our first “re-direct” …we planned to leave on Wednesday to arrive in Tucson, AZ on Friday. But over the weeekend we received a major weather warning: “WINTER STORM EXPECTED TUES – WED”. It’s no fun driving in wind, cold, and snow, so we decided to hit the road on Monday morning. Thankful we can be so flexible!

We spent Monday night at a KOA Las Vegas, NM and Tuesday night at the Hatch, NM RV Park. Yea! – just down the street was the Hatch Chili Marketplace. We bought some famous Hatch Chilies! So good! Another short but fun adventure that we never planned – thanks again God!

So now we had a couple of extra days ahead of us before we were scheduled to be at our SOWER project in Tucson, AZ. We got in touch with Alan & Karen Johnson (cousins) who live in Cochise, AZ (see blog from April, 2020).

They said, “sure! come on over!” So for our next two extra nights we stayed at their property, “Chapel of the Rise” in Chochise, AZ. Beautiful country!

Dennis was able to help Alan finish the install of the last end wall of the new shop. This is a great new addition to their vision for their property. The next projects will be a new house and the chapel. I’m sure we’ll be back to help whenever, wherever we can!

We had a lot of great conversations, sharing meals together, and playing games in the evening. It was such a joy to spend time encouraging each other, sharing our experiences walking with the Lord, and learning how God is so active in blessing each of us. We serve a great God!

On our way out we saw orchards of pistachio and pecan trees. We also had to slow down to let a family of javalinas cross the road – what a surprise to see! We learned that these guys can be ferocious. We also learned that they cannot raise their heads so if you stand on a rock above their line of sight they can’t see you! Hmmm, I’m keeping that tip in my “back pocket”!

An adventure at the [outdoor / living] Desert Museum in Tucson

We took a drive outside of Tucson to the visit the Desert Museum. The drive to get there was full of beautiful sights. We’re amazed at the desert and cactus landscape – such a contrast from the pine trees and mountains that we’re familiar with. The sign mentioned that there are “islands of mountains in the desert sea”. That pretty much says it all! (FYI: This adventure took place while we were serving with SOWERS at the Gospel Rescue Mission).

We saw more wild life than we thought we would! The Mountain Cat and the Rattle snake were behind glass but the others were all there for us to see. We missed the Raptor Falcon Flight presentation: they fly free out over the desert and come back to the trainer while the crowd watches.

WOW! There are so many different types of cactus – who knew? We spent about 3 hours just walking the paths through this outdoor living museum. It was facinating to see and experience the variety and creativity of our creator God! We didn’t take pictures of everything but these are a brief sample of some of the things we saw.

It’s Super Bowl Weekend! …and valentines Day!

We enjoyed watching the game and just relaxing after church. Look at that amazing apple pie Lorree made for me for Valentines Day. She is a very special love and a great cook!

This is my Valentine! Lorree has been growing her hair for a few months – look at the french braid she can do! (People pay big bucks for a look like this!) Love it!

We enjoyed a face time visit with Mom and Kay later in the month. She is doing so well – she’ll be 94 next month, what a milestone in life! Talk about adventures, she sure has had an wonderful journey with the Lord all these years! We are blessed to have her praying for us during our adventures!