Location:

N18°58’43.4172 W98°20’303972:

In San Bernardino Chalchihuapan, a small city roughly 23km from BAM-Center, the 4,000 inhabitants mostly live off the fruits of their agricultural efforts. Since the town is not connected to the city water pipeline, water is being supplied by trucks. “Centro Christiano – Dios es Rey”, a newly founded church currently constructing a building to house the church as well as create space to serve the community, partnered with BAM-Center to provide a proper water storage facility for their congregation to end their struggle with water contamination.

Initial Contact:

Centro Christiano “Dios es Rey”;

Person in charge:

Pastor Hector Guerrero. In charge of this site is Ignacio Ocotl Ponce.

Construction:

On Monday, January 12th, a missionary team of Georgia Tech students started construction side by side with foreman Juan, who was provided by the church. The site had been prepared and excavated the previous week, thus the laying of the foundation could be started immediately and was completed the same day. Starting Tuesday, the brick cistern itself was being built, strengthened by a tie beam of reinforced concrete every 3 meter of elevation. Upon completion of the walls and corners, the interior was skim-coated with plaster to prevent leakage. Construction went smoothly and progressed quickly and within five mere days, the final step of the project was completed on Friday, January 16th, when the team finalized the roof for the cistern, protecting it from outside contamination.

Measurements:

“Centro Christiano – Dios es Rey” is proud to now own a cistern, 2.44m in length and 3.27m in width (outside dimensions), reaching down 2.5m into the ground.

Aftermath:

The cistern in San Bernardino Chalchihuapan will provide water for the congregation of “Centro Christiano – Dios es Rey”, which currently consists of 50 people. However, since the church building itself is yet to be completed, the cistern is not fully in usage.

Ministry accomplished:

Throughout the construction process, we were able to connect with nonChristian foreman Juan, and could share the gospel and our testimonies on multiple occasions. In addition, we had a full week of opportunities to let our actions and our love toward God and each other speak for itself. Furthermore, BAM-Center is interested in supporting “Centro Christiano – Dios es Rey” in outreaches and in spreading God’s Word.

Prayer Requests:

The Youth Pastor of the church is a new believer in Christ himself. Youth Groups are up to age 25 or more if the young adults remain unmarried. However, there are three girls who are married under the age of 15. This is generally a major problem in the rural areas of Mexico. One of the two main causes for this is rape or sexual abuse leading to marriage to cover things up. The second reason is that many times, men will have multiple families leaving all of them void of a father figure. The young girls grow up with a need for love from a man and seek it out at a very young age. 6 The youth pastor is trying to change that culture while leading the youth group. Please pray for him as well as cultural change in this area.