Cleanup has just about been finished in all the towns south of Ensenada. Of course there are those that lost everything and will never be

en able to just clean up and move on. The larger issue that we are seeing now is a lack of work. The flooding happened about a month ago now and since that time there has been little work in the fields. This lack of work will continue for at least another month, maybe more, as we wait for the tomatoes to be ready for picking. A two month period without work for people who live week to week on what they make in the fields is devastating. We've heard many stories of people who have had to run up huge bills in the stores just to buy food on credit. Not to mention those who have lost everything trying to replace beds or clothes or furniture with little to no income. The floods seems to be over but the damage that they left goes far beyond wet houses and muddy roads.

Baja Missions, thanks to your donations, has been buying food in 100 lb. bags and distributing that food to the preachers in the congregations that were most affected by the floods. Immediately after the flooding the churches became places where those in the community could come to get a warm mean. Now that the majority of people are back in their homes, the preachers have been dividing up the food into food sets and taking those sets to members of the church as well as members of the community that are in need. Currently, Baja Missions is sending bags of rice, beans, flour, boxes of oil, and cartons of milk weekly to the congregations.

The relief trip that was here from Feb 6th-13th did an amazing job to help get the cleanup process started in many of the towns from San Vicente south. We had groups in San Vicente, Colonet, Camalu, Vicente Guerrero, and San Quintin. Each group's tasks for the week looked very different according to the needs that they encountered in each place. Over the course of the week over forty homes had repairs to their roofs or completely new roofs put on due to the damage from the storm. Repairs were done to classrooms in San Quintin where water had gotten in and destroyed the drywall. In Camalu, awnings were installed over the doors of the church to prevent rain from entering. Many houses in Colonet were cleaned out for the first time two weeks after the flood. The church in Colonet was restored to it's preflood conditions. Countless food sets were made up and passed out in every church. Blankets were handed out as well as mattresses and other furniture items for families who lost everything. The groups did a great job of working together where ever help was needed. All of the groups made trips to Colonet, where flooding was the worst, at some point during the week to help re-roof homes or to muck out houses that hadn't been touched in over two weeks. Everyone was busy from the time they arrived to Ensenada on Saturday night until they got on the bus to head home at 5am on Saturday morning.

After sitting down and looking at everything that was accomplished I can say, without a doubt, that the most important and thing that was done during the week that the relief team was here is not included in that list. Roofs will start to leak again at some point, paint will fade, the blankets will get holes in them, and the food will run out, but the support and love that the group was able to show to our brothers and sisters, as well as members of the community, will not soon be forgotten. I wish I could tell all of the stories and put on here every person that said thank you for coming or thanks for your support. Thank you to everyone who sacrificed to come on the the relief trip, you really made a difference! Thank you to everyone who has helped with prayers or donations I hope one day you will be able to see fully how much you have helped and are continuing to help in this recovery process.