Hurrican Alex -- Monterrey Mexico

So if you are wondering were I have been for the past several days, I now have the chance to tell you. I have been fighting through a hurricane, getting sick because of one, and cleaning up after one. Hurricane Alex hit Monterrey, Mexico on Thursday July 1, 2010. By the time it hit Monterrey, Alex had actually been downgraded to a tropical storm. However, I have never seen a tropical storm bring so much rain in my entire life. Withing 36 hours Monterrey had received 40 inches of rain. This is not good at all for a city thats has the water retention of desert. Everything started to flood. The city lost one of its most major highways to the river. The downtown area has close to 20 ft. of rain in the streets. Almost all of the homes here on our campus have received some flood damage. The most catastrophic and depressing part of the storm was the people who lived in the poor Rio areas completely lost their homes and everything in them. There are about 20 estimated deaths so far. However, by the grace of God all of the Children's Homes were spared.

People searching for items to rebuild their homes with in the Rio 3. That river is normally dry.

The storm began on Wednesday....... We went out into the Rio areas and did what little prep work we could before the storm hit. After 4 hours of rain we had to make our way home, and within only 4 hours, we were driving through 4 feet of rain in some areas along the major highway.

The real storm began on Thursday. By late Thursday morning we were building trenches around campus trying to save the homes from the water. We were blowing holes through the walls surrounding our facility in order to relieve the water pressure building up on the other side and to let it escape out of our property.

These are some of the picture of the water runing through our property. It only got worst that night. Several of us stayed up all night long working on water control for the sake of the property and those staying in it. Several sink holes formed that night, some as deep as 5 feet.

Above are the picture of the two bridges that we have to cross in order to leave our property. We were at one point afraid the bridges would collapse and we would be stuck. There is about 5 feet of water rushing over the first one. Both of these are normally dry creek beds.

Above are two picture of the floods affect on the city. That river normally has little to no water in it. The road that was taken out is how we used to get to the airport. Now we have two go a roundabout way that takes an hour or longer.

For those of you that knew I was sick for a few days with a infection or something from the water, thank you for all your prayers for they have healed me.

We have so much to give thanks for done here even after this massive amounts of rain.

-- No drought this summer.

--The children's homes were spared by a miracle of God.

-- No lives lost among those that we serve.

--The people of Rio 3 were able to find physical and spiritual Shelter in the church.

--Several people in Rio 1 were spared and are now choosing to serve others in greater need.

--We have our health.

--We have our shelter.

--God is still sovereign and He is still the God of this city.

Please continue to pray for the people in the rio areas who have lost their homes. We have been running both clean water and food to those areas. Continue to pray for their safety, food, health, shelter, and clean water.

If you would like to donate to the flood relief through the ministry that I work with down here, you can do so by following the link.

http://www.back2backministries.org/index.php/internationalMinistry/story/96/international/

Oh hey its raining again....

Thank you for your continued prayers and Support,

Love,

Andrew Ryan Dixon

P.s. Here is a video showing some of the devastation in Monterrey..

It's pretty crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3rpPkIO1x4

p.s.s. Please pray.... Bonnie may be coming our way

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/gulf-of-mexico-faces-possible-tropical-storm-or-hurricane-named-bonnie/19541747?icid=main|welcome|dl1|link4|http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/gulf-of-mexico-faces-possible-tropical-storm-or-hurricane-named-bonnie/19541747&sms_ss=facebook