WHEN VISIONS BECOME A REALITY

Sometimes we stand in awe when we get to witness a vision turn into reality right before our eyes.  I will start with a quick review of how this vision came about.  About 50 years ago when I was just a small child, my dad had chickens running loose around the house.  He also had caged rabbits. We enjoyed many meals from the eggs, chickens, and rabbits.  One particular day my dad asked a young lady from across the dirt road if she would like to try out a special chicken recipe he had prepared.  She agreed and took some home.  She came back bragging about my father's chicken.  My father had lied to her.  It wasn't chicken, it was rabbit.  But he knew that she would never eat one of those cute little furry animals.  When he told her the truth she became furious. 
Not long after moving to this needy of City of Juarez, Mexico the Lord brought back that 50 year old experience.  The point being that if the young lady can be fooled into thinking that rabbit meat was chicken meat, then rabbit meat has to be as good, if not better tasting, than chicken meat.  The Lord wanted me to initiate a Chicken-Hare Project.  It would provide eggs, chicken and rabbit meat to the poorest of the poor.  Most importantly, it would also provide opportunity to share the gospel message with the people.  Oftentimes Jesus would share the gospel but He would feed the masses before they left.  This ministry would work the same way.  Food for the Spirit, food for the body. The Lord spoke to me about this at the end of 2011.  Then the Lord connected me with 2 engineers, who are husband and wife, who said that they wanted to help.  Octavio and Teresa asked an American ladder company here in the City of Juarez for materials.  The materials took a couple of months to show up.  In the meantime I asked the Lord where He wanted the Chicken-Hare Project started.  The Lord led me to Pastor Luis Garcia, whose church is in one of the poorest sections of Juarez.  Prior to that I had only met Pastor Luis once, and that was only for a couple of minutes.  I went to visit the Pastor after setting up a meeting via phone.  He took me to his tiny office so he could hear what I had come for.  But before he heard my story he wanted me to help him understand a dream that he had the previous night.  I am not Joseph or Daniel, I thought.  I don't have the gift to discern dreams, but I let him go on with the story of his dream.  He said his dream only involved one word, but it was an English word which he did not know.  He had the same dream several times.  He had asked his wife and she told him that I knew English and to just wait til I got there.  Pastor Luis found a piece of paper to write down the word and he shows it to me asking me what the English word meant.  The word was PROJECT.  I sat back on my chair, amazed, and with a knot in my throat.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing as the Pastor kept holding the word in front of me.   I told the Pastor what that PROJECT all about.  We prayed about the project, and left it in God's hands.
Three weeks ago we finally broke ground.  We made up the plans as we went.  We just kept asking God for guidance.  I kept making trips to El Paso to buy supplies because they are much cheaper there.  Sometimes I would get in a pinch and had to buy some things in Juarez.  The day we poured the concrete we were there 13 hours.  We worked into the night hoping to finish.  We used the headlights in my car to be able to see what we were doing.  Pastor Luis' wife, Sylvia, would prepare us lunch and sometimes dinner.  I kept her pantry stocked for this.  We had a lot of help.  Men without work volunteered to help.  Women wanted to help.  They were excited and wanted to be part of this blessing.  Kids wanted to help. 
We finally got to the point where we needed to build individual nest boxes for the chickens.  I didn't really know how I would do it.  One evening I was in bed and I asked the Lord for guidance in building the nest boxes and I went on to think about other things.  Suddenly the Lord shows me how to do the nest boxes.  He showed me 5 gallon bucked on its side.  Very simple and effective.  I shared that with the agricultural engineers and they were amazed at the simplicity and convenience of using 5 gallon buckets.  That day as I drove back to the church I asked the Lord where I was going to get  5 gallon buckets.  And there on the side of the road was a man who had them for sale.  He had exactly the number of buckets that I wanted.  Imagine that!! 

We finished the chicken and rabbit house, with an area for the chickens to wander around and scratch the dirt.  I still have to build individual cages for the rabbits.  Currently, I am waiting on the engineers to drive me an hour away from Juarez where they say we can start buying the animals at a very reasonable price.  Eventually we will need more materials and feed for the animals.  It would be an incredible blessing to carry these same plans to the hundreds and hundreds of poor churches and orphanages throughout the City of Juarez.  The bottom line is the souls that will be reached and blessed.
I stand back in delight.  I look at this project and realize how it once was just a thought, an idea, a dream...a vision. 
I thank my Lord, who is the only one who can turn the invisible into the visible.  He puts the thoughts in the heart of man, and He helps us every step of the way to make those dreams a REALITY.



Anyone desiring to help with this project and other projects in Juarez may send financial gifts to my address in El Paso.  If you need a statement for tax-deductions, please send your contributions to Covenant Fellowship listed below. 


Daniel Torres                                                                              Covenant Fellowship
11985 Pellicano                                                                           P.O. Box 8126
Ste. G, Box 169                                                                           Searcy, AR 72143
El Paso, Texas 79936
 d_torres53@yahoo.com