Helpful Suggestions for Your Time on the Mission Base

 

Make Yourself at Home!

While your here at the mission base, we want you to feel at home. From our viewpoint, it is yours for the week. The following suggestions are to help your group keep their environment clean for the week they’re here. We don't view the ministry base as a hotel, but a place for you to stay and minister from. Therefore, we post these guidelines as suggestions. We aren't going to police or check everything on the list. This is just a tool we provide to help you.

 

The following guidelines are what we normally go over with groups during part of their welcome meeting upon arriving at the mission base in Mexico. They are posted here so you can get a head start and understand more fully about your time here in Mexico.

 

The guidelines are not intended to take away from your time here, but just the opposite, add to it. We have found that groups get the most out of their trip by avoiding some potential problems. Some of the guidelines deal with your stay on the base, and safety while traveling to and from the base.

 

General Guidelines

• Please drive slowly entering and leaving the base, be careful of children and activity.

• Please drive carefully on highways, many in our area don’t know how to drive very well, and there are slow moving vehicles.

• Please don’t write on any walls, bunks, or furniture.

• Please keep the base clean by throwing all trash in trash cans.

• Please don’t play in gravel areas, play games, etc. in the sand areas of the base.

• Please, no smoking allowed at church, or around any Mexican (Mexican culture is very sensitive in this area).

• Please conserve electricity by shutting off any unnecessary lights, and shutting off lights upon leaving rooms (electricity cost about three times more than in the states).

• Please don’t climb over fences or go on other people’s property.

• Quiet on the base after 9:00pm, please.

• The main gate will be shut at 9:00pm (unless other arrangements have been made).

• Please take care of the base by not slamming doors, or abusing things.

• If something isn't working or gets broken, please report it.

 

Showers

• Please take short, military showers as we’re in a desert with little water. Get wet, shut off the water, soap and clean yourself, turn water back on and rinse. Please conserve as much water as you can as water is scarce.

• Please make sure showers are shut off when you’re done.

• Ladies can use plastic tubs for shaving their legs.

 

Bathrooms

• Please don’t put toilet paper or other items in the toilets. Put it in the trash can. Mexican sewers cannot handle toilet paper.

• If any toilets are leaking, or not working right, please let us know.

• Please make sure all water in sinks is shut off when finished.

• Please use your water bottle for brushing your teeth. Don’t drink water from taps.

 

Dorms

• Please take care of the foam cushions on the bunks. Don’t write on them, tear, or mistreat them.

• Please don’t hang clothes on curtain rods in your dorms, or trees. Hang them on the clotheslines.

• Please don’t sweep trash & junk from your dorm outside onto the patio. Dustpans are available for your use.

 

Kitchen

• Please don’t put food scraps down the sink. It doesn't have a garbage disposal.

• Please separate trash into burnable and non-burnable trash cans.

• Please save your aluminum pop cans separately (they can be recycled).

• Please put all food scraps in the scrap bucket. We'll tell you where to dump them.

• When washing dishes, you can add a little bleach to the water to purify it if you like. No need to boil the water.

 

Chores

• We provide some helpful chore ideas to help you spread the work around. The chores are located on the bulletin board by the kitchen. The leader, or someone appointed, can divide up the chores and rotate them as they see fit. By everyone doing a few chores, you can keep your environment clean and healthy.  

 

Health Concerns

• You’re in a desert climate, drink plenty of water.

• Take your water bottle with you at all times.

• Don’t drink water out of the taps; drinkable water is in the large water jugs.

• Please put caps back on the water jugs when done, this keeps them from getting dirty.

• Water jugs can be filled up at any store.

• Get plenty of rest.

• Eat healthy.

• Wear a hat.

• Put on sunblock.

• Wash your hands.