About Us

Our Goal with Club Dust is:

To serve God's people as an expression of faith, as it says in James 1:27 - no if's, and's, or "someday" - Just Do It!

Club Dust/Mud members serve by taking the opportunity to build for families who are much worse off than ourselves. Regardless of who you are in your ordinary lives, the experience will be an adventure and can be life changing for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Club Dust is different than typical mission trips. Where else can you look forward to water balloons fights, barbecues, taco runs, swimming and making whirlpools, cozy bonfires and optional camping in the ranch horse pasture? During each trip, the people involved interact with each other in many environments, through morning bible talks and group discussions, singing & talent shows, busy meal times, and team projects on the building sites.

Continued contributions have allowed us to cover the cost of the building materials. They have enabled us to charge a very low $180.00 per person for the 4+ days at Club Dust. This includes transportation from San Diego Airport to work site and from the ranch each day, lodging, meals, and an authentic Club Dust T-shirt. We have a high return rate with our summer trips reaching 180+ participants. Club Dust winter trips average 130 people.

We hope that you too will catch our 'Vision' of spreading God's love by meeting the needs of his people in a tangible way. Not just by talking about it, but doing it, & having fun.

We challenge our participants to spilt off and lead their own adventures after joining us for several trips. When people follow their calling to start a new mission group it allows for new fellowships to form, run and serve in their own unique styles.

Please, explore the web site! There are easy links to our contacts, schedules, links, pictures & tales of lessons learned, both good and bad!

God Bless

Club Dust team

CLUB DUST INC

In 1980, Ray Meltvedt, and a group of his friends, to aid the poor of Northern Mexico, formed a Missions adventure organization called Club Dust. Club Dust participants serve through the opportunity of building homes and the donating of family essentials such as food, clothes and shoes . The following is an attempt to summarize the activities, and subsequent changes during, those years, of hands on giving down there, in a few paragraphs. Our website will provide additional insight as well. Ray also has a fun, 4 minute, video made by a friend and he would be happy to share. He can be contacted by email at ray@clubdust.org

August 2002, Club Dust became a fully independent nonprofit corporation. By incorporating we can now provide tax deductible documentation, of our own, for any contributions received. There is NO administrative overhead to any donations and the monies are given a receipt.

Various folks, some of whom have been involved over the years and some that are newcomers, donate the homes and donations. We encourage folks who fund a house to be personally involved to see the real fruit of their monies In addition, on one recent build, one leader shelled out $4000 of his own money for new shoes, a particular concern of his, particularly during the colder winter days. During these trips we will also give away food and clothing to the families living in the hills outside Tijuana. We try to keep our teams well fed, inevitably resulting in some overages, all of which are perishable go to an orphanage near where we bunk.

We have had more than 220 people for the last two summer builds and over 180 signed up for a past winter trip in Dec. Each person pays his/her own transportation to San Diego plus $180 for the trip of 4 days, to cover transportation from and to the San Diego airport, basic lodging in Mexico, and all meals along with a T-shirt from Club Dust! Rent extra buses/vans/flatbeds to move shoes, food etc. Historically, all food and water has been brought in from the US except for one dinner out or catered by a local Taquiera,in Tecate. On a recent trip, we found a source of purified water and purified ice locally and it proved to be as advertised.

We normally have a doctor or nurse on each trip. We have an emergency evacuation plan in event of serious injury and all of the leaders have walkie-talkies or cell phones to communicate. Over the years we have taken many thousands of people and built over 500 homes as we have continued to spin off smaller, regional groups. These are people who have come with us a few times already and are ready to start their own group. These groups still come and fund themselves from their local area. These include Malibu (CA), Covina (CA), Gilroy (CA), Annapolis (MD), Connecticut, Arizona, 2 groups from Washington State, and 2 groups from New York.

Integral to the ongoing existence of Club Dust is the determination of staying a small, hands-on efficient organization. We have negative overhead as Club Dust. Our website, mailings and checking accounts are all covered by the leadership team we have had in place for many years. Everyone pays his/her own way on each trip. Special pricing for shoes came thanks to Payless Shoes corporate. Club Dust’s goal is to always stay negative on overhead and to find new ways to provide for these underprivileged, but beautiful families in Mexico.

The cost of each HOME is approx. $4,356. The price includes the concrete pad and the entire package of materials including lumber, drywall, windows, doors and hardware, paint, composite shingle roofing and electrical (note: even though there is no electricity or running water on the sites today, eventually electricity will become available. Each home is provided with a light fixture and a dual outlet in each of the three rooms as well as a front door light fixture). The latrine cost is $600 for digging the 4 X 4 X 8 foot hole, lining the pit with bricks, concrete pad, venting, house, roofing and a fiberglass stool which sits on the pad. The house is 16' x 20' with another 160 square feet of living space created by the loft for the children. It really is quite a great house, which quickly becomes a home after we turn over the keys to the new owners after completion!!

The Club Dust teams also built sets of furniture consisting of a fully finished (sanded and lacquered) table and two benches each. This another great donation that helps furnish the new home.

Thanks for your interest and consideration. We hope you may find the simplicity and direct nature of this help to be as attractive as so many others have over the years. If you are able to join us on a trip then I know you will be attracted to the idea of giving safe, decent shelter to families that are on the very bottom edge of the economic ladder!! With your help we will keep building homes for the many years ahead.