¡Hola, mis amigos! You may have noticed that I did not post a journal entry yesterday. That is because last night I was sick as a dog. I think it might have been a combination of the hard work and the vicious sun and the heat, plus jumping in the river to cool off afterward and then taking a rough truck ride to some orchards where we picked oranges. All of that combined to a knockout punch and I was down for the count. Jennifer (our guide and sister in Christ) told me that I ought to stay in her house where there is air conditioning, and our host family concurred. So that´s what I did. I was out by 9:30.
But it was only temporary. I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work. The work is not easy and the sun makes it even more difficult. Some of us choose to wear clothes from head to foot - jeans and long-sleeved T-shirts, gloves and hats and bandanas. This keeps the sun and the bugs off but it is also very hot. I´ve been wearing that plus an underarmour shirt which has been keeping me cool but obviously yesterday, not cool enough. We have enough water, to be sure. The church purchased a water cooler for us for $300 american, and though they have declined for us to pay them back for it, we may be able to pay half.
I don´t want to mince words here. For the most part, there is a lot of poverty here. However, what they lack in funds they make up for in love and hospitality. Our host family, Damian´s mother and wife offered to wash our clothes for us today because I wasn't feeling well yesterday. And that's what they did. And let's face it. When an American church family needs a new building they hire a contractor and an architect and a builder, much like our church did when it burned down in 2003. Yet here is a church, the entire body coming out to build the building - the men working on the building itself and the women coming together to provide us food at the end of the day. I am humbled by their riches. We could learn a thing or two abou how the Body of Christ is supposed to work together.
Yesterday we tied rebar on the roof and cleaned up the mezzanine, dug some trenches and cut bamboo for support beams (temporary). Today we pulled wire rebar out of a roll and cut it into lenths for the roof, finished digging the trench for the back walkway and moved a bunch of dirt to backfill a few areas in the sanctuary. Tomorrow they are pouring the roof! This is phase two of the roof and one more phase will complete it. This part is going over the balcony (it's a really big church, maybe as big as the sanctuary at PUMC) and phase 3 will be a few years in the future when they get the funds for it.
Hey, we brought down over 110,000 pesos! That pushed them over their goal of just 75,000. They thought they would not be able to complete the roof but they had faith in God and forged ahead. And God met their needs and answered their prayers! ¡Dios es bueno, todos las tempos!
We have seen so many of God's blessings down here it is just amazing. Tomorrow night we're going to help with the roof but in a limited capacity. They won't let us carry the concrete because it has lime in it and it burns the skin when it gets on you. Last time they poured a roof one of the men who lives here, who does this for a living, spilled some on his face and was out three days for work. That's major. So they won't let even the bigger guys carry the cement up to the roof.
Yes, carry it up to the roof. They mix it on the ground, pour it into buckets and carry it up to the roof which is over the second story. The buckets of mixed cement are about 50 lbs each. It's a lot of work especially for pouring a roof. But the men of the church do it with gladness.
Alright this internet connection costs money so ¡Adios, amigos! ¡Hasta mañana!
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