To do: finish the roof. CHECK.

OK we came down here to pour a roof and pour a roof we did today. If you have never seen people in Mexico pour a concrete roof it is a sight to behold. Here's the basic gist of it: You have four teams of people at each mixer (two mixers). One guy runs the mixer and pours two buckets of water in. One team supplies him with buckets of water. Another team fills and pours 5 buckets of stones into the mixer. Another team (two guys) carry 50 kilo (110 lbs) bags of cement on their heads (open) and pour them into the mixer, one bag per batch. The third and final team fill and pour two buckets of sand into the mixer. The mixer operator then determines when it's soup (about 30 seconds after everything is in) and then he dumps the batch on the ground. Here's where the fun really begins. Now you have a team of guys with shovels shovelling as fast as they can about 50 lbs of wet concrete into buckets which men hoist onto their shoulders and then basically run up a steep ramp to the roof, go to one end of the roof or the other and dump the load, then run back down for more.

On the roof you have two more teams of men who are trowelling the concrete as fast as the men are pouring it out, from each end of the roof to the middle, where they meet.

While all this is going on, we also have people down below filling pitchers of water and offering them to the men who are running up and down the ramp. I tell you, it was like watching angels ascending and descending on Jacob's ladder, and to this church that is exactly what they are. Because you see, each of these men is member of the church (la iglesia). They are not getting paid to work. They are working together to build a church building (un templo). In fact, not only are they volunteers, but they are losing a day's wage each for working on the church. By taking the day to work at the church they are not working at their regular jobs. They don't get salaries. They get about $10 a day. And today they lose 20% of their weekly income.

But they don't mind. They are doing God's work and they know it. They would rather do good work for God than do work to feed their family, at least for a day. They know that their hardship will be short-lived but their reward will be eternal. But it's not a matter of working to earn one's way into heaven. It's about choosing God over the world.

Damian, our host, introduced me to a man who he said was the president of their church (basically their lay leader). He shook my hand, then he hefted a 75 lb bucket of stones on his shoulder and poured them into the mixer.

If you have never seen the Body of Christ at work, today we saw it in full-blown action.

They could not have finished this part of the roof had it not been for the money we brought down to them, so if you are one of those who donated, the people of La Palmilla say, ¡Gracias! They have one more phase to the roof construction and the third phase is the biggest. The first phase was 250 square meters (about 2500 square feet) and covers the altar area. The second phase (today) was 270 square meters (about 2700 square feet) and covers the balcony and the rear of the sanctuary. The third phase will be about 350 square meters (3500 square feet) and cover the middle. It will be high and with no columns. The construction was planned in such a way that there will be no columns in the middle to block someone's view. In the end this church building will fit about 900 Mexicans for worship. That's very ambitious in a village with only about 1500 residents. Expecially since most of the village is still Catholic.

Tonight our praise team (Bret, Karlie, Sue, Jordan and Chris) will be performing english-language praise music and hymns for the church as a way of showing our gratitude for all the hospitality they've shown us. Being here makes me think of two Bible verses. The first is the widow's mite (Mark 12:41-44) where the rich people give of their abundance but the poor widow gives all she has, two pennies. The second is the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. Whatever you do for the least of these my brothers, you do for me. We have seen both of these scriptures in action time and time again. God is good, all the time. Y todo el tiempo, Dios es bueno.