Day 118 – Hauling Rocks up a Mountain

We broke ground on our house builds yesterday morning and the past two days have been spent as follows…  With such a big group, we split into two groups:  guys / girls.  While the girls stayed and put together the panels (walls) of the house in the church parking lot, the guys headed up to the shanti-town of Jasmine to haul materials up the mountain to the build site.  The materials included 100 cement pillars, one flat bed truck full of sand and one of gravel (carried up in 5-gallon buckets), and 200 2 x 4’s.  Once the materials were at the build site, the guys then proceed to dig 50 holes for the cement pillars.  (Though this doesn’t seem that difficult, the ground turns to clay after digging only six inches.)  After that, it was time to mix the gravel, sand, and cement…

Yesterday, we got off to a slow start and the rain chased us off the mountain early, but the guys still worked really hard.  Today, we started early and worked through the afternoon.  For the majority of these 12 young men, today was the hardest they have ever worked in their entire lives!  I am honored to have been a part of this day, especially since all this hard work is going to benefit a 53 year old woman and her family (husband and three adult boys) who are currently living in a tin shanti with a dirt floor and no running water.

Overall, I have been very impressed with the guys on my team.  Though they come from very affluent backgrounds, they have really been selfless and sacrificial these past few days.  This has been great as I have really been pushing the “Men Built for Others” philosophy on them and they have been very receptive.  Keep hope alive!

Last night, Bonnie and I gave our “God the Potter” presentation and tonight, we attended Jorge’s Tuesday Night service and had Tico Worship afterwards!  Man, I think Tico Worship is my favorite event every week…  Second only to Pork Chop night (Miriam makes the best pork chops in all the world – Sorry, Mom.  :)