On Saturday we had another great day of work. Our plan was to finish putting the fence up, put concrete in the trenches at the bottom of the fence to keep kids and animals from crawling under it, continue building the garden, do a VBS, and finish some painting. So we had breakfast and headed out at 8:30 to get started. So as I'm trying to help get the fence pieces out of the church to start putting up, Tyler Steffy, one of our leaders, says hey Tyler you've done the concrete volcanoes before so you should go with this group and show them.... My hiding and blending in didn't work. So I go with 7 Americans and 4 Hondurans to start mixing concrete using a few shovels and 5 gallon buckets. You have to put a lot of rock and sand together, put a bag of cement on top, mix it all together and make this volcano looking thing so you can pour water inside it, then you start mixing it with shovels. After it's mixed you can fill up buckets and carry it to where you need it. We made 2 batches of concrete before I noticed our numbers were dwindling. By the time we were on the 4th batch it was just me and 4 Hondurans. It is hard work but it ended up being a load of fun because one of the Honduras, Edgar, could speak just enough english and I could speak just enough spanish to have a good time. I think by 4 O'clock there was the 5 of us plus a few other local men and 4 or 5 of the women taking our time as supplies ran out and joking a lot with each other. It's amazing how much fun you can have with people who you have limited communication with because of a language barrier but we definitely had a great time. We finished up the last batch around 4 which was good because it started raining by 4:30. The fence was completely up and the VBS went well.
Sunday we didn't really do a whole lot but what we did do was great. We worshiped with the congregation at Catacamas and it's always fun to be in a native church service. They are similar in ways and very different in ways. The order of worship is usually the same but you never know what extra things will happen like a lady breast feeding on the 5th row or a guy in the audience getting up and going up front to talk about how thankful he is for 5 minutes. As I was getting up to lead closing prayer the people of the congregation started standing up to ask for prayers for certain things and after 5 people had asked our translator looks at me and says, "Ok lets pray now, you got all that right". It took him a second of looking at my panicked face to remember, " Oh you have no clue what they just said". Even after he told me I couldn't remember some of the odd names but it was all good. After Church we had lunch and then left Catacamas for a 6 hour bus ride to Santa Ana where we were having dinner at a lady named Janet Hines house. I won't do the house justice if I attempt to say how nice it was so I'll just say it was a place I'd love to have. After dinner we went back to the mission house where we got the team settled in bc it was their first time up there. After room assignments were given out and we had devo we went to bed.
Monday was a pretty easy day. One group of 25 went to the Hospital, a group of 10 went to Nueve Oriental to work at the feeding center there. The group I went with, 11, went to work in the Kitchen and Daycare in Mololoa. As soon as I got off the bus Evelyn was hollering from the kitchen and then came down to give me a hug. 4 people stayed at the kitchen to help the ladies there and the rest of us went up to the daycare to play with the kids. So from 9:30 to 1 we were up there with the kids and helping with a few posters for the daycare that the ladies needed. I think I threw kids down the slide until my arms were ready to fall off. As usual the kids were a little shy at first but all you have to do is find the one in the crowd who is ready to play and once the others see he is having fun then it's go time. Once they had eaten lunch and gone down for their nap we helped create some poster boards for the ladies to use for teaching. Then we headed back down and caught the bus back to the mission house about 2:15. Once we got back we had a load of food to break down and bag up and that's what we just finished up. We were supposed to go to the Jesus statue for devo tonight but now it's raining so we'll see how that goes.
Catacamas was a nice place, really hot but the community we worked in was very grateful for everything we were doing. It's a new church and a new project but one that is already making a difference in that community. Hopefully we'll have a chance to go back there in the future and work with them again.
One other thing I love about coming here is seeing people that you've been able to create a relationship with over the last few years. Every time I see Evelyn she has a hundred questions to ask about how things are going and what I'm doing and I've always got questions for her because you grow to care about people even if you only see them a few times a year. Its a way of knowing that you are making a difference in someones life, encouraging them and showing them that you care enough to come down here and see them and work with them whenever you can, which isn't often enough. It isn't just about being a servant on a mission trip like it was the first year or two. You are now coming as a friend to see a friend, someone who you want to come see and help in any way you can. Just like with Bryan. I was with him earlier today and we just sat and talked for a while about things. He brought his daughter for us to see, Vienna who is a year and a half old. He couldn't wait to go get her from the house and bring her to show her off because we have transcended that American missionary to person who we are just here to serve food to and have created a relationship to where we now genuinely care about each other and what is going on in each others life. People ask me why I keep coming here and why don't I just stay home and work to make more money and that is the reason I don't. I can come and serve people I've never met, help them do things they can do for themselves but show them the love of Christ by taking our time and funds to help them and say hey we care about you and in the process make new friends just like we did in Catacamas. I can come and see friends that I care about. See what is going on in their lives which we do sometimes over email but to be here in person and serve them and serve alongside them encourages them. The personal relationships you build, whether on domestic missions or missions abroad, and the encouragement you can give is just as important as the houses we build and the food we give out. I couldn't imagine not spending part of my summer here. Yes the work is hard and the days are long but you see the poorest of the poor and hear stories that break your heart. You see adorable kids who you know live in one room houses/shacks and deserve better and you wish you could trade places with. But through everything bad and heartbreaking that we see, every dark and grim situation we encounter, there is a light burning bright in each of us knowing that every time we make a trip down here we are turning that darkness into light slowly but surely. We know that we are making a difference and ending not all but part of someone's suffering and to think that suffering will continue and increase if we were to stop coming and ignore the need here.....well that thought isn't even worth entertaining. However only God knows how long He wants us coming here and as long as He wants us here then I want to be here.
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