Back Breaking Work!

Back Breaking Work

The construction of the mission house on the Rio Dulce River is taking shape. From mid-March thru the latter part of April four teams have been helping with the project, each team spending anywhere from one to two weeks. Three teams were Canadian and one was from New York. By the time we had gotten on the job the support post had already been set. What a feat it was with out the use of modern equipment. A platform was constructed on top of the post and 120 sandbags weighing 100 lbs each were loaded on the platform. The workers would then also get up on the platform and start jumping until the post would settle. The sandbags would then be unloaded, a new column formed and poured, and a few days later the sandbags and laborers would be loaded on the platform and a new post would go down. With the four teams we have completely poured the first floor consisting of 5000 square feet. We sifted the sand and wheel barrowed it with rock and cement mix into the building. After running the electrical and plumbing we became manual cement mixers. The walls are now about head high. The teams have all been incredible and unique. Many suffered from heat exhaustion and diarrhea during the stay but all bounced back to finish what they had started. The New York team consisted mainly of young women and was surprisingly impressive. They faced large spiders and roaches, coral snakes, and a pesky frog that was so large you could only pick it up with two hands, which one of the girls did and pretended to kiss it to bring forth a prince. They worked through the heat alongside the men with smiles on their faces all day.

Each team would also make a three to four hour boat trip to visit one or two villages on the river. They carried badly needed school supplies and according to the reception by the kids also badly needed candy. We worked on the corn grinder, put a new handle on the well, and discussed the upcoming project of expanding the school. On the most recent trip, our long time doctor friend, Dr. Gene, and his wife Arlene, would host a medical clinic for both villages before heading with me and the kids to tend to the sick in the mountains. Gene and Arlene are truly amazing individuals. For the past 11 years they have been with us helping the sick. At age 75 with most of his colleagues on the golf course he has found a better use of his time helping the sick in third world countries.

We have been here six weeks now running back and forth from the river to the mountains. Every trip up the mountain my truck is loaded with needed concrete, nails, food, medicine, and other assorted needed items. David and Alfredo, the caretakers of the mission, have done an exceptional job in our absence. They have bagged thousands of new coffee plants, continued work on a house for Alfredo and his family, prepared and planted numerous plots around the mission with a variety of experimental vegetables, repaired the green house, just to mention a few of the projects.

Pastor Manalo always has a great message and the church attendance has been good. It is a shame he will be leaving us in June. There is a two fold problem, his family does not want to be this isolated and his wife is a large woman and could not walk in this terrain. Please say a few prayers that God provides a good replacement.

Mixed in with the work, fellowship, worship and praise, we’ve jumped off water falls, swam through under water rock formations, caught a couple coral snakes, even ate one of them, surfed a few days in Salvador, and had a couple visits from Zacapa’s death squad. The death squad is Zacapa’s method of ridding itself of individuals that live in areas that are isolated and where there is no law present. It is an efficient way of purging the undesirables. The number and severity of complaints dictates how often the squad is dispatched. Nino and his sons were surely on that list. They are the very worst of the thieves and have stolen many times from the mission. The six assassins had taken a position above the house at night and fired nearly 500 shots through the aluminum roofing. They also dropped a grenade into the house but in their excitement hadn’t fully pulled the pin. Nino’s fifteen year old son took a bullet in the stomach. He was sporting a very nasty crooked scar where the doctors in Zacapa had experimented with opening him up. It was two weeks later when he was up in the mountain having Dr. Gene look at the wound.

The kids and I will be escorting Chelsea and Travis, my sister Rocky’s kids, up to Nebaj next week. We will be helping start 4 churches in 4 days. The elevation at the villages will range between 8,000 and 10,000 ft. This high altitude area of Guatemala is absolutely beautiful. I was there a year earlier with a few farmers from Pinalito getting lessons on growing ponytail palms from a missionary buddy of mine and one of his pastors. I can’t wait to share this part of Guatemala with my kids.