The first day of work on any mission trip is always an adventure, but today we arrived in the Arenas neighborhood of Choluteca with a little more uncertainty than usual. We had a smaller team by our standards --- only eight gringos, and two of those were rookies. Several of us had expressed our nervousness before we got here regarding how we were going to accomplish our usual work schedule with such a small group. Even last night after a long, successful day of travel, and an amazing and emotional devotion time, we were still expressing our concern. We did take some consolation in the fact that six of us had a combined 33 trips under our belt.
When we arrived at the site we got to meet the family for whom we would be building the house. Those of us with experience quickly went to work setting up the job site. Kevin and Philip, our rookies, went to work making mezcla with Jose, the hardest job on the worksite --- two young, strong backs. Soon it was time for one of our favorite moments on any trip, the laying and blessing of the cornerstone block. As we gathered around, Berta, the grandmother of the family lifted the first block over the rebar supports and slid it down to the foundation. She began joyfully thanking Jesus that she was going to finally get the house she had been awaiting since 2008 when she was put on the list. Kristen followed with a beautiful dedicatory prayer, and the work began in earnest.
What followed was one of the hottest days any of us have experienced in Honduras. Everyone worked diligently, but without the army of villagers we had helping last year and with the heat, we were flagging by mid-afternoon. Yet somehow at the end of the day, exhausted, and owing much to the steady guidance of Pastor G., our Honduran job foreman, and the prodigious block laying skills of Egla, our interpreter, we completed our goal of five courses of block laid, with one of the doors set.
As we gathered for devotion in the courtyard of the mission house after wolfing down a delicious dinner of Rosa’s beans, rice, tortillas, and plantains, several of the veterans reflected on our groundless concerns about being shorthanded, and thanked God for giving us just enough strength to achieve our goal for the day. But as Ginger Greene reminded us of Berta’s joy this morning, it occurred to us that the strength which God had supplied us today had been His answer to Berta’s prayers, not our own. We are humbled, moved, and so, so grateful to once again to be the instruments of our mighty God in this hot, dry, poor, beautiful country.
