Day 2 continued

Our second home site is a little distance way in another colonea (maybe 2 miles as a crow flies… but 15 minutes by bus as the roads continued to degrade). This was site was not the original plan for our team, but God opened a different opportunity. Our second family includes the mother and father, along with six children. The family’s old home was a small building attached to an old shuttle bus. In these conditions, people cook using one burner stoves fueled by propane. Last week, the home of this family was destroyed in a propane explosion. The explosion destroyed the building, the bus, and killed the youngest child – a two year old girl. Two of the other children are still in the hospital, and the explosion has left visible wounds on at least one of the other children.



The family was not around when we first arrived. Either they or friends had cleared the site for us, rolled the bus away, and neatly stacked the debris to the side. We started building the home, and they arrived a little later. Their pain is very real – the loss of their child, the loss of all of their possessions and home, and the uncertainty of the health of two children in the hospital. The raw emotions of this loss were clearly seen on the faces of the children and parents when they arrived on the site. Pastor Valenti talked with the family for awhile, and we prayed for the family in English. Please pray for the family for healing, comfort in their mourning, and for them to understand the love that God has for them – even when these events do not make any sense.



The construction of both homes went well today. Task one was the floor, and using comment blocks as foundations, we leveled the blocks and created 2x6 sub floors.



Everyone swung a hammer and jumped in to help. Some folks were experienced enough to sink the nails efficiently. Some others on the team gained some valuable on the job training. Taylor worked at her nails... holding the hammer close to the head and tapping away with gusto! 100+ taps later the nail was in!



By the end of the day, both sites had completed the floor and framed out the walls. Some of the moments we enjoyed the most today included working along side the families. Both families eagerly jumped in to help. Our site 2 dad worked along side me and Jim sheathing the walls. We were were sweating and red in the face, he worked silently in a zipped up fleece jacket. Communication was difficult... but not just from the language barrier. The fresh loss of his daughter was heavy upon him. I am sure that we welcomed the chance to be doing tangible something for his family today.



After lunch, the teams walked through the coloneas handing out invitations to the children's Bible school tomorrow in the church. The people were very receptive to the invites. Back home, if you were to walk door to door and give out invitations to a Bible school, few would welcome the opportunity. Yet here, families seemed genuinely interested. Tomorrow is our first morning with the Bible school. We do not know how many kids will come. Pray for us to have enough supplies and space for the kids!

More tomorrow... what adventure does God have planned for us? We are not sure - but we will enjoy the ride.

God's Blessings-
-MJ