Getting Our Hands Dirty
May 10
Once again I went out early in the morning to explore the city and to take pictures. I had two main goals this morning. First, I wanted to head back to the little plaza on the far side of town to catch the sunrise. Second, I wanted to get the picture of the door that Amber was asking about the night before.
We were leaving Antigua today, so I went back to the hotel to finish the last bit of packing. After breakfast we had about a 45-minute drive to get to the town of Santo Domingo Xenacoj where we would be working on a Rise students’ service project.
Several Rise students came together and planned their service projects to benefit one of their classmates, Elmer. Elmer’s mom is Sonya. His dad had to work so he wasn’t around this day. Elmer has two sisters, Jocelyn and Madelaine.
The mom was very grateful for the help we were giving to her family. Through an interpreter, she expressed her gratitude, saying that she has nothing to offer to thank us. She has nothing to repay us. But she knows that God will bless us for our efforts. She then cited the Bible verse about whatsoever you do for the least of God’s people that you do for God himself.
We broke into several groups. I volunteered to be on the crew focused on repairing the roof in two of the rooms. Another group focused on cleaning the house, sweeping down the walls and the ceiling. One person did some laundry by hand. Several people stained a window frame and a bench. Lastly, another group focused on hanging plastic on the ceiling of one of the rooms to keep water from the leaky roof from dripping into the room.
My group had two main objectives. First, we needed to replace several ceiling joists that were holding up the tin roof. The joists had started to rot and were on the verge of breaking apart. One of the joists had to be cut to fit in place. Unfortunately, the saw that was on hand was incredibly dull. One of the team members, Steve, asked the CoEd staff if there was a hardware store in town. If so, he was willing to buy a saw to donate to the project. Steve and the staff member went to look for a local hardware store. About 15 minutes later they came back with a saw. Apparently, down the street from Elmer’s house there was a construction supply store. They didn’t sell tools, but Steve and the staff member stopped in there anyway to ask if there was a hardware store in town. One of the workers at the supply store then offered to let them borrow a saw that the store had.
The "new" saw was better, but not by much. We made slow progress. Once we saw that we had made some decent progress, we tried to snap the remaining part by hitting the 2x4 beam on the ground. It snapped on the first try. Now that we had the right length, we were able to install it in the ceiling. While we were working on the joists, one of the CoEd staff members was on the roof removing the old, leaky tin roof. We handed up new corrugated steel sheets and he installed them.
Several Rise students came together and planned their service projects to benefit one of their classmates, Elmer. Elmer’s mom is Sonya. His dad had to work so he wasn’t around this day. Elmer has two sisters, Jocelyn and Madelaine.
The mom was very grateful for the help we were giving to her family. Through an interpreter, she expressed her gratitude, saying that she has nothing to offer to thank us. She has nothing to repay us. But she knows that God will bless us for our efforts. She then cited the Bible verse about whatsoever you do for the least of God’s people that you do for God himself.
We broke into several groups. I volunteered to be on the crew focused on repairing the roof in two of the rooms. Another group focused on cleaning the house, sweeping down the walls and the ceiling. One person did some laundry by hand. Several people stained a window frame and a bench. Lastly, another group focused on hanging plastic on the ceiling of one of the rooms to keep water from the leaky roof from dripping into the room.
My group had two main objectives. First, we needed to replace several ceiling joists that were holding up the tin roof. The joists had started to rot and were on the verge of breaking apart. One of the joists had to be cut to fit in place. Unfortunately, the saw that was on hand was incredibly dull. One of the team members, Steve, asked the CoEd staff if there was a hardware store in town. If so, he was willing to buy a saw to donate to the project. Steve and the staff member went to look for a local hardware store. About 15 minutes later they came back with a saw. Apparently, down the street from Elmer’s house there was a construction supply store. They didn’t sell tools, but Steve and the staff member stopped in there anyway to ask if there was a hardware store in town. One of the workers at the supply store then offered to let them borrow a saw that the store had.
The "new" saw was better, but not by much. We made slow progress. Once we saw that we had made some decent progress, we tried to snap the remaining part by hitting the 2x4 beam on the ground. It snapped on the first try. Now that we had the right length, we were able to install it in the ceiling. While we were working on the joists, one of the CoEd staff members was on the roof removing the old, leaky tin roof. We handed up new corrugated steel sheets and he installed them.
Once all the groups completed their tasks, we said our goodbyes then headed back to the shuttle vans. About 5 minutes after leaving the house, it started to rain. I would have liked to see the reactions of the family as they stood in their dry house while the rain came down outside. It had looked like it might rain for some time throughout the morning, but it held off until the roof repairs were completed. God’s timing was perfect.
From Xenacoj we drove to a neighboring town that has a school supported by CoEd. The school was closed for the day, but the principal was willing to open up the school building to allow the team to eat lunch there. We had a fried chicken boxed lunch that was very tasty.
Once we finished lunch, we started the two-hour drive to our final destination, Panajachel. The city is a hub for tourism in the area, as it is located on Lake Atitlan. This lake is often described as the most beautiful lake in the world. The lake is bordered by 3 volcanoes and numerous mountain ridges.
As we approached the city, the surrounding area was blanketed by a layer of fog and haze. One could hardly see across the lake at the surrounding mountains. The result was that seeing the lake at first was a bit anticlimactic.
From Xenacoj we drove to a neighboring town that has a school supported by CoEd. The school was closed for the day, but the principal was willing to open up the school building to allow the team to eat lunch there. We had a fried chicken boxed lunch that was very tasty.
Once we finished lunch, we started the two-hour drive to our final destination, Panajachel. The city is a hub for tourism in the area, as it is located on Lake Atitlan. This lake is often described as the most beautiful lake in the world. The lake is bordered by 3 volcanoes and numerous mountain ridges.
As we approached the city, the surrounding area was blanketed by a layer of fog and haze. One could hardly see across the lake at the surrounding mountains. The result was that seeing the lake at first was a bit anticlimactic.
Around dinner time, a strong rainstorm hit the area. Afterwards we held a short worship session under an outdoor shelter before calling it a night.
THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
During the long drive to Panajachel I was thinking about the day, and the words from Elmer’s mom at the service project came back to me. She had expressed how she had nothing to offer us to thank us for what we had done for her family. She was very humble and grateful. It occurred to me then, that she modeled perfectly well how we should approach God. We have nothing that we can offer God to repay Him for what He has done for us. We need to accept His gifts humbly and gratefully. Sonya set a perfect example for me.
THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
During the long drive to Panajachel I was thinking about the day, and the words from Elmer’s mom at the service project came back to me. She had expressed how she had nothing to offer us to thank us for what we had done for her family. She was very humble and grateful. It occurred to me then, that she modeled perfectly well how we should approach God. We have nothing that we can offer God to repay Him for what He has done for us. We need to accept His gifts humbly and gratefully. Sonya set a perfect example for me.