Feb

DR missions trip-day 4

carolyn on February 17th, 2011

Larry assessing the task before him before he starts laying block

Day 4 Wednesday

What an incredibly productive (and tiring) day we had today! The last verse for our morning devotions was Romans 12:11 “Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.” What fun to be on a team where everyone takes that to heart and enjoys working hard!

Half of our team started putting up the retaining wall on top of the footing we laid yesterday in the trench. In order to accomplish that task, we pushed 300 block, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow full over to the work site, mixed thousands of pounds of concrete and moved it to the site with our trusty wheelbarrows, passed the concrete down to people laying block in the trench bucket by bucket and those people set the block. Each hole in each cement block was filled with concret to make the retaining wall sturdier, which quadrupled the amount of mortar we used on this wall compared to the wall we built yesterday and Monday. By the end of the day, the wall was

Vernon happily pushing one of many loads of concrete!

about 6 feet high and 60 feet long, which took about 300 block.

Another group of us worked on a bond beam. We had to take cold chisels and hammers and tore off 8” of a concrete wall to save the existing rebar box that was inside of the concrete. This was a very slow process and took 6 hours in the hot sun to finish about 20 feet.

A third project we finished today was pouring concrete into seven vertical columns in the wall we built on Monday and Tuesday. This consisted of mixing concrete, wheelbarrowing it over to the work site and passing buckets of concrete to someone standing on top of the wall, who poured the concrete down the columns. The process took several hours this afternoon.

Rick serving enthusiastically

A highlight of the day was eating lunch with the kids at the school and joining them for the time of worship after lunch. Even though we couldn’t understand much of what they were saying, we enjoyed their enthusiasm and the seriousness with which they approached their prayer time. It was great to get to interact with them a bit.

Last night Emily, the Kids Alive Child Sponsor coordinator for Caraballo, spent the evening with us, sharing with us her story of how God called her to come to Caraballo and teach at the school. Then she shared with us how people can get involved in supporting the children in Caraballo on a long-term basis. For $35 a month, someone can sponsor a child, which, in Caraballo provides one good meal a day, supplementary education (the public schools only last half a day), spiritual instruction and mentors, de-worming medicine twice a year, vitamins, dental hygiene,

Al pushing the last brick to the retaining wall project. His wheelbarrow was full all the other times, he promises!

some clothes, and other items. What a great way to be generous and willing to share what God has given us. If you’d like to sponsor a child from Kids Alive, check out their Web site at kidsalive.org.

A big thanks to everyone who has been praying for us! So far, we’re all healthy, all sleeping well, all enjoying the food, and only have slight cuts and bruises, nothing that won’t heal in a day or two. May God bless you all!