From January 11, 2014, a team from 1st Presbyterian Church-Midland will be traveling to the Central American country of Belize, and working with The Word at Work ministry. This will be an opportunity to reach out and share the gospel with the people of Belize while working side-by-side with the local community and The Word at Work staff on a much-needed construction project.
Noche de Pelicula
As busy as things were on the construction site at the start of the day, they got even busier at miodafternoon. We were almost finished with the final set of framing, then cementing-in the cut-and-shaped rebar assemblies, and part of the day's crew continued on that task .. one of the most impressive feats I've seen all week was the cementing process today. You need lots of cement, and you need it quickly. We had two cement-mixing stations today, instead of one, and each of those stations was making two bags of cement at a time, instead of one.
And the bucket brigade that hauled the cement from the mixing stations to the scaffolding, then up the scaffolding to the frames on top of the walls? Wow! Team members and villagers both had a hand in that, and they were fast ... and they way they hoisted those loaded buckets of cement up the scaffolding? Again, wow!
Floors were swept and hosed. Building material were moved out of the way. Scaffolding was moved to take-up a new job for the evening - supporting the screen on which the movie would be projected. And large boards were laid over the areas of mud that our constant traffic (and near-constant rain) had created over the week.
Early in the evening, when the last of the cement had been poured, the mixing station (with an awning and work tables) was cleaned-up as well, and the women of El Progresso moved in, setting up the foods and drinks they would be selling that evening as a benefit for the church's building fund.
People began arriving, most on foot, some in trucks or orn motorcycles, and others who arrived on a bus sent to bring in guests from the village's outer reaches. The food booth was in full swing, with those ladies moving every bit as fast as the cement bucket brigade, earlier in the day. Under the tent, music videos were playing on the screen.
There was a speech of welcome, and a prayer. Then the screen lit-up once again, and I enjoyed my very first Spanish-language episode of "Veggie Tales." Following that was the main feature, "La Esperanza," a film that followed the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, combining Spanish-language commentary with scenes from the feature film, "Jesus of Nazareth."
Then it was time for us to say goodbye to our newfound friends ... this was one of the hardest parts of the evening ... these people who were completely unknown to us a week ago, are now 'friends' in every sense of the word, people with who we have shared work and worry, faith and fellowship, rice and beans, music and laughter.
Some of our team are already looking forward to seeing them again, someday
GOT QUESTIONS?
Is there something you'd like to ask any of our mission team members, or our pastor?
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