Last Day

We had a great time decompressing in Antigua on our last day here.  Please pray for us as tomorrow we make our way back to the States.


Also, here is a video of our trip!

Saying Goodbye

Today was our last day of working on Aminta's retaining wall.  We are so happy that after days of rain and the occasional setback, we are able to walk away with a wall standing behind us!  This morning we worked to finish pouring the columns and lay more rows of blocks.  Freddy, Aminta's brother who lives with her, got up and started working on it at 6am so we could finish today.  "I had work to do today a couple blocks from here but I figured it was more important to stay and finish the wall.

By Saturday, the concrete should be dry enough that they will be able to backfill the area between Aminta's house and the wall!  They will then put in another 3 layers to bring it to the level of the rest of the wall.  It has been such a blessing to be able to serve God and Aminta's family this week.  When we arrived at the site this morning, we also gave Aminta a basket of food and treats for her and her family.  She told us she was so grateful beyond words for all that we have done for her.

Will you come and help us finish the wall in January?  Contact servants now and reserve your spot!

Jon cutting blocks to size

Eric mixing cement

Lori adding more sand

Freddy loves candy too!

Katy playing with Dylan

Gene inspecting the plumb line

Katy reading the Action Bible with Katy

Missy saying goodbye to Katy

Freddy saying goodbye to Gene and Erik

Guatemalan enchiladas...smile!

The wall!

The Family!

2/3 finished!

Tonight we are praising God for His goodness and provision.  The day started out dreary, wet, and threatening.  Dylan called Patricio (the Guatemalan foreman guiding us in this project) and he said, "Come on down!  We will work in the rain today so we can get it done." We started laying blocks and even poured a part of the support columns.  Tomorrow morning we will continue our work by building up the rest of the wall and make it ready so in the afternoon Patricio and Aminta's brother can pour the rest of the columns and then backfill all the dirt.  Our work time finishes tomorrow at noon as we will be wrapping up from our trip here before decompressing with some tourist time in Antigua.

Please continue praying for good weather, safety, and a wall that will never move.

passing the blocks down into the trench

Patricio set the example

Outlook: Rainy with a possibility of concrete

The local dog supervising our work

Time to pour the first cross beam!

Katy looking fabulous in her improvised rain gear

Missy being loved by Aminta's girls

Lori clearing the way for us to pour the columns

Pouring the columns

Gene passed his concrete pouring certification test!

The Foundation

We got the foundation for the wall laid today!  This morning we had to shave about 6 inches more off of what we had done yesterday but by lunch time it was ready for concrete.  We had a little bit of a set back just before lunch, however.  There was a chunk of land on the side of where we have been digging that little by little had been cracking.  When we arrived this morning to continue, we noticed that the overnight rain had softened the ground and the crack worsened.  We cleared the dirt in the ditch and laid the rebar frame.  As soon as everyone climbed out of the ditch, the piece broke off and fell right where Eric had been standing just seconds earlier!

At first, we were a bit disheartened and disappointed that it happened because we felt like we had been digging forever and this was just a slap in the face, but God revealed to us the purpose of it falling.  If it hadn't fallen exactly when it did...

• The dirt could have fell on top of someone and buried them
• It could have caused someone to fall the 9 feet into the ditch, possibly a child
• It could have fallen while we were laying the foundation, causing us to have to do it all over again amidst wet cement
• It could have fallen while we are laying the blocks for the wall, causing the wall to fall over before it is finished
• We could have moved onto the next part of the project and made a huge mistake by not putting in the column frames!

Patricio, the Guatemalan who is guiding the project was at another job site this morning, so we were moving forward and since there was time before lunch, we were thinking about pushing to get the cement in with the hopes of starting to lay blocks in the afternoon.  Not only would we have forgotten the column forms (which we didn't know how to set up anyway), but we also would have gotten stuck working through lunch since it literally took us all afternoon to mix and lay the foundation.  God is good, even when it seems like everything is going wrong!

We enjoyed a truly blessed devotional time this evening together on the topic of prayer, where we felt that we all learned something crucial about what God calls us to as not only His disciples, but His children.  Thank you for your continued prayers and love as we continue to be obedient to what He has called us to do here this week.

Laying in the rebar form

Surveying the damage of the fallen soil

Katy enjoying time with Katy and Dylan

digging out the caved in dirt

Monkey Time!

Eric with Patricio, the contractor guiding our project

The Monkey Approves!

Eric adding water as Jon guards his back

Katy and Lori making rubber band bracelets with the kids

Aminta giving us a hand with the stones

Throwing the last of the concrete for the foundation!

Finally Digging!

Yesterday we finally got the opportunity to start digging!  God blessed us with a clear sunny day that helped dry all the dirt so we could safely dig without causing a landslide.  We had to cut away enough soil to lay the footer of the wall which we will be able to do today!  We feel as though we are racing against the clock because we now only have 2 days and a half left to put up the wall and backfill the dirt.  We know, however, that God is in control.

Gene surveying the task at hand

Some of the local boys came to help

Working on taking out stumps

All the ladies are doing the work and the guys are just watching!

Ramsis is getting his hands dirty

Photos and Fun

Today we had a great time getting to meet SARF families and eating at the infamous Pollo Campero for lunch!  The team that was here in July took professional pictures of the families we serve.  Today we got to bless the families by handing them out!

After a nice sermon about how we can better know Jesus and being challenged to express to others this week the richness of God's forgiveness, we handed out the pictures of the families that attend the church.  It was really neat to get to see their faces light up as they found their pictures on the tables.  Aminta's son, Jorge, whose 20th birthday was today, attended church for the very first time in his life!  We do not know exactly what motivated him to attend, but we will continue praying for his salvation and a strong relationship with the Lord.

After a scrumptious fried chicken lunch topped off with their delicious peanut butter blizzard, we went to Jon Mono's house to hand out the rest of the pictures.  This was a more relaxed experience than when we handed out photos at the church since we were able to spend a little more time with the families.  We handed out treats bags with toys, candy, and a little craft that a majority of the kids decided to do right away!  We played games, goofed around, and just spent some good quality time with the families.  They seemed blessed to have their pictures and they all plan on cherishing them for quite some time.  We even were able to take Maria an album of the pictures she requested of previous teams working on her new house.  Now, she said, all she has to do is move in!  We also blessed her by buying some sodas in glass bottles.

Today was rainy off and on and we have been a bit worried that we won't be able to finish our project as we had planned.  At the very least, we recognize that we were able to supply the materials for the family and neighbors to finish after we leave if it is unfinished.  During our team devotional time this evening we discussed the importance of following God's direction in all things, including this project.  We realized that there must be a bigger reason why it is raining even though we need it to not rain throughout the next week and we all agreed to put it all in God's hands and wait to see how He guides us throughout the rest of our trip.

Kathy, Lori, and Missy helping the Jimenez kids with their craft

Gene and Kathy putting the cross together with Melvin

Missy helping Apolonia's girls with the cross crafts

All done!

Gene and Silvia played a fun game of catch...

...while the others played a game that involved spinning a top and losing or gaining chips.

Kathy is trying the monkey face!

We are presenting the photo album to Maria

crazy ladies

You can't beat the real thing

Kathy got to spend a little time with Melvin!

Rebar, Rain, and Recovery

The hill was a bit tougher for us to descend and climb today as we worked our way to Aminta's house!  Since our "warm-up day" of moving all the materials down the hill, we have been working in preparation to dig our footer ditch and pour the foundation of the retaining wall.  Yesterday we assembled 4 rebar columns.  We were able to get a little more work done this morning before the rain clouds blew in during lunch.  We continued to prepare the rebar skeleton pieces of the retaining wall.  We cut and tied thick rebar for the base and also made little cement footings to hold it in place when we finally pour the concrete base.

In the afternoon the ladies went to the church's Celebrate Recovery for Women meeting and had a wonderful time!  We had craft time decorating personal journals they can use when they go through the small step study and we enjoyed cake for a snack!

The men attempted to go back to Aminta's house, but the rain prevented them from working.  We continue to pray for fair weather throughout the rest of the weekend so we can finally dig the 3 foot wide by 3 foot deep trench to lay in the reinforcement and finally fill it with concrete!  We learned that we have to make sure the soil is dry enough before we start digging because we could actually cause a landslide.

Tomorrow after church we will be handing out family photos that were taken by the last team.  We are looking forward to meeting more families served by the SARF ministry and hope to get to know them better.

We are becoming pros at tying together metal

assembling the footer frame

cement footings ala PVC

Katy and Katy!

Eric cutting rebar

Putting together column forms

Enjoying Dayana's baked chicken, rice, and stuffed squash

The reason we need to build a wall