The first day of 2010 started at what seemed a very early hour--we woke up blurry eyed and tired due a sleepless night. As I’ve mentioned before Mexicans love very loud music and New Years Eve brought loud rhythmic, thumping music all night long and into the early morning hours. We could hear fireworks and gun fire throughout the long night.
James and Maria traveled to Villahermosa in the afternoon of December 31st and made the decision not to overnight there, but to return to Plan de Ayala after picking up Ben and Elizabeth. Unfortunately Elizabeth’s flight was again turned around (this time back towards Houston), but she eventually arrived safely in Villahermosa. The four weary travelers drove to our base camp in the dark night surrounded by fireworks, gunfire, and bon fires beside and even in the road. James felt a heavy load on his shoulders as he navigated the two hour trip to the La Fe church where we were fervently praying for their safe arrival. I breathed a prayer of gratitude when the van pulled into the courtyard around 1 a.m. on January 1st.
Our morning devotional, What are Your Fears?, seemed very appropriate after a nerve wrecking night. We continued our study of Matthew 14 by focusing on verses 22-27 as well as John 14:27. Comfort was found through Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with thee”.
James and Elizabeth stayed at camp on Friday to catch up on sleep. The participants building the church headed off for their second day on the job. The commute involved two vans—one rented by the team from Avis and a second van owned by a church elder whose services we hired for the entire trip.
The road to Peñitas was very slow going. It was filled with muddy, deep potholes and speed bumps. The vans, both with a chassis low to the ground and overfilled with people and gear, had to take the bumps and larger potholes from a sideways position. The driver would approach it at an angle and proceed first with one front wheel then slowly turning the opposite way for the second front wheel to make it over. The same was repeated for the back wheels.
For someone like me who gets motion sickness from repeated back and forth and up and down movements, the drive was miserable! I had to wear motion sickness wrist bands, chew ginger gum, and take a homeopathic anti-nausea medication. If someone asked me what I considered the “worst” part of the trip, this was the one thing that I would put in that category.
Work progressed nicely at the Peñitas church. The team was able to get multiple levels of blocks installed. After the team returned to the base camp, I heard one worker say with a smile and a chuckle: “I don’t know how many times I redid that one block. If it wasn’t done well they’d tell me to take it out and do it again!”. Building a block church was new to many of us and since the Bible says to “do everything unto the Lord” perfection (or as close to it as possible) was expected in all we did during the trip.
We had the opportunity to watch the Plan de Ayala lovingly prepare their sanctuary for Sabbath services. We were invited to worship with them for their Friday night services and then again for Sabbath. The Le Fe members are such loving people that we felt instantly at home with them.
We closed our evening with a devotional titled Do Your Assignment that focused on the Levite clans of the Kahathites and the Merari. The lesson was that every duty assigned by God has equal importance—even if it is a humble duty. As with all the other devotionals, we looked at how the lesson applied to our work on the mission team as well as how we could apply it to our Christian life when we returned home.
La Fe member preparing flowers for the sanctuary:
Doug laying first row of block on back wall of church:
Chad laying first row of block on one side of church:
Yves mixing mortar:
Second work day: 2 rows of block layed on
three sides of the church:
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