Hi all, Sorry for the delay. Been very busy lately, but here goes... 3am came early (pun intended) Tuesday morning as we twelve crawled out of our hammocks and sleeping bags. Before us stood two large piles of sand and in the church were mucho 110 lb. bags of concrete. First order of business, haul the concrete from the church to the sand piles. By this time many of the congregation's men showed up and the work progressed quickly. Bust them open and stir them up. It was still dark and I could feel the sweat start to pour. As soon as both piles were properly mixed (according to the misetro (sp), local man in charge), wheel barrels of gravel were dumped on top. Now it was time for the fun to begin. Mixing concrete on the ground has now become one of my least favorite jobs. Right behind handling 5 gallon buckets of concrete hand to hand. Would I do it again, you bet! But, I think I would physically prepare myself better for the next time ;-) Shovel and pick, shovel and pick...more water over here...mix and mix and mix. Ah, it's ready. What do you mean I have to pick up that bucket and hand it to the guy next to me. Oh boy, I may have gotten myself into something pretty deep here. Each of the twelve took turns on the bucket brigade to the roof while the others mixed and shoveled. Time sure did fly, but if you weren't paying attention you could catch a bucket of concrete in the side of the head. Gloves became worthless as they filled with concrete. And the buckets just kept coming. Soon it was light and we had exhausted the two piles of sand, gravel and concrete mix that we started with. Breakfast, yahoo a break... Dave and pastor Lucia had us and a group of the locals sit together (like in one of us and one of them). For some reason they seemed more skeptical about this then we were (maybe we smelled :-). Mmmmm scrambled eggs and chia leaves, fresh tortia's and fresh fruit. Sorry Duane, no tacos. Getting full was not a problem. Well the roof is two third's poured and we are out of sand (not really, it was across the street). Eiyee, shoveling sand on a full stomach is no fun. Got to get the job done before it gets really hot though. More sand, concrete and gravel...mix it up, mix it up, mix it up and shovel it into the buckets. What, that's the last of it! You mean were done on the roof. Alright!!! It's only 9:30am. Time for a nap :-) But wait, there's more concrete, what should we do with it? What, the church floor needs some. Ok, start an new bucket brigade. This time it was becoming fun and we cut up with the locals and the buckets went up and down like a roller coaster. Wow, we finished the concrete and the floor is done. Great, is it nap time yet? No, better get cleaned up. We look like concrete men with it all over our clothes and boots. Well Dave, it's not even lunch yet, what do we do? Build pews, no sweat after the concrete, just move my arms in front of me and put a drill in my hands. Start to get set up and the call for lunch arrives, a reprieve. More of the local finest. Some kind of chicken soup (I think) and tortias, rice and fruit. No tacos yet Duane! Back to the pews. Think of twelve guys, some with carpentry skills, other's whatabes (thats me), looking at (2) 8-1/2 x 11" sheets of paper which carry the instructions on what to do. How many inches was that...cut inside or out...router which boards...man this wood is hard. Our boards were 8 to 9+ feet in lenght of some of the hardest wood I've ever seen. Deeply brown colored and still green(?). Drill it and a deep brown sap would gurgle out the hole. Separated the pile into those for the seats and backs and those to be used for the uprights and supports. Got the first pew together in about 2 hours or so. We put it in the church and called the pastor in for a test drive. He had several of the men who had stuck around test it out. It didn't fit right. As I may of mentioned earlier, the Mayan people are of a short stature, average height under 5 feet. Well, back to the drawing board. Revise the plans and start anew in the morning. Now it was break time and what do we do, take a walk to the town square. In the center of the square is an old Catholic church. Dave had told us earlier that organized religion had been abolished in Mexico in 1917 at the end of their revolution. It was only in 1992 (?) that the country open it's doors to organized denominations to establish churches. Anyway the old church, which was without it's roof, was a beautiful piece of architecture. Twin bell towers, which still had their wooden spiral staircases, and one even had two small bells in it. The whole complex was surrounded by a wooden fence except for the walkway to the interior. Housed within the fence were pigs and chickens, what a contrast. It seemed that some group had been holding services in the alter area since it was painted and there were benches and a cloth covered alter. Climbed the bell towers and took pictures of everything I could. Helped one of our group buy a shirt from a local store. The little girl watching her younger brother as we spoke with the mother dropped him on the concrete floor. Right on his head. Boy did we feel bad, but we said a silent prayer for him. As we walked back we noticed a woman within a building working on a loom. One of our group was still interested in purchasing a hammock and set about the task of hagling a price. We came to find out that it was not for sale. The lady was making it for her family. They were very gracious as we had essentally barged into her home checking out her work. Pictures were taken and we took our leave. Back to the shelter of our abode. Dave had asked that we give a devotion at the evenings children's service and it was time to prepare. Had two tripods lashed together with a support beam on top. I was elected to give the devotion. The devotion is comprised of two buckets of water and two ropes. One rope is tied in a straight line to a bucket and tied to the overhead beam. It represents a person without Jesus who's life is spiraling downward. The rope is suppose to un-wind and come apart causing the bucket to crash to the ground. We had to help it along as it would not break on it's own. The other bucket is tied to the overhead pole using the rope bent in two. This represents a life given to Jesus and turned upward. The strenght of the rope doubled is all due to the relationship with Jesus. The place was packed and we weren't even in the old church. Pews had been set up in the area we had mixed concrete earlier in the day. People lined the walls and all the children were invited to sit close so they could watch and listen. We were allowed to lead a few songs and then gave the devotion. Ever try to say a thought then have to wait for it to be translated into two other languages. Not as easy as it sounds but definately worth every bit of the experience. Nancy gave the Spanish version and the Pastor gave the Mayan version. Man, this is fun. Just gets my blood a pumping just thinking about it. At the end of the service all the children were invited into the church if they wanted to receive a special present. Almost all came in. They sang a song or two and then were allowed to leave. Dave gave each of us special tracts and we lined up at the door. As the children left we handed out the tracts. What fun. Cameras came out and the children started to mob us for a photo. Gary got to the point were he would just set off his flash since he had taken so many pictures already. Smiles were big as amigos gathered into groups. These children wore us out :-) Dinner...don't remember what it was cause I was so high spiritually. Just know I ate and went to bed an tired and happy man. More to come soon...stay tuned! Bob "Two Forks" Triphahn Daniel Boone FCF Chapter So. Mo. District _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eat the hay & spit out the sticks! - A#1's mule" RTKB&G4JC! http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
