Monday was another day filled with activity
After breakfast and morning devo, we rode the bus to a nearby community to give out bags of food (rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc) that we had packed earlier. We searched for the poorest-appearing families, and tired to explain it was a gift from Iglesia de Christo. Frequently their response to “Dios est bueno” (“God is good”) was something in Spanish with “Amen” at the end.
We then drove to a community at the outskirts of Tegucigalpa to build a house and hold a medical clinic. This was rugged, mountainous terrain overlooking a valley with a river. The wood had been delivered as close as possible to the site, but we had to carry all the wood, tin for the roof, and our tools to the site. The building site was about a quarter mile away, up a steep slope covered with rocks and mud. Together with the elevation and warm, humid weather, this was a daunting task. Someone commented that if anyone tried to hire us to do this in the US we would say no way – you couldn’t pay me enough to do that! But we did accomplish it, with help from some of the Hondurans who saw us and pitched in to help.
While some of us were carrying the wood (which, by the way, is not kiln-dried and therefore is much heavier than in the US), part of our team started the house by setting the four corner posts 16 feet apart. The house went up relatively quickly even though we were hampered by sloppy mud that accumulated from water trickling into the site. By the end our feet and legs were covered with mud.
This was one of the most difficult sites we have had to build on, but when it was done it was very satisfying.
After we climbed back down the hill, we distributed bags of food to many of the families in the community.
The new homeowner was very thankful for the house; this alone is sufficient reward. However, on this day we received a surprise reward for our hard work: the restaurant where the new homeowner works was so impressed by what we had done that she invited our entire group (over 30 people) to her restaurant for a free meal. So we went straight there (despite being tired and dirty) and enjoyed a delicious meal of grilled meat, beans, and tortilla bread. This excellent Honduran meal tasted even better after a day of hard work!
We capped off our day with a devo lead by Dustin based on Matthew 25:40.
Other than a bat in one of the bedrooms, the rest of the night was uneventful.
