His Place: January 8-18

The His Place team came down from Washington state again this year to do construction for ten days! It's been a busy month so far. This team arrived two days after the Cy-Fair ladies, so for a week we had two teams here at the same time! Thankfully, their activities didn't overlap!

This team did so much work on the new church facility! It's looking like a totally different place than it did when the month began! They spent a lot of time pouring concrete among other things. They poured several classroom floors as well as the ceilings/2nd floors over the library and the nursery! These are the first floors poured for the second story of the education wing! They began digging the foundations for the sidewalk and worked on the grey-water pit. They ran electrical wires for different rooms and hooked them up to the fuse boxes, and they began constructing the parking area for ministry vehicles! On top of that several of the ladies on the team spent their week cleaning and painting steel trusses that will eventually form the sanctuary roof!! What hard workers these folks are! They come every year just for construction and they always amaze us!

Finishing a newly-poured floor

Digging the sidewalk foundations

Constructing the parking area

Pouring the 1st second story floors

Working on the electrical

Working on the grey-water pit

But they didn't JUST work. They had fun too! These folks love to fellowship with the local church body. Just like we do with all teams that come down, they had the opportunity eat a meal in local homes, which they look forward to every year. And of course there was the annual Arrayanes church hang-out day. Their first Sunday here, their cooks, Judy and Yvonne, made taco soup, and we took it all to Arrayanes in the afternoon to hang out with the Arrayanes church. There was lots of soccer and frisbee-throwing, lots of visiting and getting to know one another more, and of course the delicious food provided by Judy and Yvonne. This was such a relaxing afternoon and a ton of fun, but it was a precious time for friends to be together once again!


Another fun thing we did with team was take them to a rodeo in Arrayanes. This year they came earlier than normal, so the were here during the annual town party in Arrayanes, which is January 15-16. During this time, the whole town of Arrayanes takes off from work and parties. The town roasts a pig and cow, they have bands come in and host dances, there are rodeos, and lots of drinking and having fun. So, we took the team to the rodeo on January 16, the main festival day. It was a lot of fun. I must admit I'm not a big fan of the rodeo, but we all had a really good time there watching the bull-riding and dancing horses and listening to the band (which was REALLY loud)!


Then on Friday afternoon, we took the team up to Mojocuautla to visit the town and to see where Jay and Faith are now living (since this is Jay and Faith's home church). The Cy-Fair ladies accompanied us on this trip as well. It was a very sweet time, and very eye-opening for many people. I know I had my eyes opened when I saw Jay and Faith's new house. I admire them so much for what they are doing now that they've moved up to the Cora village, and seeing their living conditions just makes it more real just how much courage and faith it is requiring of them to obey this call of the Lord's, not to mention how much prayer, support, and encouragement they need from us to keep walking forward in this. Wow!

Jay and Faith's house in Mojocautla

And then at the end of the week, the final fun activity was their annual taco night. For this meal, we take the whole team and all of the locals they choose to invite (which usually ends up being much of the Arrayanes church) to Pilas (the next town over) for tacos with our favorite taco vendor! He makes the meal specially for this team, and they always end up eating a sinful amount of tacos! This year I believe they finally passed the 1,000 tacos mark!!! Yowsers! But this night is always a ton of fun, and the air is always energized by just how much people are enjoying themselves. To top it off, the churro vendor was in town, so some of us went and bought churros as well for our dessert. What a way to end the week!

All in all it was a very enjoyable week of work, fellowship, and relational ministry! The Lord has blessed us immensely through this team, and we're looking forward to having them back again the next time they come!