Wow… it’s finally Friday, and as usual, the farewell is bittersweet. We can’t wait to come home to our families, our spouses, and our children, but we are sorry to be leaving all our new friends and acquaintances.

Before we started our devotional we presented our thank you gift to the kitchen staff – earrings hand made by Edie Dunn. The ladies’ were very appreciative and expressed their thanks to us for an enjoyable week together.

Giving our thank you gift to the cooking crew

After breakfast and devotions we took a final group photo by one of the entrances. We took a few fun photos too – One especially with our very tall Bill Taylor, and our petite hostess, Celia. She played the part during the photos too! (click on them to see larger versions!)

Our final group photo!

Three Amigas

Celia has a 40-year-old special needs son named Coco. Though we didn’t get to talk with him much, due both to our language barrier as well as his disability, he was a delight to us all, always smiling when we would pass by and giving a wave of his hand.

Coco & Celia

At this point we are headed to the hotel in San Luis Potosi where we will spend the night and get on our flight in the morning. I’ll be working on our presentation for Sunday’s missions presentation, so this is probably our last blog posting, aside from the presentation which I’ll probably post.

Thank you everyone once again for your prayers, your financial support, and of course, your joint passion for helping spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the nations. It has been said there are three types of Christians: those who go, those who send, and those who disobey. It’s an honor to serve at a church who is obedient to the Great Commission, the Great Commandment, and who truly are, both local and abroad, Ambassadors of Christ.

In His Service, For His Glory!

Your 2011 Mexico Missions Team.

The last day of Hard Labor (at least, that’s what we’re telling ourselves!) We began our motions to unkink our achy-breaky bodies by moving the remaining belongings from the Lockamy abode across the street to Casa Maranatha so they will be safely stored while Eric and Ginger are both in the States for their furlough.

The most intimidating part of the exercise was moving a large, and very secure, safe from the property. It’s a steel, concrete lined monstrosity that took a bit of creative engineering to move across the street. I was sure the axle on the hand truck was going to give up the ghost, but it carried the safe all the way across the lawn, down and up several sidewalk and building ramps, and up a few stairs to its final resting place in one of the meeting rooms.

Moving a safe

Once the safe was safe and sound we moved a few boxes, a futon, a bed, and office furniture to a different safe room.

Transporting the Lockamy goodies

Riding In Style

After moving, we were somehow motivated to paint yet again, touching up all the spots we found had been missed, and doing some more yard work. It’s amazing how many spots you can miss when you are looking up into the sky while trying to paint a wire mesh. Just when you think you got it all, you come back later in the day and ask yourself “How’d we miss that?!?!” Bill and Dave took high kudos for the amazing amount of yard work they accomplished… the refuse pile just kept growing and growing all throughout the day!

The Pile Grows

Anthony worked the perimeter with a backpack Round-Up sprayer, of which about a half gallon went down his back from an undetermined leak.

After working the yard, painting and touching up, we ate lunch, cleaned up and showered, and did a little evangelizing. We started with the line of folks outside the property who were there to see the local witchdoctor. We handed out candy, our “Jesus Love Me” necklaces, and Spanish EvangeCube tracts. Overall, everyone was receptive (about 45) and the kids loved the necklaces, as well as all the ladies and many of the men! Anthony got to interact with one of the men there with his family, who spoke very good English, having spent many construction tours in the States, most notably, Harmony NC, just north of us!

Later, when we were walking the perimeter to look at the paint, we noticed that despite all the trash left on the street, none of the trash was ours so everyone kept their tracts. We did notice when we left the group earlier in the day that many of the folks were intently reading the tracts, which we were happy to see

Later in the evening, we went to the town square to continue our efforts. The ladies’ organized all our necklaces into an organized system by cleverly enlisting a broomstick and shower curtain! Earlier we found that the necklaces easily tangled themselves so there was a time that we were quite the spectacle when handing them out earlier in the day!

Jill detaingling the necklaces

Workin' the necklaces

We split up in pairs, with a crew organizing the necklaces, and others meeting wth the public. Children were easy to reach out to with our shiny “Jesus Loves Me” necklaces and the mothers were very appreciative.

Connie sharing some necklaces and tracts

Evangelism in Action

Detangling the second wave of necklaces

Connie Loading up! (Thanks, Laura!)

It was interesting that when we approached a person or family, they would assume we were a vendor trying to sell something, and would say “No, no…” but we would reply with “Gratis” (free!) and their eyes would go wide saying “Really?” We went through most of our inventory by the time things started slowing down in the square and there were no more people to hand our necklaces, candy, and tracts out to.

Anthony with some of the local children

We came home tired and satisfied, and finished off our day with “Three Milk Cake” and coffee. (Someone has to get us a recipe for that!)

"Tres Leches" (Three Milk) cake - a sweet end to a great day!

We are truly impressed at how much we have been getting done here at Casa Maranatha. Today was no exception. We got up as is our habit, had breakfast, then had our daily devotion led by Bill Taylor. After that, we continued in our labors.

Even though we had finished painting the wall panels around the perimeter, we had to do a little touch up, and we had to paint the doors that were installed yesterday. The doors were harder than the panels because you had not only the lines, but the nooks and crannies of every intersection of the steel piping within the doors. on a 10×20 square door that’s 190 intersections not counting the segments of pipe themselves! We figure we would have easily written a check to have them painted at time of manufacture (but that would be cheating).

Jill "On the Wall"

Connie Getting Every Available Nook & Cranny

Along with the painting team we had a “Campus Beautification Team” which continues to clean the campus grounds of trash, construction debris, old chain link fencing and fence posts, and dead limbs off trees. We also removed a number of trees and chopped many of them up with a chainsaw in pieces small enough to haul to the debris pile which would be removed from the grounds later.

Dave making a tree limb more manageable to carry

A bit of local wildlife

A bit of trivia about the wall:

• There are four thousand three hundred (4,300) of those stone blocks
• Whatever machine it was that cut those stones also cut holes in them similar to conder blocks. I want to see that drill bit!
• The stones were cut form a quarry in San Luis Potosi
• The stones were shipped on 2 double-long flatbed trailers. Think of an 18-wheeler carrying 2-flatbeds behind it… and double that!
• All 4,300 stones were unloaded by hand onto the grounds into 2 piles. By hand!
• It took 13 weeks to build the wall

One fun part of the day was I learned how to operate a chainsaw: something I had never done before. So early in the day I had satisfied my basic philosophical goal of learning something new every day. Now I want to buy me a chainsaw

After working all morning, grabbing lunch, working another 2 hours into the afternoon, we showered and took a trip to Camp Maranatha. We got to take 2 great group photos as well as tour the campus.

Camp Maranatha Dorms

Camp Maranatha Cafeteria

Anthony Ringing the Camp Bell

Anthony & Laura - That's a TREE!

Connie on a micro zip-line

Boys will be boys!

Bill blending with the local flora

Group shot!

Fun shot!

After touring Camp Maranatha we took a stop into town to do a little walking, shopping, and relaxing. Then we went back to Casa Maranatha for dinner and a good nights sleep!

Another Group Shot!

A moment of rest

Today we accomplished what yesterday seemed an impossible task – we painted the perimeter fence. In the morning, members of the crew picked up several sets of rollers and pole extensions. One crew used rollers to paint the interior screens of the panels – that was the most labor intensive part of the job yesterday and it would have NEVER happened without the rollers – we’re talking 100-to-1 time savings! The next crew painted the frames, and a followup crew painted the inside trim that rollers could not get to.

Connie getting the little details!

High & Low

Jill working on the lower trim

Laura knocking out the top trim

In the middle of the job, it rained – but only for about 45 minutes, and lightly at that. The bunch of us were quite satisfied to call it a day but Gang Boss Trent motivated us to get our tired selves back out there and finish things up. We’re quite glad we did, and we used the paint up just about to the last drop!

A professional crew was outside with us during the day attaching the new metal doors to their frames in the entranceways and driveways. The only door left to install is the large double doors at the front entrance. And all we have left to paint are the metal doors which were installed today.

The old "fence"

The New Fence

The New Back Fence

Also during the day some of us formed a “Campus Beautification Committee” to pick up refuse, picking trash, construction debris, and pieces of the temporary fencing that was discarded when the new wall was installed. We also had to hold a Mango Run – picking up all the fallen, split, and insect-infested mangoes that were on the property.

Dinner was pulled pork (BBQ) with assorted Mexican sauces, and tortillas. After dinner a group of us took a walk to the Plaza, and then a group of us went to the Lockamy abode to check our email, blog, etc.

Today we started getting down to business after our day of travel and a day of worship and rest / acclimation.

We started by breaking into several teams. One team moved and organized all the tools that were moved from Eric’s house and dumped into one of the large rooms of the house. By the time Jill and Laura were done they were organized as well as your local Lowes Hardware!

They got so much done, it was like there were six of them!

The second team, Trent, Anthony, and Bill, cleaned out the back room (getting rid of a nasty Wasp’s nest in the process) and rigging up a hanging storage system for shovels, axes, etc. The room would also be used for storage of larger items like a water tank and office furniture.

Wasps nest in the window

Aweome job, guys!

A third team went to the front of the property to bury a water line that was currently installed above-ground to patch a leak that was discovered a while back. Connie, Dave, and GJ took care of that.

Connecting the water pipe segments

Burying the water line

Anthony also sprayed exposed rebar in the perimeter wall to prevent them from rusting down into the stone blocks. Eventually, decorative concrete caps will be installed in top of each column and along the wall under the wire mesh panels, but until then, the paint should protect the rebar until the caps are installed.

Anthony Rustproofing the Rebar

Getting down to business

One of the big jobs we plan to accomplish (Lord willing!) is painting the wire panels in the perimeter fence. Because it rained in the beginning of the day we had to wait till the afternoon to start on that job. We have to sand the panels by hand to remove any rust, then wipe the panels down to remove the dust, then wrap the wall in plastic to protect against paint drips and splashes, and then, finally, paint the panel.

Sanding a panel

We are using an oil based paint so if it gets in your clothes, it’s permanent. The painting itself is quite an operation. We have someone on a ladder on each side painting the top. The inner ladder legs are on dirt and the outer ladder legs rest on concrete. Rest is relative since the concrete sidewalk tends to be uneven. Then two others are on each side painting the wire mesh. The people on the ladders get the mesh on the top that the people on the ground can’t reach. So you can have as many as six people working on a panel at a time.

Painting the panel

It took us 2 hours to do 2 panels. Reluctantly, we took a survey of the property and counted 38 panels. That would take us 36 hours of painting or over four eight-days nonstop, which we don’t have, especially with the weather planning on raining every day. We are going to change our “strategery” and see if a roller based system will work faster than continuing with brushes.

One much appreciated display of providence occurred today: in the middle of painting our first panel what appeared to be a large storm front was approaching us – look to the left, and you have clear skies – look to the right and you have solid grey storm clouds. Over a period of an hour or so, the clouds came just about over us, stopped, spun around, and went around us! Pretty cool!

After getting two panels painted (more or less) we closed up shop, and went home to shower and prepare for dinner.

Enjoying a Coke after a hard day! (Glass Bottle!)

Dinner was great! Right outside the house, on the street, there are two hamburger vendors. There is outdoor seating – on the street, so the inner folks sit with their back to the sidewalk and the outer folks site with their backs to traffic whizzing by! When we ordered our drinks, the waitress would run to the store next door, buy us drinks, and bring them to the table. The burgers were awesome! The buns were like thin flaky pancakes, and the burgers themselves, while they took up the whole perimeter of the bun, were as thin as a White Castle burger.

Hamburgers for dinner!

As luck (I know, providence) would have it, we ran into the Bonillas again! They were eating at the hamburger stand next to us! We accused them of being our gastronomic groupies, following us around to all the good eating joints!.Their little girl was playing with Eric and one of our other helpers, Obed, since she knew them, but was “playing shy” with us.

All in all, a great day, great fellowship, and an even greater appreciation of our Great God.

Evenings here in Mexico are interesting. All manner of noises, natural and man made, change their tenor and color as the night wears on.

In the morning we are greeted by the morning song of turtledoves. In the evening they are replaced with the intermittent chirp of the local frog, which sounds exactly like a home fire alarm telling you a battery is running low and you have to replace it. It brought back my recent memory of our home fire alarms going off at 2AM until I had replaced all their batteries.

As evening wears on you realize that the sound of silence… Is silent. As in it is no where to be found. The trucks, cars, and other nocturnal activities seem to go out of their way to make their presence known. The only consolation for Dave and myself in our room is that our room fan makes SO much noise it effectively acts as a white noise generator, and we can sleep peacefully to the constant drone of it’s motor. It begs the question: if it’s making that much noise already, how soon before it explodes?

I am reminded of the scene in The Blues Brothers where Jake spends the night in his brother Elroy’s apartment which is next to a subway line. After experiencing a minor earthquake when the first train passes, Jake asks “how often does that train come by?” and Elroy replies “So often you’ll never even notice.”

After Worship the team went to a restaurant to eat with the pastor of the church we were at. It was served family style, so we received a small bowl of soup, trays of guacamole and salsa with real thick tortilla chips, chicken and steak, and assorted sauces.

Midway through the meal, who should walk through the door but Juan-Carlos Bonilla, with his wife, Ruth, and their daughter. Juan-Carlos was the former Missions coordinator of World Witness (before Shelia Osborne). He had a speaking engagement at Camp Maranatha for a youth event, as well as a few other duties, so it was providential that we ran into each other.

After arriving last night and having a well appreciated night’s sleep, we started the day with breakfast, and went off to the church for Worship.

We got there a little early, so the sanctuary wasn’t open yet. We got to mingle with the missionary couple who came here and planted the church, Dale & Joann. (Read the Brochure about their ministry here: Page1 / Page2). Their story had a funny start – coming to faith “late in life” when they were 40 (hey, I just turned 40 and that’s not “late in life” to me!) the Lord laid on their heart to be missionaries. The Southern baptists told them they were “too old” and they had to begin their ministry elsewhere. It’s a shame when an organization takes that view. The Lord obviously had other plans for them

Worship was great – there is more singing than in your typical American church, and the music’s lyrics are in printed books, so you have a lot of songs, but no notes. I was able to sing along, but the meter and rhyme took 2-3 verses to “lock in”. Trying to sing, pronounce words in a foreign language, and stick to the beat is like reading your credit card number over the telephone while riding a bike between differently-spaced traffic cones when all you can do is look 2-feet in front of your tire.

The message preached was “The Generosity of the Grace of God” and even though it was in a foreign language, you can tell what the message and themes were – that’s the neat thing about Christian worship – it transcends language. One sad part was when there was a time of prayer for one of the deacons or elders there – their daughter, only in her 20′s, has colon cancer. That’s hard enough to beat in the US with access to great medicine. I can’t imagine going through it here, and so young. But indeed, they know of the generosity of the grace of God.

A bit of humor – Initially all of us were sitting in the same row. We weren’t uncomfortable or squeezed like sardines, but we did take up the whole row (and you know us Presbyterians like our space!) and time after time folks were telling us that there was “more room” in location x or y… Just to satisfy the need to satisfy us, we split up into 3 little groups

Worship has a sense of casual tolerance when it comes to the young children. Where Americans encourage silence during all parts of the service, we could notice that children wandered around, sometimes whispering or talking, while the adults paid attention to what was going on, whether it was prayer, the Scripture reading, or the sermon. The adults seemed to focus their energies on what was to be focused on rather than getting frazzled over things they can’t control – naturally jovial toddlers.

The church recently had Vacation Bible School so like us, they had the kids perform one of their songs the following Sunday, which was this Sunday. They had a boat prop set up, and they were fishing with nets, rowing, and having a great time.

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With the day coming to a close, Bill and I decided to take a walk into the town square. It’s literally… A square. Because the streets are so narrow we walked for blocks wondering if we were going in the right direction and finally, *pow*, we were at the corner of the square.

Unfortunately for us, everything was pretty much closed that time of night (did you catch the story about the lock?) so we will have to enjoy the local atmosphere, probably on Monday, since Sunday is pretty well observed as a day of rest, though I’m sure there will be some sights to see.

It’s interesting to observe the police presence – they are in tactical garb so when we past a group of officers getting ready for night patrol, it looked like a SWAT team getting briefed before a raid or something.

The square has a few gargantuan trees – one had a trunk so thick you could cut a road through it!

The church was closed, but it’s plaza-like entrance was open. There was a large statue of Pope John Paul II and a patron saint of Rio Verde. The entrance was trimmed straight up the wall with a gaggle of statues of saints of one sort or another. The steeple was impressive, as many Mexican church steeples are – four monumental church bells, and a clock tower. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clock tower on a steeple before, however.

Residential home design in Mexico has a few interesting features – some of them have a gate where you can open and pull your car into if you don’t want to park on the street. One house – a beautiful pastel with terra cotta on the roof, had room for two cars plus a generous walkway – certainly belongs to one of the well to do out here! Most of the homes have the door open to the street so as you walk past the house, you are able to look into many of the homes who have their front door open for ventilation, which can be a little disconcerting.

We got back to Casa Grande, and thankfully the door opened without a hitch