Dave Marble is part of my Florida church family and he had sponsored a build to honor the memory of his father. Dave had asked that all of his church family help with the build. (We usually have between 12-20 on a build.). He had also asked specifically that the build be in Mololoa . Dave had come on mission trips as a young man and his dad have given lots of support to that poor community.
We love Mololoa, but you never know what the site will be like. I had one build there where it was on top of the tallest mountain. We arrived and we could see one site from the bus, but it would be a fairly steep climb. The locals said the other was farther, but not as steep. We chose the closer, steeper one. I always wear my hiking shoes and try to take a post hole digger. Those help stabilize me when I have a hard climb.
If you look closely, you can see the bus where we started our trek.
Those who made it up first noticed right away it would be a difficult build. A great deal of earth would have to be removed from the side of the mountain to build and even then the house would have to be shorter. Although we didn't get the posts set till almost noon, we still got the whole thing done by around 3 pm. Not bad!!
Monday night we had a special treat in store. We got to travel to Santa Lucia, a very old Spanish colony about 30 minutes away. It is a beautiful little town with the oldest standing Catholic Church in the Western Hemisphere. (1500s) I have been gone in the past, but recently the priests haven't allowed us. The acoustics are great there and it is a cool place to sing praises to the LOrd.
Tuesday:
Today would be my last house build. This house was sponsored by Crystal and Jeff Goodson in memory of his aunt, Ms. Bobbie Jean Scott. This house would be build on a Lenca Indian Reservation. Some of our group had worked there the day before. A donation had been collected at the yearly SonQuest rally in Orlando. Thousands were collected to build a concrete structure that would be a school.
We have seen many poor people here, but these seemed almost forgotten. It was a little outside the city and very rural. Although it was obvious that Torch and maybe other groups had started building there, there were still many who just had tree branches nailed together.
This reservation was flat and seemed very clean as compared to most places we go. We found our site and got started. The families old house had been torn down, but we left their outside kitchen. (See the picture)
The build went off without a hitch (even though we had lots of teenagers who wanted to get in a build before they went home). We have several of the local boys who were a great help passing lumber and nailing. I took several pictures of them, especially a boy named Walter. These young boys put most of us to shame!
We found out that the mother wasn't there today, but her grown daughter, Jenny was. It would be her, her mom and three kids living there. That's 5 people living in a 16x16 house without electricity or running water! We ended with a dedication and a prayer. I also gave the family the things I collected for them as a house warming gift. (Bible, plastic plates & cups, utensils, toys, shoes, etc.)
Walter
I think we had some cousins here too.
It was a great day & a blessing to be able to build this home for this truly needy family. I hope we are able to do more in this community! As we walked back to the bus, we saw our Honduran preacher friend Timotea Estrada. He explained that the concrete structure was a school (Currently the school only goes to 2nd grade!) and another large structure being built would be a church! God was working there!
The day couldn't have ended better, Kelvin Roberts from Clarksville, decided to be baptized!! This trip has truly been a blessing & only 1 more work day left!!
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