Executive Pastor Online

We just completed our work for the day. And, what a day it was! The best part I think is the shower I just had!

The wind is something! Around 1 or 2 p.m. each day (today and yesterday) on the construction site the wind has started to gust. That’s a real bummer when you are in the middle of a desert building a house … especially when you are working on completing the roof. Anyway, we’re almost done. We will finish tomorrow without fail. All we have left is drywall on the inside and stucco on the outside.

Here’s the routine. We’re up at 5:30 a.m. and on the construction site by 7:00. Of course there is much to do before we leave the Casas Por Cristo “Community Center." We prepare breakfast, cleanup, and load the Casas truck with the tools for the day. Once on site, the “games” begin. Yesterday, the first order of business was to build the concrete slab forms, get everything level, mix, and pour the concrete. Of course the finish work was the trick. Sean Healy, our team leader, really knows what he’s doing and knocked it out, almost by himself, no sweat. The other major task for yesterday was framing out all of the walls for the house. There are 17 on our team and we handled everything nicely. In fact, we ended the day way ahead of schedule.

Today was the fun part. We put up the walls, did the electrical, completed the roof, and insulated the whole house (walls and roof). After that we installed the windows, added the “chicken wire” to the black board, put the roof material on the roof, and installed the doors. It looks like a house!

Jonathan, the 16 year old receiving the house along with his mother Maria, helped us every step of the way. I tried to connect with him yesterday a bit. It’s difficult to tell if it’s because of my very poor Spanish, but he didn’t seem very talkative. Today was better, though. He and I talked a bit – Spanish all the way! He seems like a good kid. He allowed me to go into his family’s current house (if you can call it that) to use the restroom. Man! It’s sobering to see firsthand how they live. They make use of everything! The house is constructed of plastic sheets (from who knows where), pallets, and a bunch of other “scrap” material. I was talking to some of the other team members wondering how in the world they get all of this “stuff” all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. Who knows?

How am I feeling about the trip you might be wondering? That’s a great question. I really can’t say at this point. I’m kind of numb to it all. Today I tried to follow our Casas host’s advice. He (Jason) suggested that we stop working periodically throughout the day to take it all in, reflecting on what God is doing through our particular team in this place at this time. It worked a little. I must say I “feel” more at this time today than I did yesterday.

The amazing thing is that this is a “free gift” for Jonathan and his mother. There are no strings attached. They didn’t have to do anything to receive it. Sound familiar?