Juarez, Day Three

Monday, April 4th

What a task we had. There was much preparation for this trip (raising money, attending 5 meetings, purchasing plane tickets, finding vans to rent, finding a house to stay in while in El Paso, finding a church for us in Juarez, etc.) The time had come for us to do what we'd set out to do. Were we ready for this? My answer would turn out, 'yes!'

As you will see on this blog, we showed up to a wonderful view of Juarez and it's sister city El Paso. There seemed to be no gap between where one stopped and the other started. The work site seemed like it would be an easy place to build. We would soon find out it wasn't as level as it looked at first. We put up the forms for the slab foundation and Pete got it all level and we started to fill in places that were low. We moved a lot of dirt. We also had a nice piece of concrete in our way. There must have been a cinderblock house previously on this lot. We, Alfredo (the dad), Matt and I got to chip at it until it was gone. That was a lot of fun, let me tell you. That's when my hand started to give me grief. It is still not back to normal!

We poured the concrete, which takes much skill, thankfully we have Pete with us. While some of us where on the concrete team (shoveling gravel, sand, and concrete mix, carrying buckets of water, gravel, sand and concrete, dumping the mixer, walking the mix in a wheelbarrow, etc.) others worked on measuring and cutting all of the lumber. Erin was in charge of measuring and one of our students, Nick, was in charge of all the cutting. When we buy materials, or should I say, when Casas buys materials they don't buy extra. Whatever we have at the site is what we have to work with. Some boards are great, but others are sub-par. It's fun trying to put together a house with warped boards, but it always works out.

After we got the foundation poured we started on piecing together the walls and roof. We nailed, and nailed, and nailed. So much that I was cramping, in my hand. No fun. There were some of us that seemed pretty good with a hammer, and then there were others that needed a bit of help. By the way, our average of hits per nail had to of been at least 34. It was unbelievable. Of course, Pete needed an average of 3 hits for each of his nails. He must be a pro!

Monday was a long day and we were all glad to be done for the day. We headed back to the church where we had left all of our food and bedding and clothing and crashed. Showers were taken, food was eaten, and a devotional was had. Our devotional time included answering the following questions:

1. What were your feelings when we drove across the border to the worksite?
2. What did you learn about yourself today?
3. At what point today did you feel the most uncomfortable?
4. Who represented Christ the best on our team today?
5. Did you make an impact for Christ today? If so, how? If not, why not?
6. What can you do to be successful tomorrow on the jobsite?

We had some good comments, even though we were beat. Tomorrow will show us if we can finish in three days or not. Time for some good shut-eye. Thank you Lord for a good day of work and helping us get what we did accomplished! Goodnight!