El Jefe’
Let’s meet a couple of the people we are working with on our projects.
Juan Carlos is the boss, (El Jefe), in back. Augustine is the boss in front. We are building a fence in the back of the church and we are building a drainage ditch in front. It’s hard work and it’s hot and we are all tired. But it’s a good tired. Juan Carlos is from El Obraje & a long time member of the church. He has been in construction all his life. He has 3 grown children, 2 of which are police officers. He has worked with many mission teams over the years, even before the new church was built. He has a great big joyful life & plays along with us as we crack jokes and poke fun @ one another - just like any group of guys working together would do.
Augustine is El Jefe in front. He is also from El Obraje & a member of the church. He has been in the US to work & also worked on some big construction projects in Northern Honduras. He has enjoyed working with all the engineers. 6 of the 9 guys on this trip are engineers, civil engineers. It takes a while to know what Augustine is telling them to do. Pala! Pala! = Hand me the shovel. Aqui! Aqui! = put the shovel of concrete here. Carreta! Carreta! = go get the wheelbarrow. It wasn’t until this afternoon, that someone told Augustine that the guys he has been working with were engineers. He didn’t know because they all were just humbly doing what they were told. Back home they are in charge of many people and many projects, but here they are just another guy on the crew.
We all started to get a little more efficient @ our jobs and began to anticipate what was the next task @ hand. Go get some sand…Shovel some concrete…Place the blocks this way on the wall. Which created some extra time to spend with children on El Obraje. Todd & Mark took the local neighborhood kids down to the corner store to buy coke for our breaktime. Drinking pop @ the morning and afternoon breaks is very normal here in Honduras.
It’s surprising how normal & easily acclimated we all feel. It feels great to just be one of the guys in the ditch digging a trench or hauling a bag of concrete. The guy next to you is from Honduras but he’s just another guy. Does it really matter where he’s from? Where I’m from? When you are mixing concrete on a dirt road, shoveling as fast as you can to keep up with the guy on the other side of the pile, you have to ask yourself, “Do all of the emails on my phone really matter that much?” When you are roaming around in search of rocks (there are no shortage in Honduras) to add to the wall to save on concrete, along with one of the men of El Obraje, you have to pause and consider, “Does it really matter if I reply to that text?” He might be from Honduras. You might be from Overland Park. He might speak Spanish. You might only speak English. You might have a bunch of letters behind your name. He might sleep like a baby @ night. We never could have anticipated how in common we feel with the men of El Obraje. How we are all just part of the Body of Christ, and what has brought us together, whether we planned on it or not, is the desire to serve the Lord, by serving our neighbor.
-Tim Merchant, Team Blogger