Day 11 - Dios es Fiel

Why is it that the birds greet every one of God's sunrises with song, yet we frequently prefer to remain asleep and miss it all? My answer to this question for the majority of our trip was that sleeping an extra twenty minutes would put me in a better mood for the day. I was wrong. These past two mornings I have awakened early to watch the sky burst with color over mountains, and it has reminded me of a wonderful truth. One of the themes of this trip is "Dios es Fiel," or "God is Faithful." Watching the faithful sun illuminate the sky again this morning, just as it has for thousands years, was a great reminder of God’s faithfulness to his people.

Today was our last day of work here at the ranch. Since Monte was in town getting the air conditioning fixed for our trip to the mountains tomorrow (yay!), we weren’t able to do cement work on the multi-purpose building. Instead, we all split up and did a number of odd jobs. Some did death-defying scaffolding work. Some attempted to finish a porch. Some did various other odd jobs. The rest of us whitewashed buildings. Eh. Hannah and I whitewashed last year, and we were reluctant to do it again. The unquenchable dry hands, the blinding sun reflecting off of the white walls, and the apparent endlessness of the task reawakened dread in our hearts, but we did our job with little to no complaining. Tali and Jessie, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the novelty of the task immensely.

At three we left for our final visit to the brickyard. My team finished the foundation of a brick latrine. I’m still not sure how this whole contraption is going to look in the end. I’m curious. Maybe next year I’ll be able to see the finished product.

We finished training another team of missionaries from Illinois that is going to continue our work after we leave. If you can spare a prayer, send it in their direction.

It was so strange for me to say goodbye to the kids at the brickyard. I’ve seen them so frequently during these past 2 weeks that I have a difficult time believing that I won’t be seeing them again for at least a year. I know it will sink in soon, and that makes me sad. Our team has been praying for the salvation of the people at the brickyard. It would be great if you would do the same. Here are some names to add to your list: Jasmine, America, Sergio, Diana, Anna, Katarina, Esmerelda, Louis, Victoria, Shoshita, Lupe, Mary-Elena, Juana, Susanna, Fabio, Angelita, Linda, and Marta.

When we returned to the ranch we had a crazy-awesome guys against girls water fight. Classic. The boys did not fight fairly. They stole our water balloons and ambushed us with giant buckets of water. The cold wind blowing through Rancho Siloe chilled us to the bone, but the fight had to continue. Soon it got messy…really messy. It became a mud fight – my first mud fight ever! I’m convinced that I’ll be finding small rocks, sticks, hay, and grass in my hair periodically during the next few weeks. A good time was had by all ☺.

God has definitely been faithful to our team during this trip. Injuries have been minimal; no one has had to take a day off for any health-related issues. Our unity has remained strong as we have worked through difficulties together. Monte is well, and the air conditioning was fixed.

We thank you all very much for your prayers. Keep them up! We’re not out of Mexico yet!

I love you guys! God bless you!

Sarah