#56 our story

Today was what is called Semanario where the graduating seniors present to all of the junior and senior high students as well as to the staff a professional project. One student who has been here all of her life got so emotional that she just broke into tears.

We had a team from Illinois arrive.

We will have water Baptism tomorrow morning.

As you can imagine having a well and having sewage lines allowed us to expand and get more children. When we started the second project, the building of the girl’s dorm, we were blessed to have 90 men over a period of a month come and work on it. The Mississippi contractor actually had skilled laborers from Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas involved.

It was so amazing to watch the children. They loved doing whatever they could do so they became “helpers’. In fact, tons of cement were needed and many of the children held on to wheelbarrows so they could “pour” concrete. They would even take the wheelbarrow to lunch with them because they did not want someone else to get them.

During these first few years we were blessed to have had folks begin to visit and two couples joined the staff. When they left they began their own ministries in Guatemala. Both ministries are still operating and growing. God also sent me a contractor and his wife who would be instrumental in all of the construction coming up. They also would start a ministry years later that is continuing to this day.

Dates elude me! There was a group of North Alabama men who came to build a water tower. Their labor was accentuated by a group from Louisiana. It was hilarious to watch the Cajun language and the Alabama drawl trying to communicate. But not only did it happen but it happened with many of those men becoming fast friends. There is still a man from Louisiana and one from Alabama who with their families have Thanksgiving dinner each year.