Thursday, July 14

Our Last Day: This was our last day of work here in Buena Vista.  Tomorrow we head for Tuxtla, Guttierez, and Saturday we head home.  The day started out hot and sunny.  We had until lunch to work, then we had to prepare to Bible School.

Today, we had to do several things.  We finished making all the rebar the workers needed.  We moved rocks to a boundary that surrounded the Sunday School rooms so that workers to use them in the foundation.  We mixed cement and continued erecting the rebars into place.  We finished painting the current Sunday School room.  

Surprise!  It rained! For the fifth day in a row, dark clouds started coming in around noon and it started to rain after lunch.  For about 15 minutes, it looked like the torrential rains of Saturday and Sunday.  But they tapered off to just a shower.  

Where to hold Bible School? However, the rain gave us a problem  The gym we were using to hold Bible School was used today.  We were going to hold Bible School in the courtyard of the church, but the rains made us decide to hold it in the church -- where we were sleeping.  Soooo...we stacked up our mattresses against the back of church and brought in benches.  We had Bible School in the church and the kids laughed at our mattresses.  

Farewell:  At 7:00 pm, the church was supposed to hold a farewell service for us.  In Mexico style, the service did not start until 7:45 and lasted until after 9:30 pm.   There was a duo from the village that sang with guitars in a traditional style, we sang a few numbers, Pastor Sarafin gave a message, and Pastor Tim presented the church with some gifts.  

After the service, each person in the church had to shake each of our hands.  It was very emotional -- this was the first time people from North American had come to Buena Vista to help them.  There were tears and gifts.  Many of the girls got flowers.  Pastor Tim got a Mexican hat.  

When everyone left the church -- not until after 10:30 pm -- we reassembled our "bedroom" and went to bed.  Even at 11:30 at night, one of the church members stopped by to give some gifts to us.