Day 3: First workday

Monday, August 2nd according to John B. H. Tassos

This morning we worshiped with Saul Cruz, singing many songs, and received a testimony from Saul on how he and his wife Pilar began Armonia 27 years. Afterwards he showed us the architectural drawings for the school that Armonia plans to open in the next year or so. The projects that we would be working on today were clearing the land for a basketball court, building a chicken coop, and digging holes for fence posts surrounding the property. We also hammered the mold casts together, wired the rebar, and mixed and poured the cement for the fence posts. It was real neat to be able to see the architect’s rendering of what he envisioned the final product to be with property that Armonia now occupies in Oaxaca. Saul says he believes he needs about $240,000 for the entire project, and so far he has raised $160,000.

Before our worship this morning we were introduced to Stan, a cherry farmer from Michigan, and Bob and Yolanda. Bob is retired from General Motors. Stan has been working with Armonia for the past 13 years. Both Bob and Yolanda grew up speaking Spanish in the home due to having Mexican parents. Stan has first-hand knowledge of raising chickens to lay eggs. Growing up his family had 300 chickens on their farm. He says his sisters would go get the eggs the chickens had laid each morning. This year he came to Oaxaca specifically to assist Armonia with the construction of this chicken coop. The chicken coop will serve to teach the students the skills required to care for the chickens, how to run a small business, and give Armonia another revenue stream. They are already growing corn, which they use to make tortillas.

The first half of the day under the direction of Dave Seligson we measured the dimensions of the basketball court marking it with the string. The second half of the day all hands were on deck for the leveling of the basketball court which entailed moving the black moist soil out which is good for growing crops, and the red hard clay in which is good for building a foundation, in preparation for pouring cement later this week. This was done with pick axes, shovels and wheel barrows. We worked until 8:00 PM when the sun began to set. The students had prepared a meal of beef stew for us, which was very tasty. We helped by cleaning all the dishes, silverware, pots and pans.

Today’s devotional came from Psalms 46: 1-11. And the questions were generated from The Great Commission, Matthew 28: 18-20. “And Jesus came and said to them. ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” The questions were: 1. List all the verbs in verses 19 & 20 and define them in your own words. 2. From this list, what conclusions can you draw about the work of missions, that is, what did Jesus command his disciples to do? 3. What words are repeated? What is the purpose or meaning of this repetition? 4. How does this affect the way you view missions?