Hi from a team that has been very busy today.  We did construction work at Monte Sion till late this evening.  The church is adding on a second story to the church which will add an additional 6 rooms upstairs.  If you're building in Mexico - you're building UP, there's no where else to go!  In fact if you look around at almost any building in Mexico City you will see re-bar sticking up through the top level of the concrete.  This is so if they add to the current building any time in the future, they can tie the levels together with the re-bar.

Monte Sion only builds as they have money, resources and supplies.  So this is something we can really help with as a team.

So today we did a number of things.  Terry went with Pastor Juan and Pastor Jaime to purchase supplies and order supplies for our work for the rest of the week.  Another group arranged a pulley system to pull re-bar up to the 2nd floor, cut re-bar and cut wire ties to tie the re-bar together.

Another group took time to clean out the scrap lumber out of the unfinished 2nd floor rooms.  Un-useable wood was sorted out, and then the classrooms upstairs were cleaned out and all the water that's been collecting from the rain was swept out, then the good lumber was carried back into the classrooms.

Once supplies arrived another group pulled up the re-bar and began laying the re-bar to create the first layer for the roof.


And some others worked on cleaning out one of the balconies in the sanctuary, sorting through materials and getting anything ready to be transported to the dump. We also were able to sort through some of our ministry materials left from VBS and leave anything we could here for the Monte Sion church's Sunday School.

The students and leaders worked really hard today.  I was so very proud of them.  I think they were so happy to be doing something tangible for people who have given so much to us.  Even today one of the ladies who was baptized yesterday, took the bus (45 minutes one way) to the church today to make us lunch.  Though we did get her to agree to let us pay for the supplies, she and Amanda and Sara and Lupita made us the food.

Tomorrow we will continue to work on laying a second layer of re-bar to get ready for laying cement for the roof on Wednesday.  All the supplies will be carried up to the roof tomorrow (concrete mix etc).  This will be very heavy and strenuous work.

Prayer Requests:

Please pray for Dave.  He stepped on a nail today that did go into his foot.  Thank the Lord Sara Beccera was there with us, as she is a nurse and she was able to clean and dress the wound and he'll be getting a Tetanus shot tomorrow morning.  So, it's limited what he can do for a bit, which he doesn't like.  :)

Please pray for continued safety for the team as we keep doing our construction project.  Pastor Jaime was greatly encouraged to see so much be accomplished in one day.  Pray that we will do good work and be careful.

Please pray for students as they are beautifully dealing with some of the issues in their own life and God is really speaking to them.  Pray that they will step forward with Him in faith into new territory.  I and many other leaders have had some great conversations with kids in recent days.  I'm so very encouraged in seeing this and being a part of it!

Christine