Monday, Nov. 28

Monday dawned with clouds and cool temperature - for Belizeans 17 degrees Celsius is cold! But for us hardy Northerners it was excellent working weather. The work ahead of us is well planned. The construction progress is quite noticeable. The perimeter walls are close to being finished. But progress is slower because cribbing for the lintels over the classroom windows and doors needs to be handbuilt. Pete H. and Manuel are the carpenters, while others rotate around the need to make concrete and pouring it into the crib forms. Over the weekend the first concrete lintels have dried out and cured somewhat and now the rest of the lintels are being made. Rebar (the steel rods that are buried in the concrete) has to be cut and shaped to fit the cribs. This involves 5 persons and the rest of us are busy with laying block and pointing them - "pointing" is the filling in of the joints between blocks....usually done by some of the women of our crew.
        Pastor Earnest Betson is "under the weather" today, so we are conscious of missing our "spark plug" for Belizean encouragement. We pray that he'll soon be up and energized. He and his wife ("Honeybunch") are the real leaders in this community of Unity Presbyterian church and school. Carolyn Betson is the principal of the school and is very busy between teaching and problem solving in school administration.
      Tomorrow, we hope to begin the construction of the pillars which will hold up the roof of these classrooms we are building now. A great deal of gravel is hand-pulleyed from ground level to the second floor in 5 gallons pails just half full. The wooden planks needed for the cribbing (or forms) needs to be cleaned a little from previous use, and all nails taken out....tedious work, but necessary.
    What we do enjoy at the end of our day, after supper, is our time of sharing impressions of our day and a Scripture study based on the book of James. Faith that Works is the theme, and it is work that needs to be done in humility, aware of local leadership, local know-how,and at local pace. We grow in grace this way, knowing that we are to be mutually encouraged. We are more aware of each other's abilities and we depend on each other for getting the whole job done.  We are aware that we are bering prayed for. Thank you everyone for these prayers of encouragement.