Update Day #6: Thursday, June 22, 2023

Today was a true testament to the faithfulness of God. We began our work day at 6:00am in order to get as much work done as possible - we had a long day ahead. For this final work day we made lots of cement, which were sent up to the roof of the church in buckets in order to lay on the roof to keep it secure. We spent many hours shoveling rocks and sand, and moving buckets up and down scaffolding. While we are very exhausted after this long day of work, we are so thankful to have been able to contribute to the building of this church in some small way. 

After we finished working for the day, the church members and village community cooked us an amazing lunch of “tacos de cochinita” (slow cooked pork in fresh corn tortillas). We got to enjoy lunch together, and afterword they explained to us just how important the building of this church is to them. They told us that they have been praying for years for this church to be built, and they thought they would never be able to finish it once they started. They saved for seven years just to build the walls. With our help (financial and physical) we were able to build the floors and roof of their church for them in order to help this new church to have an immense impact on the local community to the glory of God. We’re so blessed to have been a small part of God’s plan for this new church filled with the kindest, most hospitable people. They have been saving up their money in anticipation for our coming, so that they could feed us delicious food every day and help us hydrate during our work. They also sent us off with a sweet gift to remember our experience after praying for us and letting us pray for them. We could not be more thankful that God has given us the opportunity to know, love, and serve these kind and generous people! 

Marshall and Mary Rachel Danner 

Hola from Merida! Even though we got back late from dinner last night, we woke up even earlier than the rest of our mornings for a 5am breakfast. Because of this early start, we got to the work site an hour before normal to begin putting concrete on top of the cement block roof. There were many things for everyone to pitch in and help with: filling buckets of rocks or sand, stirring the cement, carrying full buckets of cement to/on the roof, hoisting the buckets from the scaffolding, brining back empty buckets, or helping people stay hydrated. After a quick fruit break at 8:30am, we were back to work and finished concreting and cleaning by noon!

For lunch, the ladies from the church treated us with delicious pork tacos. Before leaving for the hotel to pack up and shower, all of us, members of the Faith mission team, workers, Mexican church volunteers, and women from the town, gathered together in a circle to say goodbye to one another and pray together as family in Christ. During this sweet ceremony, the Pastor of the church surprised us with gifts: coffee mugs and honey made in the village by one of the church members! After hugging and thanking everyone at the site, we headed back to the hotels.

We arrived at Shalom around 5:00pm and unpacked, rehung our hammocks, and relaxed until having dinner at 7:30pm. Following dinner we met together for our team meeting, led by Marshall, which lasted around an hour. After such a long day, we finally headed to our hammocks to get some much deserved sleep.

With Love,
Lilly Atkinson

Thursday June 22nd 

Today was a very incredible day starting with the very early breakfast at 5AM.  After the breakfast we traveled to our work site which was around 45 minutes away. I personally loved when we arrived at the worksite the most because I had the chance to talk with the workers more. Micah and I made friends with some of the workers at the site specifically two men one named Roni and the other Andy. They were very kind to us and did their best to include us in everything they did. It was also very fun to communicate with their friends because of the language barrier.

It was very emotional hearing the story of the church. They prayed for many years before the church was given the opportunity to work with Shalom and finally build their roof for the church. Every member of the team was given a gift from the church in Tizimín. It was a coffee mug and a bottle of honey. After we took a picture in front of the church. We drove back to the hotel and showered, which was much needed by many members of the team because they were covered in concrete. 

Finally, we started the long drive to Mérida which was 2 hours long. I(James) slept most of the drive because of how early we had to get up that morning. We arrived at Shalom later that night and ate a very delicious dinner.

Hannah and James Mustard