FW: Mission Team Friday morning update - March 18
Charlotte Lees
Charlotte Lees
Parish Administrator
Saint Joseph's Episcopal Church
3300A S Seacrest Blvd.
Boynton Beach, FL 33435
From: Father Marty
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 7:32
AM
To: Charlotte Lees
Subject: Mission
Team Friday morning update - March 18
It is quieter than usual this morning as the team crashed last night after a long day. Upon arrival at San Gabriel Thursday morning, Fr. Guelmy announced that the concrete company said they could not deliver the concrete until 3:00pm. Since this was the "final pour" for the basketball court, we knew it would be an extended day for this team. We re-scheduled the bus pick-up time, and called the Kellogg Center to push back the dinner hour as well.
In the meantime, to give the team something fun to do, Fr. Guelmy led us on a walk through the town of Consuelo (where he grew up) over to an overgrown field near the old abandoned sugar mill. This field used to be a vegetable garden where, as a teenager, Fr. Guelmy grew vegetables to sell. The land was owned by his family. When he went off to seminary, his father kept it up for a while, but then decided to sell the property. They sold it to the church for future development, but it currently sits still in a jungle-like status, but with tons of mango, banana, avocado, guava, and coconut trees. Fr. Guelmy had one of his local parishioners shimmy up the coconut palms and machete down some coconuts. We were all able to taste the coconut water, and also to enjoy the fresh coconut as well. The team then walked back to the church by a different road, which enabled some to stop and try their hand at hitting with a local baseball group, and visit a cute little family of baby goats.
The concrete arrived at 3:02pm, and everyone went into high gear to finish the job. Perhaps as a reminder that we are a human family, we had a few disagreements on the process to be used, but nevertheless we had a chance to re-group in between delivery trucks and everyone came together to finish the task at hand. A moment engrained in all of our memories was when only the last few feet of the court had to be filled with concrete. The truck ran out of concrete! We were so close and it would be getting dark soon. Fr. Guelmy had another construction job for the school underway, and it "just happened to have" seven bags of cement in his garage. There was a rock pile in front and a sand pile in back of the campus, so the team went into action. While some continued the job of leveling the poured concrete, the others helped the locals prepare the mix for the finish. These were the same local guys who helped us two years ago in Jalonga, so many fun comments were made about "we need Bob here, where's Denise? Craig should do this part..."
Yes, we finished the job, and a tired group packed up the tools and returned back to the Kellogg Center, greeted by an incredibly enthusiastic team from the home for seniors, who had another incredible day filled with miracles. Our reflections on Thursday night were filled with stories from the nursing team about all the transformation miracles they have seen in just four days in the residents and nursing team with whom they have been partnering. There were special prayers offered with the new DOK members, which were translated into Spanish, on Beverly Warnke's behalf as well. Bobbie, Carrie, Dawna, Joan, Marty and Gail all had "miracle" stories to share of their interactions with both the residents and the nursing team. It is obvious that the Holy Spirit has been at work in the midst of this group.
We had an incredible dinner to celebrate both St. Patrick's day and the completed physical work. Angela Maria (Fr. Alvaro's spouse) made special Columbian Empanadas, along with steak and mushrooms, barbecued ribs, and potato salad. A little "Presidente" was even on the tables for the adults in the group.
Today (Friday) will be a full day of people-to-people interaction. We had chartered the bus for the day, and will travel after morning prayer to Boca Chica, where the proud nursing team will take us on a tour of their work. There is some sort of parish parade that we have been invited to join, and then Fr. Sandino and Ysabel with host us for lunch. Following that, we will break the day with a beach run for a couple of hours, and then tonight, we will travel to Consuelo, where Fr. Guelmy will host us for a celebration barbecue and dance. (Of course, he wants to whole event to take place on the newly installed basketball court!)
Love to all. Thanks for your continued prayers. We feel them.