Summit Men team

This last week we had our first team of 2012! It’s amazing to say that it’s been our first team because it makes it sound like nothing has happened since the beginning of the year – but that has not been the case! I’m amazed to look back at all that has been accomplished since the beginning of the year, and yet we are just starting our busy team season! 

Last Monday we picked up 9 men who came from Chesapeake Church in Maryland. Except for one of the men, this was their first trip to El Ayudante – they are coming behind the shoes of their youth group that has been coming for 3 years now and the men’s ministry has now caught the fire as well! They came to check out what has had their youth so excited! These guys are all experienced and trained in skills that we needed for projects around El Ayudante and they came to bang out the long list of things that need to get finished around the grounds.

Some of what they accomplished:

-          A porch railing built for the guest house

-          Installed a hot water heater in the guest house

-          Finished the electrical in the guest house

-          Pulled all the wire for the staff house – including hanging all the light fixtures, installing the switches and all that

-          Installed the tiles for the false ceiling and hung ceiling fans in all the rooms

-          Made big progress on the kitchen cabinets of the staff house

-          Screened in the back porch of the staff house/ hung lights on the back porch

-          Began the tile for the staff house porch

-          Began the tile for the mission house front porch

-          Pulled wire to set up the breaker box for the clinic

Beyond the full construction days that we had, they focused on discipling and training 5 local men that worked alongside of them for the week – teaching how to run electrical, how to use a sander and how to frame in for screening etc. It was an incredible week of relationship building among 2 completely different cultures. There were lots of laughs and joking and encouragement flowing between this group and it was a wonderful atmosphere to be around! One neat thing for us was that Santos came out and worked half the week with us - he's the same Santos that we have been discipling since Valle!

One night we had a cookout in order to honor the men of the community. There were about 70 men (and a few kids) that showed up to first play soccer and then to have hamburgers and hotdogs and fries and nachos. Pastor Jeremy shared a short message about community and how important it is to live in community!

They also went up to visit Jose and his family (a family that this church paid for his medical procedures resulting from some gunshot wounds 2 years ago). The family made them coffee and they sat around and shared some fellowship, played with the kids, and got to know the mountain village of La Oki. 

It was a fabulous week and we are looking forward to their return in October to continue working alongside El Ayudante!