I am sitting at the kitchen table and listening to the rain pound down on the metal roof. We have to raise our voices to hear one another and Karren reminded me that I had said I would do a blog. This is a rare ocassion because she sets her hand to blogging quite regularily, and I am happy to let her do so. She is a great communicator and takes joys in doing so via this means. However, I will give it a whirl and then let her fix the mistakes and grammar.

 As you can see in these pictures, another rare event is taking place. I have not done any physical labour for quite some time and the opportunity came up to help another missionary with some labour. The ministry our daughter, Arryn, is working with is building a house for personal use and to house teams that come from North America to support their work in San Cristobal. They have been working on it for about two years and are hoping to continue moving the project ahead as support comes in for their vision.

So, I have been trying to go out a couple times a week after Spanish class to put my hand to the shovel and get some good exercise. In Canada, normally you would call the concrete redimix company and order some concrete but here it is mostly done by hand. So I am shovelling some coarse gravel into a sive and then shaking it to retrieve the desired finer sand for mixing concrete stucco. Laboursome. Yes. Upper body workout. Yes. Effecient. Well from a North American mindset...no. But I am not in North America. So I shovel and shake!! I am glad I have a way to change the scenery from the classroom to something a little more familiar.

 The other day when I was out there trying my best to communicate with the abenil (bricklayer)- a Christian brother - he ask me if I was hungry. I hesitated (you never really know what you might be getting into when it comes to food) but cordially excepted his invitation. He opened up what I thought was a lunch box and pulled out his Bible. We both had a good laugh but I think the joke was on me. He opened up the Word and read a scripture - in Spanish of course. Then he pulled out a book with songs in it - in Spanish of course - and ask me to sing with him. After he had sung a few notes I recognized the hymn he was singing and we sang together, "When The Role Is Called Up Yonder I'll Be There" - in Spanish of course. What a blessing it was to spend a few minutes with this hardworking Guatemalan Christain brother and enjoy  fellowship together in acknowledging the Lord in all His goodness.
 Tommorrow it is back to class.
  In Him, Rocky