From Jed:
On this trip to Mexico, our group worked on two major projects: the construction of an addition to Dean Adamek’s house and the erection of a fence around Rancho3M. During the week we spent there, we effectively completed both of these projects. For the addition, we framed, put up sheathing and siding, dry walled and insulated, and put on roofing material and weather sealant. For the fence, 73 panels were welded together and 109 were put into place. This totaled over 900 feet—three football fields—of fence and completed a job that had been going on for four years.
This was my third trip to Mexico with five15. I don’t think that I’ve ever been a part of a harder working group. We woke up at 6:00, started work at 8:30, took an hour break for lunch, and worked until 6:00 or 7:00 or even later. The stories of “superhuman” effort cannot be counted.
Debbie Vahle and Dawn Okada prepared all the food for us. They were the last ones to go to bed and the first ones awake every morning. George and Hailey Vaseghi and others started working on Saturday as soon as we arrived at the ranch. Ed Bartley, Jacob Vahle, and Paul Shirey stayed up welding fence panels until 12:00 on Thursday night so that we would have a chance to finish them all on Friday. James Winter had numerous nose bleeds every day and suffered from a cold most of the week. Yet he worked so hard at every opportunity. Katlyn Babyak suffered a nose bleed for nearly an hour yet willingly worked well after dinner on Friday. (Craig Robinson sacrificed his time by spending hours each day driving the Gator around.) Will Mullery badly sprained his wrist. But he did what work he could, spending most of Thursday and Friday working a saw with his one hand. Gary Helms organized all of our efforts and set up each team every day so that we used our gifts to their fullest potential.
The stories go on and on. But all this work was accomplished only thru God’s sustaining grace. Before the trip, I prayed that we would finish all of our jobs and that Dean and Gary Helms would be blown away at how much work we accomplished. I think that it’s safe to say that we did both of those things. Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Without a doubt, God abundantly blessed our efforts and enabled us to serve Rancho3M.
Posted on
Sunday, May 3, 2009
by Steve Whitacre
filed under