Yesterday is a day I am not likely to forget for a long time. We moved out to the Loving Arms Centre like normal. Our objective was to complete the cementing. As we began to prepare the trenches for cement, Alicia (the Loving Arms Guatemala Executive Director) came by with a request. While the plan didn’t show it she wondered if we could rough in a spot for one more girl’s toilet. This meant digging up what we had already prepared and she felt really badly for
requesting it. As an incentive, she promised us cake. We weren’t sure that the promise of cake was real, but agreed to do it as it was the right thing to do.
Even though we lost some time, some young people who were travelling on another mission team, lent us a hand in making cement. With Jonathan leading the way, we mixed up the cement on the ground and poured it into the trenches with wheelbarrows. By the end of the day, we were done. It’s amazing how the Lord provides.
Back at the hotel, dinner was spaghetti. Afterwards, we felt like we needed a little dessert and decided to go for a walk and find a pastry shop. As we were about to leave Alicia stopped and said, “Where are you going? I’ve got cake.” And an amazing cake it was.
Still needing our walk, especially after cake, we took off looking for the local supermarket. It was hidden way behind some other buildings and supposedly we had walked past it several times and missed it. We were intent on finding it and we did. It was huge, and very impressive. Prices so good we thought next time rather than bringing things with us, we will just buy them here. We spent more time looking around than we should have and it began to rain, a torrential downpour. Our only option was to run back to the hotel. Trying to miss the rain by hiding under their narrow eaves, we would run from one side of the street to the other hoping to find the widest eaves. The Guatemalans we would meet, huddled in their doorways, would break out laughing when they saw us, running through the streets. With no storm sewers, the water runs in the street and crossing it we got our feet soaked. By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were completely soaked in rain water and memories.
John F