Day One
On Monday November 17th, it was off to the work site bright and early, where homeowner family members and construction crews were waiting for the volunteers to start building. Everyone gathered under the marvelous bright blue tents that were donated for the event by Pro Jóvenes, a program funded by the European Union that helps kids stay in school and out of trouble through after school programs, mentoring and recreational activities. For the next week, the tents became our shelter from the sun, our meeting room, and our dining hall.
John Schaub (left) giving devotions with Jeff Abbott translating
As always, the day began with devotions. John Schaub of Sarasota, Florida, led us this day and read from Millard’s Bible. “I’m honored and flattered to be reading from Millard’s own Bible, and he’s made it very easy by highlighting all the good parts!” he joked.
John read from Matthew 22:37-38:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
(New International Version)
“Today we are gathered to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and this includes our neighbors here in El Salvador, and in Africa and Asia and everywhere we’re building,” said John.
A center of activity on the site
A brief logistical session followed, led by David Snell, V.P. of programs for The Fuller Center. Then project director Mike Bonderer met with volunteers who had extensive construction experience in order to pick house leaders and form teams. Paul “P. J”. Riner of Elba, New York, and Rob Beckham of Lubbock, Texas, were appointed overall job site managers, and other seasoned builders were assigned to manage each house. Very quickly, the team members were announced and everyone got straight to work, most laying block to get the walls up.
Salvador Cruz and his mom Celina standing tall with Millard
Our schedule each day of the week was this:
- 7:30 a.m.: Bus ride from the hotels to the site
- 8:00 a..m.: Devotions and announcements
- 12:00 noon: Lunch on the site
- 1:00 p.m.: Back to work
- 5:00 p.m.: Dinner on the site
- 6:00 p.m.: Bus ride back to the hotels
There was plenty for everyone to do—no matter what age or skill level– and no idle hands this day or any other. The homeowners worked alongside volunteers. The future “ladies of the houses” prepared the lunch tables and kept the site tidy, as well as helping with construction work. Kids were not allowed to work on the construction itself but were very busy carrying and fetching things and hosing down the dirt on the site, which was quite dusty during this dry season.
The day sped by. As the crews got more and more tired and dirty, bits of high school and college Spanish resurfaced in the brains of the volunteers and the conversations started. In the 90-degree heat, the ice quickly began melting between the North Americans and their Salvadoran neighbors.
