
Breakfast of Champions
It just would be wake-up if we did not have the soothing tones of Benjamin saying; “GOOD MORNING, HALLELUIAH, JESUS LOVES YOU, IT IS TIME TO GET UP!” Hey, let me tell you, you get up and if you are fast enough, you can gat a High Five from Ben as he takes a lap around the dorm room. He also wakes the girls up, but that is through yelling through the door, after all, he is a gentleman. Devotions and breakfast and off to the ground floor of the TIME Center to build final few items…
The items we built were very detailed today. Although they were relatively few in numbers, they took through lunch and beyond to complete.

Working on a Roof Truss
The Roof Trusses and Gables proved to be very time consuming and

A Stonger Door Design by David
David and I made a field modification to the door design, let’s just say, it’s solid and should withstand the stiffest wind. We believed that we were all done with the necessary components for the build, it was after 1:30, so we went up for Lunch and most, if not all of us, cleaned up and took a little siesta (I am surprised that this has not caught on, beyond Commonwealth of Massachusetts employees, that is) it really is very enjoyable.

VBS in a 20x28 Chapel
Well it was a good thing that we rested, at 4:00 we were on the TIME Bus heading for a church in Villa Mella that TIME built a building for 3 years ago.

"Tu Ta Pasao"
They were having VBS and we were the Arts & Crafts and Games people for tonight, in addition to David (via Oto) giving a brief message about Jesus Christ who they could read about in the Spanish New Testaments that we handed out at the end of the evening.

50 Kids + 2 Gym Teachers = Fun
But set the stage, we arrived to what can only be the equivalent to a Rock Star’s welcome. I don’t think it was just about us, but the team from TIME and the teachers that accompanied us from San Felipe (a sister church to this one), but they were excited to see us too. Remember Benjamin, well, his “real” job is a teacher in the school system, and let me tell you, they love him. He and Rafelina led them in singing and they were belting it out. (Definitely not your typical reserved New Englanders) these kids were SINGING!
The chapel was full and kids were still arriving when we divided into classes by age and gender. After they had their lesson, it was time for crafts. The lesson was on Joseph and his coat of many colors. The younger kids colored, while the older ones used a glue stick to place swatches of material on a paper image of Joseph. Now it was time for Games. I mentioned that “Ben” was a teacher; he is a Phys. Ed. Teacher just like our own Rich Chase. Well, we had some very creative games ALL in the 20’x28’ chapel (talk about church space issues) but the kids had a blast. Our girls and Rafelina were also doing face painting for the little ones, (Baseballs & DR Flags for the boys and the Girls wanted hearts and other more pretty things). David gave them a short message and we handed out the New Testaments for all who wanted them. We all were exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhausted. We headed back to the TIME Center and had a filling dinner of “Sloppy Jose’s”, chips, pumpkin pudding and cake!

Dinner after VBS
The truck arrived that we would be transporting the components to the build site in so we headed down to the ground floor one more time to load the truck.
This is not Noe’s first rodeo, the load sequence is critical to get all the chapel on one little truck. We started, Roof Panel (Tin Down), Solid Wall, Window Wall, 2 window louvers, Roof Panel (Tin Up) and repeat… Well, we were at the point after our 5th repeat and we did not have another 3 roof panels… You see, we are the last group for TIME this season. We had re-purposed some of the roof panels that other teams had constructed and were not used, well in that process, we counted some of the ones that we could not use as “Good Ones” so our count was off. So, we broke out the tools and, seeing as it was only 8:45 at night, we fires up the power tools, grabbed some sections of tin, and banged (LITERALLY) three more roof panels out,

Last Minute Building
finished the loading and were up in the Dorms by 10:00, more exhausted than before, but still a good kind of exhausted.
I must say that everyone has done a terrific job working, adapting and doing what is necessary for the process to occur. Whether it is playing with Elda, Rose, Megan or “Billy” so we can load the truck, or our guys jumping in and doing crafts at VBS with kids they have never met before, in a very warm room in dress pants (because that is the custom when doing ministry for the Lord in church) all the kids rose to the occasion and I believe that God was smiling not only on the results but on the effort. Well done team!
Well, in 6 hours Benjamin will be sounding the alarm and we will be rolling out of the bunks, I will be heading to Noe’s to upload this post, and we will be on our way at 7:00 to build a chapel. I can’t believe it’s already build day, Thank you for your prayers, comments and encouragement, I share them with the team when I hear the “Bing” on my Blackberry and it is a message from one of you.

The Entire Body Was the Answer to The Pastor's Prayer
When I spoke of the Pastor of the chapel we built last year, and he said the “We were the ones that God told him would come and build his congregation a place to worship”, that “we” includes all of you. Those of us here are blessed to be the hands that hammer and cut and build, but you all are the Body that allows this type of ministry to occur, the pastor was speaking about YOU when he said God would provide … Gloria Deos!