 Have you ever been
asked to move a mountain? Well that was our team's challenge, a challenge
we readily accepted. We arrived at the worksite with gloves and lots of energy to find
that we needed to move many tons of dirt and rock to dig out a basement under an
existing sanctuary. Bethel Church was built on the side of a
mountain. They literally had to carve out enough flat land to build the
sanctuary, and because of the lack of room to expand right or left of the
building, they had the foresight to design it to have the "front" half
of the basement dug out for future Sunday School rooms. When we arrived,
none of the four sections were ready for pouring a floor or building a
wall.
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B.J. working
hard?
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Our team quickly took on the challenge to get the middle two sections ready
first. By the end of our first day we had cleared enough that a dividing
wall was able to be built. The two inside corners proved to be the real challenges.
The one to the right, only had about 3 feet left to go down, but was full of
large granite rocks that made every inch a chore. The left hand side
filled about 12' by 12' by 8' cube, and although most of the rocks here were
sandstone, the sheer volume we needed to move with our limited tools was daunting. We came very
close to finishing both sides, and we probably would have, but there were more
pressing jobs that needed the whole team for large chunks of time. Jobs
that needed lots of people all at once.
Question: How do you move several tons of sand up a mountain
too steep for a wheelbarrow? Answer: Two shovel-fulls at a time in a
burlap bag. Our team created assembly lines that would have made Ford beam
with pride.
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Moving sand
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The sand traveled straight up, then along the length of the church, then up
again to the front door. The process ran smoothly until Juan Carlos,
having too much fun with a squirt gun a team member brought, would forget to get
the empty bags to the front of the line. J
Since our minds weren't strained with this work, it proved to be a good time for
fellowship with the Bolivians, Dan and Peggy, and the rest of the team. We
followed the same procedure to get the granite floor tiles up to the
church.
Thank you for your prayers for our safety! Fourteen
"gringos" with picks and shovels in an enclosed area could have
spelled disaster, but except for some very sore muscles, we were 100% free from
injury.
For many more pictures of our team at the work site visit the Our
Pictures page
Back to Bolivia 2000
If you would be interested in how you could be involved in a
future Task Force Missions Trip, visit the World
Gospel Mission web site or e-mail us.
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