(Originally posted 9/29/10)

Back again from Mexico. My fourth visit and God chose now to speak to me about living a life of obedience in Puebla.

The team arrived and was treated extremely well, to the point where the men were complaining that it felt more like a vacation, and nearly insisted that we begin work that Sunday afternoon. They weren't about to have another tour of a rainy market. Their wish was granted with only a day's delay, and henceforth we worked for four days straight, shoveling, interpreting, dumping, hauling, pounding, adjusting, and perfecting the future basketball court for the children of Living Hope International.

Jerry McNally's vision has reached as far as an expected move date of December (God-willing). He plans for the worst and hopes for the best, and those volunteers who work with him are committed to the children and to his vision. I felt that a basketball court didn't seem like a big deal, but when we consider that the most room these kids have to currently move around in is partly a basketball court, soccer field, playground, and parking lot, my outlook brightens on my seemingly small, but back-breaking contribution.

It was an interesting road from a literal mud pit to a fully perfected, graded, flat, hard basketball court. We had help, and sometimes we didn't. We didn't wait long the first day for the twelve tons of cement to be dumped, and the following day we waited three hours. We had sufficient materials, but we sort of didn't. We set up a tent to protect the work, and the thousand-pound free-standing, iron footed "protection" was dragged along the most recent slab by hurricane force winds. A dog decided to trot along our first not-yet-dry project, and then a spider decided it looked like fun. The dog made out fine and probably learned her lesson, but the spider ended up solidified in his tracks like Lot's wife.

As God calls me forth, to work and labor with Esperanza Viva, I take God's command to heart: "don't look back.