Mission Trip

Spring break at BMMC came with the promise of a mission trip to Mashabo. Michael, and many others, has been working feverishly in anticipation of this trip, preparing all kinds of lumber to be used for building a mission house there. This was the first time that the new wood shop was in full operation. It was very exciting to see the beautiful jungle hardwood getting spiffied all up as the boards passed through the various machines.

Beyond providing all our own lumber for the job, there was one other thing that would be
especially unique about this trip. There would be a group of 20 or so people coming down from the Washington/Idaho area for the week to help build the mission house. The leader of the group was pastor James Shires, Liz and Alexis' dad. Even with our very limited phone and Internet availability down here, our co-missionaries were able to coordinate the whole trip with their dad ahead of time. I was impressed!

When the group arrived Friday morning, Michael and I took the Mule down to the landing to welcome them in. I was a bit culture shocked seeing so many white people in one place! It was sure neat to have them here though. We fed the group at the school and sent them off to Mashabo to get settled in for the night. Michael and I waited until the next morning to walk the 5 mile jungle road, enjoying one more night of the comforts of home before a week of tentless camping (we had had to leave our tent with a few other things in Paruima since the plane couldn't handle all the weight when we left).

The week of mission work was accompanied by a huge amount of hard work on the mission house, helping in the health clinic, running programs for the kids at the primary school, and having Bible studies every day and meetings every night for the villagers. Most of those projects were coordinated and run by members of the group from the States. It was actually very efficiently done with such a variety of talents and abilities. There was something for everyone to help out with.

Work on the house started that first Sunday morning. Watching the hubbub that was somehow workable was pretty interesting. The work site looked like an ants nest that had been stirred up. There were people milling about everywhere. I guess it looked a bit more chaotic than it actually was though because they complete the floor by the end of that first day. Not bad guys!



The walls were worked on for the next few days and by Thursday the roof and gigantic water tower were well on their way to being completed too. I think more work might have gotten done, but it's always hard for Americans to adjust to working full days in our lovely South American weather. The heat can be a bit much, though they did have a good amount of rain to work in the last day too!


I am so grateful to have such an enduring husband when it comes to hard work. Michael is a very dedicated worker and really likes to see things get done. He and Gilbert make a good team. I am sure that their example of constant work at the site kept the others going too. The visiting group had to leave Mashabo on Friday morning, having spent less than a full week in the village. Even though their visit was short, it was certainly a blessing. It was fun for us to get to know some new people, and such a blessing for the villagers to have had them there. Katie and Savy, the two Bible workers that will be living in that mission house, were also unspeakably grateful to have had the help with their new home.

These two girls have been living in a more public building right next to the primary school. It will certainly be nice for them to have their own space where they will not be constantly bombarded by little children looking through their windows and wanting to come into their house. That's nice every once and a while, but every day?

The reason for building this mission house is to support full time medical missionaries that can minister to the people of Mashabo. It has been said that the name Mashabo means "going nowhere." That certainly seems like it has been the case spiritually. For whatever reason, the villagers there have had a real problem taking leadership for religious activities and growth. So there they sit, stagnant. Savy, a graduate and last year's women's dean of BMMC has been wanting to do mission work out in Mashabo for a while now. Katie, a recent graduate from Fountainview Academy, is down here from Colorado for a while, helping Savy with the big job of teaching and directing the people to take leadership in their community. They have been living there for a couple months and have been doing a lot of house visits. They are trying to get to know the people well and build up a rapport with them. They both have taken a major role in the church, but are really trying to delegate more to the villagers. They won't be there to spoon feed them forever and there's no reason why they shouldn't have a very strong church running full time there.

So far they have been meeting in the upper story of the primary school for church meetings. Hopefully it won't be too long before God blesses our school and the community of Mashabo with enough funding to support the construction of a church for them. We were hoping to get that in this year, but we'll see.

For now we are preparing to host a group of possibly up to 60 people that will be here for a week of evangelism training that will be put on at BMMC through the union. I, for one, will enjoy the peace and quiet we have on campus for the rest of this last week of spring break. School will be back in full swing next week. We'll see what adventures happen in the mean time!