Elmira College – Part 3

By Michael J. Miller, Jr.

Mixing concrete for the new columns

Working together made it easier

These holes are 3 feet deep and 3 feet wide

Sonia becomes a painter

Quarter buckets of concrete made this job much easier for the girls and for our group of workers. In the last days of their trip we had to mix concrete and pour the footers for the columns to support the second floor. As you can see in the second photo Carlos who was off during this Holy Week stepped in to help us out and he lifted all the buckets up for the girls. I know that I was impressed to watch these young ladies take these buckets and carry them and march right back for another bucket without complaining. When we finished they actually asked for more. The second day the last day for the team we started to pour concrete but ran out of water. Earlier in the year I purchased a Water Reserve tank that will be moved from school to school. In the barrios like this one the community only receives water once a week and it usually comes for a couple hours and then it is turned off. Also the water comes at weird times like 11pm or 2 am and when it comes everyone jumps to get buckets, barrels, small plastic bottles etc. to fill up. We take advantage the blessing in being able to open the faucet and receive drinkable water and when we want it. Here in Honduras it is the opposite. We always ask the guard that sleep at the school to please fill our reserve tank and also the pila which is a concrete washing area that can hold about 2 barrels of water. We always tip the guard for doing this service. We praise the Lord for the donation of this concrete mixer! What a time saver plus it mixes the concrete so much better.

Sonia, in the last photo, is from Africa and is a student at Elmira College and came to Honduras to be a part of a mission trip. She never painted before but left as a painting expert. She, like most of the girls when they left, they left changed in Christ.