Monday, May 5, 2009
Today was a scorcher on the island! 100 degrees plus. The morning was devoted to working on the compound. We worked hard! Members of our team did various tasks?painting, building, moving dirt, and removing rubble. It’s amazing to me how primitive building techniques and projects are here. Ninety-eight percent of all buildings here are poured cement or cinder block. But there are no earth movers, staple guns, or dump trucks. The building process is slow and very laid back. We moved and stacked cinder block by hand. We shoveled dirt into buckets and passed them in a train-like fashion to the end destination. One crew had the job of building support frames from steel wire to pour concrete into and around. One crew bent metal into a rectangular shape. Another aligned the long steel rods. Another fixed the rectangles around the long rods with thin wire. I think it’s safe to say that any American construction company could bring some equipment down here and have a monopoly on building projects!
After a break to swim, cool off, and eat some lunch our team headed off to a youth prison. The young men were ages 13-17 and many were awaiting trial. The legal system in Trinidad is very corrupt. A young man accused of a crime is sent to this youth prison to await trial. Often a young man will have to wait 2-3 years for this trial. If innocent, the young man has lost this time for no reason and if guilty, these years do not count towards a young man’s sentence. It is a very sad situation and these young men simply need to hear a good word of hope.
I was blessed with the opportunity to speak to the young men in the prison today. We arrived and after a security check, we were led through a hallway of tiny, cramped jail cells (there were as many as six to seven kids in a tiny cell) to a baking hot gymnasium. When the young men were led in we opened in prayer and then played basketball with them. We then had them sit in the bleachers and Dan, Mike, Kory, and Angela shared short testimonies with everyone. I was so blessed to have the chance to talk with many of the young men and hear their stories before I spoke. Many had stolen. Many had been shot; some multiple times. It was unbelievable. I shared some of my testimony and it was just an awesome experience to help provide hope to these young men.
After the prison we went straight to the village of Bellamy and had our final day of vacation bible school. We performed a skit (the fall of the wall of Jericho), and had the kids sing songs, make puppets, and play games. It was a great week of VBS! We saw the same kids each day and were able to build great relationships with them and teach them more about God. But each day we also had new faces that were eager to participate as the excitement spread throughout the village. My prayer is that enough families will become interested in TTUM’s ministries through the VBS to plant a church in the village.
Tomorrow morning we will be doing our final ministry of the trip at a homeless shelter. The shelter is an old parking garage that was converted into its current purpose. The afternoon will be spent at Maracas Bay enjoying the beach for a couple hours before we prepare to return to Kalamazoo on Thursday. Please pray for us that we will not let our guard down and that we will finish the week strong! It has been an amazing week and we need to finish as strong as we started.
God bless and Go Broncos!
- Tim
