What a Vacation!

With "Holy Week" quickly approaching and a break from the Seminary routine available, the Bible College students and I were going to be planning what to do with the week off of school. About that time we were in contact with Carpenter for Christ Preacher/Builder Robert "Bro. Bob" Stevenson out of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Waterbury, CT. Bro. Bob had mentioned how that his builder helper for his current project in Mexico had to leave. I went down to see Bro. Bob in Mexico ( a 3 hour drive from my house) and helped him do some translation work to get the concrete slab contracted to be poured. I believed that the Lord wanted me to help him build this house for the National Pastor in Tapachula, Mexico.


I went back to Guatemala the next morning and spoke my burden to the seminary students. They were excited about the prospect of helping out a Brother in Christ and one of the guys, Juan de Paz, suggested we all go down during Semana Santa (Holy Week). I said that would be perfect. One of the students who is currently pastoring said he could preach for me on Wednesday night since his services are on Tuesday and Thursday. One of the students hurt his back and would not be able to make it. (Please pray for him, Andres de Paz. He was kicked in the spine playing soccer and had to have emergency personnel carry him out on a stretcher!)

So we loaded up our van, taking along tracts and all the tools I had that might be useful. We had no problems entering into Mexico with our equipment. We got to the job and found a hardened concrete slab waiting to be built upon.



By the time we retired that first night we were eaten up by mosquitos but had gotten a few walls up.
On Saturday, 5 days later, by God's Grace we had all the exterior and interior walls up, and about half of the roof on and no major accidents. AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!


This project has been profitable, not only in providing a faithful national pastor with a modest but nice house to live in, but it has also been a great opportunity for me to gain some new skills. Only the Lord knows how many times they will come in handy in the ministry for years to come.

Bro. Coates