For ministry Saturday, my squad and I were loaded up in the back of a cargo truck and taken to the side of a mountain. At the bottom of the mountain laid a pile of bricks. The pastor of the church explained to us that the only way that we could get all these bricks to the top of this mountain was by using all 54 of us, as well as the locals to pass the bricks up one by one. We formed a line and began. One by one we moved them up the mountain with joyful spirits. It was beautiful to see how excited the locals were to have us helping move bricks to build a church on top of this mountain. Some of the older locals came to us to shake our hands and with tears in their eyes thanked us. One lady shook every person’s hand and squeezed or hugged each of our butts. It was humorous but at the same time so touching.
The locals and their children came and made us take breaks for hot tea (in the hot weather) and crackers with them. They were so generous and kind. We created a system of tossing the bricks and catching them. If you dropped a brick (to help with staying in good shape and working out) we would have to do 25 crunches or push-ups. A few times I dropped some resulting in a bruise and a small cut. All that to say we were truly putting blood, sweat and tears into helping build this church. The mountain we were on was beautiful. It rained a little on us, but I have a wonderful squad who didn’t complain, but rather continued to work hard and play hard. Moving those bricks was one of my favorite days on the race so far!
