During our last week in El Nido, we worked with Pastor Abus in beginning the construction of a new Zion Church in Danat. Those few days were probably my favorite!
For a while now, Pastor Abus had been trying to get this church started. Danat is a really small town, but it’s residents are hungry to know God. Though it’s only a 20 minute trike-ride from El Nido, it would be far to walk, and the people of Danat cannot afford to take a trike into El Nido every week for church.
It wasn’t until our last week in town that Pastor Abus was able to gather all the materials (they don’t need to buy anything! All materials are collected from the jungle), and so our work began!
This is the work site before we began:
After it was cleared, we were put in charge of readying the support poles by removing the bark:
Holes were dug, posts were placed, and clay was dug up and transported to created an even floor for the church:
While we were working, some witchdoctors came out and helped us. We asked the pastor why they would come out to help, and he said that their wives were now Christians, and had told their husbands to go out and help build the new church! lol.
Here is the last picture I took of the church before leaving Danat (the smoke from the brush pile that was created while clearing the field:
There’s a lot more I could say about those 3 days, and what a blessing they were! Pastor Abus and his family are amazing people, filled with God’s love! You can tell just by talking with him that the power of the Holy Spirit is alive and active in and through him! I look forward to visiting El Nido again someday and seeing his church fully built!! (yes, i will be back! =P )
On another note, our last 2 days in El Nido we went back to GK site to continue work on those houses! We didn’t finish them, but they’re looking good! If materials keep flowing in, they should be ready to move into soon!
Below is a short video showing what Gawad Kalinga (GK for short) does, and what we did while working with them:
