Saturday morning we were on the beach by 7am to do a beach cleanup in El Tunco. Perfect 8' waves were breaking at La Bocana while we walked the beach. Ah, deprivation is good for the soul. We filled many large rice bags with an amazing assortment of flip flops, plastic bottles, paper, clothing, barbed wire, foam trays; basically the contents of all the houses that were flooded, added to the normal amount of beach trash. My most interesting find was a capped plastic bottle that I emptied; containing about a half-dozen large scorpions soaking in alcohol. Hum.....must have been delicious, but I didn't try it.
We ate breakfast back at Salvador's, and then went to the Christian Surfer's property here in El Tunco. We moved several tons of river rocks from one side of the property to the other, dug up weeds, collected trash, and generally spruced up what is going to become the site of construction later this summer by other CS teams that are coming here. Several of us sang "Working on the Railroad" and "Sixteen Tons" as we worked the "bucket brigade" handing the 10-30 pound rocks from one side to the other. It was hot, sweaty, tiring work, and I loved every minute of it.
Jesse, Basil, and I caught a ride with Maria Jose to El Sonte up the coast to try out a surf break there, in advance of the rest of the team arriving for the evening CS meeting and worship. The break is a point formed by a river mouth, that was spewing chocolaty brown water into the surf, with strong currents pulling you east towards the rocks across the bay. Jesse paddled out and managed to catch two closeout waves, while I took advantage of my experience (age) and opted to watch from a beachside palapa. Basil (age 15) went out on a boogie board and managed to get swept into the rocks, although fortunately, was not injured. The three of us spent the next two hours under a 2nd story palapa in the rain, being served nachos and smoothies, and watching the river continue to rise.
Eventually the entire team came up, and we set up on a small property there with a sound system, drop lights for lighting, and before long, nearly 100 people came to sing, praise God, and enjoy being (sort of) out of the rain. It was my turn to teach the lesson, and Salvador translated it for me. The wrist-bands I made for everyone to wear all day said "Jesus - liar, insane, or God" and cited Jhn. 1:1-6, and Mat. 16:13-20. Jesus didn't leave any wiggle room in His teaching about himself, and each of us must choose which one of those things we believe about Him. We have several seekers in our group, and this has been an amazing time of listening to them share their doubts and respond to their questions. The singing was in Spanish and English simultaneously, and very moving. It was clearly the most happing place in El Sonte that evening.
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