Bayou La Batre Mission Trip 2009
A group from the Auburn Church of Christ and the Auburn Christian Student Center went down to Bayou La Batre, AL to help with the cleanup efforts.
Some notes from Steve Taylor:
Saturday afternoon after arriving in Bayou La Batre, we went to the beach on Dauphin Island to eat dinner and socialize and sing with a group from Hendersonville, TN who was here last week.
Sunday activities included church services in the morning, lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and work in the afternoon. Girls organized clothes that are provided to local people in need. Boys and girls started working on redoing the floor around the pulpit in the church building. Other boys did yard work around the church.
Also, on Sunday morning, several of us studied with two gentlemen from Bolivia who had recently started a bible study here. We found out that the people at the church here were expecting us to all be fluent in Spanish and they were also expecting us to take over the Spanish bible lessons. It turned out that one of the men could speak pretty good English, so there was hope for us.
On Sunday night, we arranged to start an evening bible lesson in Spanish so we went to pick up our new friends from Bolivia for a study session and dinner. Remy and Roberto turned out to be both 49-year-old men (same ages as Keith and me) who were working in the local shrimp processing plants to earn money to pay for their kids college education in Bolivia. You’ll see them in one of the photos.
On Monday, boys worked a good bit on the pulpit floor, did a little drainage work outside the church building, and also helped with some carpentry repairs in the building. This included replacing interior doors and installing new doors in one place. Boys and girls also did a good bit of cleaning. Girls spent most of the day in a local food bank sorting and
cleaning packaged foods.
Monday evening’s Spanish bible study saw 3 new students (Gabriel and his wife Emma and Ilberte) along with Remy and Roberto. Keith Maxwell has been leading the study sessions and doing a wonderful job. We have all learned a great deal about our friends from Bolivia and realize how great their needs are for friends who care about them. They are very eager to study the bible and learn about Jesus. I know I have a much greater appreciation for how they need love and respect and friendship from us. Roberto is a painter
(we’ll bring paintings he did for Keith and me) and a school teacher at home. Remy is jack of all trades, but has been the mayor of his hometown. Emma and Gabriel are expecting a child in a few months. Gabriel and Ilberte have been peacekeeping soldiers for the UN and have completed missions in Haiti and the Congo.
Here’s the tag line for our trip so far (all credit goes to Keith Maxwell): “Instead of a mission trip to Honduras, we ended up going to Bolivia.”
I think there is more carpentry and yard work on the agenda tomorrow.
We have been fed well with boiled shrimp, shrimp gumbo, and more boiled shrimp (which is entirely fitting in Bayou La Batre), and tonight one of the church members cooked crabs that they had caught for us.
Tell all moms and dads that they have wonderful kids who are doing good work.