Hello from Cuernavaca, where we have just finished our first day of painting at La Bendita Virgen in Yautepec, a small village in the Diocese about an hour (in heavy traffic) away from the Diocesan Center, but it seems farther away. I type this from a quiet middle-class neigborhood filled with weekend homes for Mexico´s wealthy. The church, on the other hand, is situated in a poor neighborhood and the average perishoner earns only $7 a day. We spent the day painting a church that while rundown was quite beautiful. After just one coat of paint, the simple blues and whites shined brilliantly in the afternoon sun. We finished our planned painting around 3:00, and washed the brushes until 4. The normally good-natured group of youth let forth our first stirrings of discontent at the prospect of washing paintbrushes in water already so thick with paint that it resembled cheap whitewash. So now you´ve got the summary of the day, and as this is a religious trip, I thought I´d throw in a few examples of what the group has taken to calling "God-moments." The first involves a group of children from the villiage who wandered on our worksite after school (yes, they are still in school). They ranged from 7-10 years old though looked younger (though who am I to talk?) The smiles on their faces as Scott talked in broken Spanish (and Jordan and I offered corrections)were priceless, and they, like everyone we have met, was nothing but happy to see us. A second one involves yours truly, though filtered through the far holier lens of Deacon John Hickey. One of the brushes I had judged clean was brought back to me 20 minutes later by our local handyman whose name I cannot spell and will not even attempt. I commented that our supervisors often expect more from us than we expect from ourselves. John, his mind apparently obscured by the turpentine whose smell pervaded the church, forgot what I said, but this eavning attributed a quote to me which I could only wish to have the wisdom to come up with. He told the group about my insight that "God often expects more of us than we do of ourselves." While inacuratly attributed to me, it contained words with which I leave you, this evening. Noone expects themselves to rush into a burning building to save a baby, yet they do. Many of us never expected ourselves to find the time, or the will to go on this trip, and yet here we are, with God as the supervisor of our work.
-ZM