May 3rd is an important day for our church here and also for many workers. Before the Feast of the DAY OF THE CROSS held little significance for me. Here it is celebrated by carpententers and construction workers as their DAY of recognition. A huge cross, behind the altar in the church, was beautifully decorated with fresh flowers. We are in the midst of remodeling and enlarging our clinic kitchen so we have extra construction workers who are working in the rain. Our hope was that the kitchen would be finished before the rainy season and the arrival of guests, but we did not succeed. Before departing Saturday, the workers built a small cross, decorated it, and erected it in the center of the kitchen construction. This is a custom of construction workers to have a cross to commemorate this day. Today they were delighted to pose with the cross.
The Clinic Kitchen is a very important service for our mission. Patients, workers, and guests to our mission are served delicious, nutritious meals daily. We obtained a grant to remodel and buy new appliances for this kitchen. Estefana and Metchas are the cooks and they both have worked many years for the Clinic. They will soon also benefit from a ONIL stove that saves wood, a new store room for basic food products and a place to store fire wood. The construction is being directed by our own Constructor, Martin, who is also head of Pastoral Health and Maintenance.
