Tons of Debris! Clearing an Earthquake-destroyed room and Showing God’s love

During the recent Mexico earthquakes, a large section of Doña Juana´s old, adobe house had caved in, filling the area with, what appeared to be, two truckfuls of debris.  Unfortunately, Juana lives alone, and has neither the strength nor the equipment to clear the debris out of her house. 

One his trip to Buenavista, Doña Juana asked Paco to borrow his wheelbarrow to start moving the rocks.  However, when Paco arrived with the wheelbarrow, he quickly realized that this task was too great for a single lady.  Instead, he organized his team to start shoveling.

The work was grueling: rock

after rock, shovel after shovel, load after load they wheeled out debris from the area in 90° heat and humidity.  After the first couple hours, the men started taking breaks every five minutes even: dousing their heads in water to beat the heat. After 5 hours, men on the team started giving up, appealing to Paco to continue the work the following trip

out.  However, Paco rallied the team, having them recite Philippians 4:13 (“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”) under their breath as they worked to show love to Doña Juana.  And, after another hour, they had finished, exposing only clear cement floor.

Doña Juana was beside herself

with amazement and gratitude, repeatedly asking how much she owed the men for their work, and marveling at their response that the work was a free gift of love, just like Christ´s gift of forgiveness.  She had tears on her face as she thanked them and the men prayed for her. 

Paco has no doubt that this

was a miraculous work of God: First, this job required a bulldozer to clear literally tons of debris from the area; not a job for simply 5 men with shovels.  Second, as they moved truck-loads of dirt and rocks, they did not find a single scorpion (in this very scorpion-infested area!). Paco is sure they are there, but the Lord miraculously blinded and

protected them from these creatures so that they could finish the job. 

And, the work was well worth the effort when even Doña Juana admitted that these men were “sent from God” to help her.