Precious in His Sight: April 2010

Today as I was standing there next to the sawdust carpet we had made, taking photographs of the procession that was about to walk across it, and destroy it, I was thinking about this custom and while I don't know all the symbolism of this event, here is what occurred to me....

On this day we make these beautiful carpets - then these people carrying a statue of Jesus carrying the cross walk across the carpets - destroying them - taking something beautiful and making it a mess - BUT Jesus does exactly the opposite!

We are a mess, we are not beautiful, but with Jesus he changes that and can make us something beautiful! Put us back together! We don't have to be a mess, but He can put things into order and make us how we were intended to be.

I picked Mary Cruz and her kids up at 2:30 a.m. and we headed to the Central Park in Comayagua. There were already many people who had partially completed their alfombras who had been working all night.

We met some of our students there and got to work.

Mary Cruz had the design drawn out on paper, with the colors of the sawdust that we would use in various sections.

Here we are beginning with the dark green sawdust. Spreading out in that area.

Manuel is working on the yellow outline of the cross, using a paintbrush to move the sawdust into the lines and brush away the yellow getting into the green section.

The boys working on the outline of the cross.....

I am working with Daniella on the green section, carefully spreading it to the line marking where the purple sawdust will beginning. We used sort of like a colandar to shake the sawdust out, keeps it from coming out in clumps....I wasn't so good with the shaking method...

After you get it down then you use the board I have in my hand, to press it down and level it out.

Still working on that outline.

Manuel....he is too happy for 4 a.m.!

MaryCruz

Fernando starting on the purple section. He is using the colandar, shaking the sawdust out.

MaryCruz holds the board to keep the purple from going onto the yellow outline that they worked so hard on!

Still working on the outline...I am glad I didn't have that job!

And you can see where we have started to fill in the cross with pieces of tree bark.

Marisol and Daniela working on the purple section.

The bag you see behind them is full of colored saw dust.

MaryCruz holds up the long board along the edge as Andrea and Marisol lay the sawdust out to the edge of our creation.

Many people use stencils for a lot of their designs, whether they are just shapes, or flowers or even the face of Jesus. This is the stencil we were using for the top and bottom border.

First we put down the light green sawdust for the border

Then lay the stencil on top of that border

Then we used red sawdust to sprinkle on top of the stencil and the red sawdust goes through the openings to make the design.

You can see the stencil laying to the side that we used, still with the red sawdust that was caught and didn't make part of the design.

Another important step is to spray it down with water. This keeps it all in place, it is something that is done throughout the morning, and one of the favorite jobs of the kids.

Fernando's turn to spray.

Here is the border we made with the stencil.

Our final completed work of art!

The Ruach symbol in the bottom corner....

MaryCruz had designed that on a separate cardboard piece. She drew the design with black cord, and the white part she had glued rice. Then Manuel and I filled in the sections with green sawdust and yellow sawdust to make the Ruach sign.

It took us about 4 1/2 hours to make this alfombra.

The procession has begun....Here is the actor who portrays Jesus, along with one of the kids who is dressed up as Jesus. As the procession goes along there will be more "little Jesuses" who join in.

They are approaching our carpet!

AAHHHH!!!! They are walking on it! Our creation we started on at 3 a.m. and now by 9:00 a.m. it will be destroyed!

Yep, it's been walked on....so now we had to take turns standing on it.

So sad! All our work!

Now the children come with plastic bags and plastic bottles to fill with the sand. They take it home and play with all the pretty colors!

This was my favorite alfombra - it was a pictures of the Lord's supper. It was made with different types of seeds. It was so beautiful!

Here are some of the alfombras (carpets) that are made of colored sawdust. These are beautiful and amazing! The pictures can't really show how amazing they are! Some of the details on these are amazing!

CENTRAL AMERICA STUDENT CONVENTION 2010 - FINAL POST

There we are....the 27 students and 4 sponsors from Ruach who attended convention. I think we all had a great time! I know that I did and I am excited about International Convention!

Henry and I will be taking a group of students from Ruach to International Convention in May, where we will also go and visit Miss Annette and Mr. Lance and baby Josiah, and do some sight seeing and fun activities with the kids....and shopping!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the students and the activities they competed in at Convention. Honestly I don't think I could ever tell you all the fun the kids have...the excitement they experienced, the fears they overcame, the seeds that were planted in their lives during that week!

Thank you for being a part of making this possible for these students, and for being a part of their lives through your prayers!