Shamrell Pacific: Building on Faith, part 1

The sister missionaries in Loon (lo-ohn) Branch have been teaching an elderly man named Vicente. He's 78 years old and is the last of his generation in his family. Vicente lives in a little place behind the home of some other family members, and there are others nearby. His house is pretty dilapidated and family members weren't jumping to get things repaired.

They also weren't very pleased with him meeting with the Mormon missionaries and told him that, if he continued, he'd have to live somewhere else. He was pretty dismayed to hear this, as he had a strong desire to be baptized. I imagine his family thought that would put an end to it. Not so!

The missionaries talked with the branch president, who said he had a little house on his property which was not in use. He offered to let us dismantle the house and rebuild it elsewhere. The day was set and some other missionaries, a couple of branch members, and we arrived to take down the little plywood house.

This house doesn't look like much at all, to Americans, does it? When I saw it, I thought, "That's about the size of the shed we plan to build in our backyard when we go home." But it's basic shelter. This is a very common type of house in the Philippines, just built simply of thin plywood or bamboo. People will live in a house like this and replace or reinforce parts as needed, as the wood begins to deteriorate.

Lots of nails to be removed.

Taking a break for grilled bananas

A little lumber-yard Tinikling

Taking the house apart took just a few hours and then the lumber was loaded and taken, in two trips, on the branch president's itty-bitty truck.

The family had told Vicente that he could use a certain spot on their property for his new house. When we arrived with the materials, they'd decided to give him a different spot, instead, which was all overgrown and had to be cleared.