Brothers and Goats

It shouldn't have come as such a surprise, but it did. For years, I've had the pleasure of working side-by-side with Mexican men on construction worksites who I've come to know as "Hermanos" or "Brothers in Christ." These brothers may have been paid workers or volunteers from churches across Mexico, but regardless, they were prepared to share the worksite with Americans and demonstrated a kind of worksite hospitality. And so, when I had a different experience, I was surprised.

What does that mean, you say? Worksite hospitality? Well, I had never thought about it myself until I encountered the "goats!" What are "goats," you say? Well, let me explain.

"Goats" is a term used by some Mexicans to describe short-term laborers who are called in for special jobs that demand high energy and a willingness to engage in riskier work situations like running up & down steep ramps with buckets of wet cement on their shoulders to pour cement ceilings and other challenging work. In order to have the manpower to complete The Big Pour, Pablo hired a crew of goats who arrived last night about 9PM and who worked until after 4AM. As these new workers joined in with the rest of the Mexicans and Americans who had been working for hours, they made their presence known quickly. These guys were intense! They literally ran to fill buckets with gravel & sand, ran up the steep ramps with cement buckets, and set about getting the jobs done as soon as possible. This was exactly what they were hired to do, and yet it felt very different than working with the brothers.

Workings with Brothers in Christ on the worksite includes a kind of worksite hospitality that helps Americans feel welcome and capable. They try to communicate with us, even if it's through totally non-verbal communication. They want to know our names and tell us theirs. They are patient with us as we fill buckets more slowly, and they patiently teach us how to do things like tying rebar. They seem interested in us and receptive when we try to build relationships with them. They can tell when we Americans are exhausted and need someone to spell us from a job, but they still give us a chance to work as hard as we can. They join us in prayer.

With the goats, everything I described about the brothers was absent. They took shovels out of my hands, resisted my efforts to help, didn't seem to want to connect at all with us, and frankly, I got the feeling that they really just wanted me out of their way! So, I moved out of their way and let them do what we asked them there to do - work hard, work fast and help get a HUGE job done.

I kept asking myself, "what's the God-message in this?" I pondered it as I did jobs they wouldn't do, like carrying buckets of water to cement mixers. I forced myself to reflect instead of ruminating about how much I didn't like working with them and about my suspicions that their high energy level was drug-induced. I keep pondering and finally it registered! Yes, the expected answer to prayers was that we had the help we needed to get the roof project done. But the unexpected God-message was, "Doesn't it feel great to work alongside those OTHER guys? Doesn't it feel great to work with your brothers in Christ who share the broader ministry project goals with you, who will pray with you, who want to be in relationship with you, who work with you in every sense of the word? Had you ever really thought about how meaningful that is?" In truth, I knew the worksite relationships were meaningful, but it took working with a bunch 'o goats to make me really appreciate just how special they are! Thanks be to God for giving us powerful messages in the most unexpected moments.

And how ironic that one of my favorite scriptures (Matthew 25:25-40) is prefaced with these words: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left."

And to paraphrase from Joshua, "but as for me and my house, we will hang with the sheep!"