The Miracle of the 30 Meters:

After finding the grove of beautiful zapote trees (see last post) to build a challenge course, we noticed that it was very near the property line.

We also noticed a well that had been almost completely dug.

"Are we sure this grove is in our property boundaries?" Bill asked.

"We better double check," replied Alex.

We got back to the car as Alex pulled out a drawn map of property outlines. "This side of the property is 240 meters long. Should we measure?"

We took out some measuring tape and started measuring up the dirt road.

At 240 meters we saw a red marker on a tree. When I first purchased the property I asked one of my cousin's friends if he could mark the boundaries. He set off on a motorcycle to mark them with red paint.

We noticed other red marks and we began to follow them. The path cut right through the middle of the grove of trees.

"Well," Jordan said, "We still have several trees to work with, we could still make it work."

Knowing that finding these trees was too much of a miracle for us not to be able to use many of them, I asked Alex if he could find out who the property owner was on the other side to see if he could sell just that section to us.

We didn't actually have the money to buy more land, so Alex suggested that the owner may want to trade for another part of the land. He took some measurements to see how much to ask to trade.

"You need about 30 more meters east to get all the trees," he said, "I will see what I can learn at the government office. I am not sure who owns this area."

Our Neighbor

He didn't find anyone at the government office that afternoon, so he went in early the next day. The man who owned the property next to us "happened" to be there.

Alex asked him about the land. The man said, "Your measurements aren't quite accurate because the road curves, and whoever marked the trees with red must have also measured from the road. I already marked with a tractor where my property ends and where yours begins when I sold that piece of land 10 years ago. It is about 30 meters farther east than the red markings"

Alex went and found the trail.

Almost every big tree was on our side of the line.

God Cares

We are grateful that

1) We have such an honest and kind neighbor

2) Alex "happened" to run into him that morning.

3) He already marked our property line so we can get right to work. We just widened what he already made in order for Ben's truck to be able to fit back there.

4) For a kind God who cares enough to show us that He is aware of us and what we hope to do and prepared this place for us long ago, when these trees first started growing.

I filmed a "before" video yesterday morning to show what it looks like now and then we can keep updating you on the progress: