Construction Zone

Whenever short term teams set out they often hear (or should hear) that those endeavors honestly are more for what God wants to do IN them than THROUGH them. Sometimes when you're on the mission field you can sometimes forget that the same principle can still apply to you.

For the past 3 weeks we have been building homes to replace those lost in the fire. It has been one crazy endeavor as we honestly bit off a little more than we originally bargained for. You see, it's not just about going and everyone working together as one happy family kind of Extreme Makeover Home Edition style. There's a lot more stretching (physical, emotional, and spiritual) than one might expect in dealing with a task like this. We didn't know what it would entail, but God did. He knew EXACTLY how he wanted to use this whole thing to teach and stretch all of us involved and to drive some pretty big lessons into some fairly thick skulls (I may or may not be talking about myself).

One thing I definitely learned about is how our God is so unbelievably patient and forgiving and how insanely much... I am not. Over and over through my quiet times God would lay the smack down on how I wasn't glorifying him in certain ways, namely in my anger when people were found to be dishonest. I'll have to admit the "Irish" (and not the good part) in me reared it's head several times, but I'm hoping I've learned my lesson through it all as I realize that it's not good that they're lying/stealing/etc... but it's also not good for me to allow myself to be provoked to wrath and that I need to love them. One story that really hit me hard was when Jesus ate with the "sinners" and tax collectors. The people living in this area are well-known for being the opposite of anyone you'd want living near you, and a government official even said the people there were lazy and stupid. Recognizing that they are "sinners" and why should I be surprised when they sin? Why should I stop loving them because they have sinned against me, because if God worked that way we'd all be in big trouble!

I also learned things like where to buy bricks, plywood, and roofing materials... and I'll admit that I would have really loved a Lowe's after spending an hour waiting at just the roofing place.





Along with the internal and practical lessons, I also just had an absolute blast working alongside of some pretty amazing people! The Longs, Peterson's, Shalom, Davis, John, and Asimwe along with some other volunteers made it incredibly fun and made the hard stuff bearable. I honestly LOVED working on this project (even though it was hard at times) and am so thankful for the opportunity God gave me to be a part of it!