In the morning...
"These were just a few members of my family in Ecuador that I miss dearly."
-milkinator.blogspot.com
man, paddy sure got it exactly right when he said "family". the greatest feeling was walking through the airport doors, seeing all those familiar faces there waiting for us, and feeling like i was coming home after being away for a long time. and that feeling set the tone for the entire trip for me.
this year's trip was much different than years past. this year we did not do any
street evangelism at all like we did the first two years that we went. we did, however do a ton of work on the church building! we tore down cinder-block walls, re-built cinder-block walls, cut holes in the concrete floor to lay pipes for plumbing...no...not "cut" holes....pounded holes in the concrete floor with a couple large, rusted pieces of old rebar. we mixed cement for three days, dug trenches, la
id a concrete footing for a fence, and literally mowed the lawn using shovels, pick-axes, and machetes. it was intense. praise God it was generally overcast in the mornings while we were working, except for a couple chunks of time here and there when the sun came out.
the morning work times were some of my favorite. even though it was hard work, there's just something about w
orking hard and getting dirty with a common goal in sight that transcends language. for me the language wasn't a problem this year, but it was so neat to see Paddy and Ismael, for example, who couldn't talk to each other, become friends just by competing to see who could push the heavier wheelbarrow or implying that the other was girly or couldn't handle all the hard work very well. you definitely don't need language to laugh with each other. and that was awesome. there was a ton of laughter durin
g all the work which made it a really joyful place to be in the mornings. and friendships were really built on that labor. and besides being beneficial to the church in that we were working to improve the property and buildings, i think it was also beneficial to the church in that it helped build the foundation for some lasting friendships.
so...that's what we did every morning. i'm pretty tired :-)
this year's trip was much different than years past. this year we did not do any
street evangelism at all like we did the first two years that we went. we did, however do a ton of work on the church building! we tore down cinder-block walls, re-built cinder-block walls, cut holes in the concrete floor to lay pipes for plumbing...no...not "cut" holes....pounded holes in the concrete floor with a couple large, rusted pieces of old rebar. we mixed cement for three days, dug trenches, la
id a concrete footing for a fence, and literally mowed the lawn using shovels, pick-axes, and machetes. it was intense. praise God it was generally overcast in the mornings while we were working, except for a couple chunks of time here and there when the sun came out.the morning work times were some of my favorite. even though it was hard work, there's just something about w
orking hard and getting dirty with a common goal in sight that transcends language. for me the language wasn't a problem this year, but it was so neat to see Paddy and Ismael, for example, who couldn't talk to each other, become friends just by competing to see who could push the heavier wheelbarrow or implying that the other was girly or couldn't handle all the hard work very well. you definitely don't need language to laugh with each other. and that was awesome. there was a ton of laughter durin
g all the work which made it a really joyful place to be in the mornings. and friendships were really built on that labor. and besides being beneficial to the church in that we were working to improve the property and buildings, i think it was also beneficial to the church in that it helped build the foundation for some lasting friendships.so...that's what we did every morning. i'm pretty tired :-)
posted by Amy at 12:30 AM
2 Comments:
sweet
I saw some pretty awesome pictures of wall-knocking down and dancing in the street. It sounded amazing.
Oh, and my camera is a Canon sd750.
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