It's Only Monday?

It feels like we've been through a week of building already - hard to believe it was just day one! It was a very difficult day for us all - physically and mentally quite challenging.  There was lots of climbing and navigating a steep rocky path (my estimate is 600' vertical) and another 3 hours jostling around in the back of the cattle truck up and down and around rough mountainous roads.  The "fun" of the back of the truck and beautiful landscape gets old after about the first 30 minutes of this.  Putting the planned 4 houses together today in all this traversing, was extra difficult and became rushed as the day closed and we were not able to put the roofs and finishing touches on the last two homes today, but we hope to be able to do that tomorrow, first thing, before we start the other 4 new homes tomorrow. We hope they are not located in locations so incredibly difficult to get to and from as 2 of them were today.

Please pray for strength, health and safety for us all to be able to do what we will need to do tomorrow and to do it with a continued spirit of grace and without missing out on the opportunities that God has for us to connect with the people here - the "God moments".  Our team is all getting along smashingly and we are amazed what we have been through and how God is providing for us.  Thank you for your continued prayers for us!

Matt

Horse in the House

While talking with one of the families whose house we were building today, they shared about what their old house was like.  They said there were many holes in the house, some of which were very large. And they were thankful to God that they never had any thieves.  However, often they would wake up and their horse would be inside! Their chickens also frequently came in.  The family joked that it was like living in a zoo! Fortunately the new house, with no holes, that they now have will provide much more protection and the family said they will sleep better at night feeling safer.  They also won't have to worry about their horse coming in anymore!

Despite the poor state of their previous house, the family was able to joke about it and embrace the humour of the situation!  I think that is something we can all learn from.  Being the horse lover that I am, I might find it funny the first time my horse joined me for breakfast but after a while I'd probably get tired of cleaning the manure up off the floor.  But as we encounter less than ideal situations in our day to day lives, lets try not to let them get us down.  Let's try to find the humour in the situation and make the most of what we have.

Tiff