The catch phrase on this (or any) mission trip is "flex and bend". Since you're out of your comfort zone and familiar surroundings and operating on someone else's schedule, there is a lot of flexing and bending going on! Well today was our last
work day at the Abraham Project and probably the most frustrating but the most rewarding as well! We went back to digging our postholes that we started yesterday, we remeasured and made sure the stakes were in the right places--exactly as we were told.............yesterday...
Alot can change in a day.....
After we had almost finished digging 3 holes, 50 cm deep, (by hand) the foreman, Oraku decided to space the posts out a little more. Translation: your hole's off!!!
Seriously?
Breathe.....flex and bend....
We were tired and not to happy to fill those holes in and start over, but we did! I reminded the ladies this was 'character building'. I think either Oraku felt bad for us or was just afraid to leave us alone, but he stuck around and helped us dig the new holes. We sat and took a break and got to talk with him and got to know what an awesome man of faith he is!! It was such a blessing to hear him talk about his relationship with God! Suddenly it was easier to flex and bend because the work wasn't as important than getting to know a Costa Rican brother in Christ. After he left us to set the posts in the new holes, he came back by and gave us a 2 liter Coke! How sweet that was! We finished setting those concrete posts and gave a huge cheer! You'd of thought we'd climbed Mt Everest! Lol
After dinner, I led devotion, and as usual I didn't say most of what I'd planned, but I
guess I shared what God led me to say and what someone needed to hear! I encouraged a time of sharing and several people spoke of the awesome things they experienced during the week. Pat closed our devo giving praise to God by reading Psalm 103. It was a very emotional time just listening to the scripture, letting the meaning sink in, worshiping our Great God as a team.
Hi - I am Kerby's sister n law and followed your comment on their blog to your site - I've been reading about the trip through your blog and what a blessing it is to hear some of the details from the team's perspective. When reading this post about digging post holes, I couldn't help but think about the story in Genesis (ch. 26th maybe?)when Isaac was having his servants re-dig his father's wells that the Philistines had filled in. And the herdsman of Gerar argued with them over the possession of the water so Isaac had to keep digging more wells (not an easy task!). But the Bible records no complaining - only, "So Isaac moved to another well and dug again" (paraphrase) - what a similar story only without contention :) ~ Just thought I'd share. Hope it encourages!
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