Month 2: Jungle
You have to admit, God is pretty creative with His landscapes, and we’ve been able to experience some diverse ones so far! This month my team and I are in Trujillo, Peru, living and working, with another team from our squad, at a future children’s home that is 
under construction. It is located in a very poor area on the outskirts of the city, and is going to be used for children who either do not have parents or whose parents live and work in the dump and just cannot provide adequate care for them. We’ve visited a day care center that takes care of some of the kids near the dump who may very well be some of the children moving in to this home. They are precious and it makes it all the more special to be working on this place for them to enjoy. 
And when I say work, I really do mean WORK. I’m not sure I have ever done this much physical labor in my life, at least not for such an extended amount of time. We spend between 7 and 8 hours a day working either on making bricks for a wall, tending to the corn field (whatever step of the process we are currently on) or painting. Almost every day I have been on the brick job site which has included shoveling, pick axing, mixing mud with bare feet, more shoveling, putting mud in molds, making bricks, moving bricks, stacking bricks, etc. It has been so rewarding, but whew! I am tired at night! It is very different from the more relationship-based ministries we’ve done the last two months, and even the corn planting and macheteing we did last month was not as tiring as this.
Something God has been teaching me, though, is that He is my strength when I have none. And trust me – sometimes I’m pretty positive I have none! Colossians 1:29 says “To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me.” I recognize the fact that Paul is talking mostly about the labor of sharing the Gospel, but I know that this verse can very well be applied to whatever other labor He calls us to in order to serve Him. He says that we labor with HIS energy. So basically, I don’t have to worry about whether or notI have the strength to do something. He’s got me covered. His strength, not mine. He’ll equip me to do whatever He needs me to do, no matter if that is loving on little kids at the daycare, sharing His word door-to-door, or spending hours being a human mud mixer. His strength, not mine.
