I asked for manual labor projects from God and He answered my prayers with a willing yes. And boy does my body feel it. The past week of my time here in Guatemala has been spent wheelbarrowing large rocks/boulders across the yard through muddy soil to create a tire retaining wall to prevent the property from erosion. We dump rocks out of our wheelbarrows and then we have a few of us throwing rocks into the tires, and the remainder of our crew has the lucky honor of attempting to stuff these boulders in the huge tires to create this fence-like structure. It is exhausting when your body isn’t used to this type of work. I have been working mainly on filling the wheelbarrow and pushing it across the yard. My forearms felt bruised by day 3.
As I was on my 1027462910 trip back to our rock pile to fill yet another load into my wheelbarrow, I looked to my teammate and said “I hate knowing how much easier this could be if we just had a bobcat”. Dad, I was so thankful in that moment for your bobcat and for all of our yard projects we’ve accomplished so quickly with it. That saying of work smarter not harder, yep I was thinking it. But knowing just how hard you need to work for getting this job done, it was so satisfying knowing how much even one extra hand could make an impact. It was hard, rewarding work.
Once that project was finished, we used a pickax to loosen up the clay soil and used our hands to dig in and throw it as filler into the rock around the tires. Realizing just how much work you need to put in when you only have the simple tools is crazy.
So you may be asking why the heck we are building a fence with tires. Let me give you a bit more insight on my ministry here in Guatemala.
Blue Water Surrender is located on a beautiful waterfront property on Lake Isabel, a fresh saltwater lake fed by the Atlantic Ocean. Our ministry host Gail is the most incredible and adventurous woman I’ve ever met. She’s practically sailed the entire ocean for crying out loud. Gail was called into this mission here in Guatemala about 5 years ago when The Lord wanted her to open an orphanage. And so she’s been working her butt off to get that accomplished ever since. Little did Gail realize just how difficult the process would be and yet here she is still 5 years later persistently working & praying to get it opened for these children. You could say Gail is my role model.
And so that is why we are getting our hands dirty throwing mud & pushing wheelbarrows all day to build this tire fence. To do it for Gail’s vision and to have beautiful little Guatemalan children running around this amazing waterfront property someday. It’s not about me, it’s to let people know they are worthy & loved, and to build His Kingdom here in Guatemala.
