about 2 years ago, i went on a mission trip to Arkansas. to this day, it is my favorite mission trip i’ve been on! reason why? well, let me explain.
okay so this is going to sound miserable to a lot of you, but in Arkansas, the team i was in and i were put in this culdesac (idk how to spell it) to tear down a porch and rebuild it with a ramp.
a little background: the ramp was for an elderly woman’s husband who was in a wheelchair, but he passed away about a week before we got there unfortunately.
okay here we go. so it started out all good and dandy, demolishing this old porch until we started digging! eventually, we dug enough to reach SEWER… yeah it was gross. a huge health risk, but we worked anyway because we knew that this porch with a ramp was what would glorify the Kingdom and would change this woman’s life.
so, sewer. yeah it was bad. it smelled and the rain didn’t help and i wanted to throw up every 5 minutes, but I PUSHED ON. i sweat and sweat and sweat. and sweat and sweat and sweat. and sweat some more. and sweat… EVERYWHERE. head to toe. the heat and humidity i thought were unbearable, and it was a huge health risk for the woman and especially for us. it stopped raining after a few days and we were able to finish the porch and it was beautiful! the woman’s reaction and thankfulness was beautiful!! doing God’s work was beautiful!!!
i tell you this because the new ministry (manual labor/children’s ministry at an orphanage about an hour out of the city) that my team and i started here in chiang mai yesterday is “same same, but different” to Arkansas.
water runs out of the washing machines into this spot outside of one of the little houses and it gets gross and mosquitos are all over it which is super unsafe for the children, so we started digging this trench in order to put 6 inch pipes from there and down far from the children’s reach.
today, T.M.I., but i was talking about my butt sweat and how my jeans were different colors and we were all laughing about it! then, our team leader zibby (elizabeth), said “butt sweat and tears” which we all got a good laugh out of. it sent me back to all the sweat and smells and dangers in Arkansas and i remember why it was my favorite. the beauty of God’s hands through ours, and again i see that here. we destroyed and rebuilt. God does the same thing. the destruction is the worst part, rebuilding is the hard part, and the finished product is the best part.
God rocks, y’all.
