What the heck is a Ding-Ding!? Could be an assortment of meanings in the English Language, but actually it means “Wall” in Tagalong. The past 2 weeks a group of us have been working on building a new house for a family, which attends & is very active in the PCF church. I was glad to accept something other than shoveling crap out of the road honestly.
My background on building things. Hmm, well I am Really Great at Legos, since there are step-by-step instructions to follow. There is that one time I made a Ginger Bread House, and I also assisted in making concrete walls in Belize about 9 years ago. So, I am not the most construction prepared person in the world, but it was for an amazing cause.
All around the neighborhood of the church, people literally live in shacks, made out of scraps, rotten plywood and tarps. The houses are filled with rats, deadly spiders, poisonous centipedes, and Lots of cockroaches. How do I know this? I saw them all while taking apart the original house, and honestly it was ridiculous. When it rains, it usually floods the houses and people have to learn how to sleep sitting up or on top of furniture, if they have any.
The 3rd day of “work” we were out on the house project, Pastor Nel, who knows the Entire plan and design & steps for building this house, points at me and says “You are the Leader, come and I tell you the plans for the day”. I hesitated, because well Amy is Technically the “leader” and I did not feel like I would be able to understand and realize the steps of work that we needed to do for the day. I was the only guy out there, and so he appointed me to be in charge of prayer and instructions. Pastor Nel even left for a few hours, and it was kinda tough for me to stay focused and Know what was needing to be done. On a side note, we were digging trenches and laying the 4 Main cement brick foundation walls, so they are a Very Important piece of construction.
The day went well, and in the end it actually felt kinda good and empowering to be “in-charge” for a bit. Even the next few days Pastor Nel continued to point at me and inform me plans. In a way, it’s sort of how God’s working in me and surely Challenging me to Step Up and grab Control of situations. In my past, I’m usually in the back being a Good Team Player and not technically in charge. I’ve had leadership roles before, and they just really made me kinda scared since I wasn’t really sure Most of the time How or What in the world I was doing.
We weren’t able to finish the house before we leave, yet we did help out a lot and show the community we cared about and put forth Effort in helping them out. The family and locals who helped were So Nice and friendly. Wonderful people.
With the new house when it is finished, it will be 2 stories, the concrete base will Help So much in preventing flooding to a certain level, and a New start for the Wonderful God-Loving family. Trust me, it will be a Mansion compared to all the other houses in the area. Pictures will be shown below, and I’m also working on another video specifically for the PCF Community Church and will post that soon.
I’ve Loved working with and being apart of this community of Joyful and Happy people. Pray for our team for health and safe travels in the next few days. Malaysia in 3 days.
The last day at the worksite. Us guys worked on the last few days with the family.
