3/8/11
Yesterday, we began our day by adventuring deep into the
jungle (following our Muslim friends Manik and Kokon) to find the perfect
bamboo trees to cut down to use as sturdy posts for the new part of the farm we
cleared during our first two days. (Side note: They finally began burning the
piles of brush and it was so rewarding to see them go up in flames!!) After
watching the cute little Bangladeshi men pound their machetes on different
trees as we walked to find the best ones, we came to a place in the jungle
where we stopped and the men ventured into the trees to begin cutting. We felt
like we were in a scene from Final
Destination because they would disappear into the jungle and wouldn’t tell
us which tree they were cutting so we all panicked when we heard one falling
and ran around aimlessly trying to escape the fall. We worked hard the rest of
that day and the next two days carrying hundreds of heavy 5-foot bamboo poles through
the muddy, leech-infested jungle up a hill about 1/4 mile where we began making a
pile. We took hundreds of trips down and back with bamboo-very monotonous work.
We have all gotten pretty cut up and had plenty of mosquito bites and shed blood
due to the obnoxious leeches that somehow manage to attach themselves to our
bodies and suck our blood as we carry bamboo. UGH!!
[one of my many leech bites]
However, during those three days of work, we took advantage of
the many hours of hard labor and passed the time more quickly by having
intentional one-on-one conversations with our teammates. At Debrief, Sean Smith
challenged us to come up with three measurable things we could do as a team to
grow deeper. One thing I brought up during our meeting was that we’re doing
great and growing as a team, but our individual relationships with each other
one-on-one are suffering. Last month in Thailand, we experienced incredible
growth as a team and worked through a lot of issues together, but we were stuck
and didn’t know where to go next. That is one of the the things we decided as a
team that we need to work on to step into more of what God has for us. We
didn’t know exactly what it would look like-if we needed to schedule specific
times with each other or just let it happen. I think since everyone is on board
with it, one-on-ones have been happening quite naturally. It has been so
refreshing and I have been so blessed and encouraged by my teammates!
Also, God is continuing to bind our team closer together
through the hard times. Our budget this month has been pretty tight with all
the extra transportation costs-at the beginning of the month, we had $300 for
food for the entire month. We want to be good stewards of the money we have
raised, so we agreed to live on $2/day per person for food. We began praying as
a team for God to provide and He has definitely been taking good care of us. Because
of our obedience and prayers, God has opened up more money from other areas of
the budget to use for food, as well as blessing us with an incredible church
family in our new ministry location at the beach who loves feeding us, giving
us multiple cups of coffee and snacks, paying for meals, insisting that we use
their internet, and just taking great care of us in general. They are such a
blessing!! Thank You, LORD!! J
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Support
update: $835 left to raise!!
