Just a little note before my blog: we will be moving to a new country today that is a closed country. I will be needing to put a password on my blog, if you would like to continue following my journey this month the password will be paxtyn. Thank you all for your support and following me on this journey. Love you all
A Bricklayer’s Daughter
I can proudly say I’m a bricklayer’s daughter. My whole life I grew up with a dad that woke up early day after day to feed the animals and head off to work. A job that happened in the blazing sun or the cold temperatures of winter. The toll it takes on a person’s body is also very hard. Being a bricklayer or even a laborer is hard work. But let me tell you, my dad is great at what he does and is such a hard worker and I couldn’t be prouder to say that.
Every summer I use to go to work with my dad and help him. When I was little it was mostly for company but then I got to where I was able to do some of the labor, I would work for him. I would spend long days outside helping set up the job site, making and carrying mortar and cutting and carrying bricks and stones. My dad, having the artistic eye that he does, built some of the most beautiful and well thought out houses, buildings, mailboxes, fireplaces and much more. We would always have people coming up to talk to him, usually contractors and sometimes just neighbors. One thing my dad never did was see his job just as that but also an opportunity to spread the gospel to those around him. He was always sharing the word of God with his employees, contractors and whoever else happened to cross his path. Seeing that was definitely an inspiration for my life. Not only did he show me how to talk to people about God but I also learned a lot about his job. From watching him, I learned how to chip a brick down to fit where it needed to go, how and where to place the bricks, how to put the mortar on the right way so that you wasted as little as possible, how to get the bricks even after being placed and how to do it all to the best of your ability. There’s a lot that goes into bricklaying and I’d say I had one of the best teachers.
This month I got to put some of the things I had learned while working aside my dad into play. While in the Philippines, we spent some time building raised garden beds for the pastor we were staying with and working alongside. Although it’s not a house or even bricks, it reminded me so much of those days I would spend with my dad on the job site. For the raised garden beds, we took blocks and built them up two high and made boxes that we filled with a layer of cardboard, then dirt, dry leaves and compost and then another layer of leaves. These garden beds are supposed to help bring the worms in to help make the plants grow better. By the time we left we had made 9 raised garden beds. This was one of my favorite ministries so far because I love doing work outside and it just brought up such sweet memories. Now they may not be as pretty as the work my dad does and the supplies were a bit different but I think my team and I did a pretty great job on them and we had some of the best company working alongside each other.
This project also helped bring me into more confidence as my team knew I had done stuff like this before and would ask me questions. It’s not something they had to ask me but they chose to ask me because its something they knew I could help them with. It was so nice to know what would work best and how to do this or that and help others as we worked together to finish this project. I would like to send out thanks to my team for encouraging me to step into that role and to take confidence in my knowledge and abilities. I have really enjoyed working alongside all of you this past month and am looking forward to sharing more months together. I would also like to send a shout out to my dad for not only sharing his skills in bricklaying but also being that awesome God-loving leader in my family’s lives. This month, I found so much excitement being able to build these and remember all the fun memories of sitting by my dad talking as we worked or him asking me if I would like to work with him and always bringing God into almost every conversation throughout the day. I may be a hairstylist now and a thousand miles away doing different things in my life but working with my daddy will always be one of my favorite jobs.
I will always be proud to say that I am a bricklayers daughter!
