Dinner and some tears

What a wonderful day! The highlights include a dedication service for the family whose home we built and a meal together. The service was a blessing as the kids made grasias signs and the grandmother sang a beautiful hymn she wrote. Tonight we invited the family over for dinner were we are staying and just had a blast. We shared stories of how we met, fun things about our families and great laughs when language was too complicated to worry about.

As with any journey into a new place where you make new friends it's sad to leave. One of the daughters is 11 years old. All week long she rolled up her pants legs and worked as hard as everyone else. Tonight at dinner she had her mom to fix her hair in a French braid sort of pattern and wore a beautiful dress with her best shoes. She was oh so proud and she made me think of my own daughters about the same age. At the end of the worship service she came over and gave me a hug then turned quickly away. After following her I saw her tears and it got me going too. There we were the two of us with wet, concrete laidened tears flowing down our cheeks. At dinner tonight we sat together and share some great laughs.

I just can't help but imagine what it would be like if the tables we turned. What if I was in a make-shift house with my family of 5 and 4 others? Where would they sleep? How in the world could I feed them all, much less send the to school (there is no public school) all on a salary that never really met the absolute basics? Then in my mind I image this little girl's Dad showing up with some friends and building a home along side my kids slinging mortar and cement blocks.

Yes, it brings me to my knees. As brothers and sisters in Christ we are to share God's love even when it's difficult. It could just as well be my little girls sleeping under that torn blue tarp tonight. And it could just as easily be me riding a bike with a basket on front that I ride on all day to collect plastic bottles along the side of the road. Or it could be my wife sitting on a street corner with a sewing machine repairing shoes and clothes just to bring home a few pennies a day.

It's difficult to keep things short sometimes. Sorry if this has gotten a little long. I think the apathy that builds like creosote on my heart has been cleansed again and I can begin to feel God in the blisters on my hands and the cuts all long my legs. Maybe, just maybe God gave us all a glimpse of heaven....

For the team- Mike Womble