House Build

Today is one of everyone’s favorite days…house build.  I think one reason is because we start the day with only a foundation, and by the end of the day the family is living in their new home. Once again, Matt started the morning off with a devotion.  As usual, great discussion around the breakfast table. We did have to make one stop on the way this morning.  When we start the build, the family is probably very hungry.  We have snacks and drinks.  We stopped at a local tienda (store) and bought a lot of items.  We bought extra eggs, beans, corn mix, oil, and other treats to help them.  I don’t move quite fast enough for Ben.  He gently reminds me we have a lot of work to do.  🙂 The family watched intently all day long.  The 17-year old son Juan helped us throughout the day.  We discovered that Juan is definitely married.  His young wife is very sweet.  She is pregnant.  I’m proud of him for doing the right thing and bringing her into the family. Each guy on the team worked so hard today.  We all worked on the house until we got it to a certain point.  Bill, Nino and Noah worked on the outhouse.  I think they had to hand-cut just about every piece of metal. Oliver, Matt, Dave and I worked on the windows, stove, doors and decorated the house when we got finished.  Ben Mooney is one of the most patient people I know.  We all asked him questions throughout the day. He was always so kind and helped where he could. At the dedication, we had the opportunity to speak into their lives.  It was a unique situation because the family did not speak Spanish.  They spoke Ketche.  We had a wonderful translator who connected the group.  The mom was very sweet and was absorbing all that was going on.  The son Juan was also very engaged.  He is in a very challenging situation.  He now supports two families.  He has his biological family he seems to serve with a great sense of duty.  He has his new family with his pregnant wife.  It will be a very difficult road ahead of him.  At some point life is going to hit him.  I told him to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I’m loving this team.  Great conversations around the dinner table.  Ben challenged us to go around the table and tell where we saw Jesus today.  We all had things we saw.  Very good time discussing. Tomorrow we install two stoves and visit families.  Those are the days I love the most.

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