12/14/10 Wednesday, Dig Up the Dirt.

Today we dug up dirt around the mission house. Apparently, it floods too much around the house so they needed to even out the land around the house. So who better to do it than 12 strong, young, able-backed missionaries??? Actually, I am hyping us up way more than we deserve! We are so weak compared to the guys that do work around the orphanage. What took us 30 min to dig took Marcos 5 minutes! That is hardly an exaggeration either! Can you believe it?? We had to bust up concrete, and we did not have a jack hammer. We used pick axes and lots of back power. Marcos came in and with a few hits was able to pull up the entire slab of concrete!! Our pride is constantly being broken. I guess my prayer worked. Every time we thought we were high and mighty and doing something good for them, they would humbly show us that they were perfectly able to do it on their own. We were just there to help. A few of us would dig up dirt, shovel it into buckets, and others would grab the buckets and walk it allllll the way to the dirt pile 100 miles away, and bring the buckets back to be filled again. The others would shovel the broken concrete into a wheelbarrow and the one with the most energy at that particular moment would walk the 100lb wheelbarrow 100miles to the rock pile next to the dirt pile. Which was next to the garbage pile that they burned every evening. (Side note: the garbage man does not go to small villages to pick up trash and bring it to the dump, they had to burn all their trash in the “back yard” which was right next to their fresh vegetation. Can you say "carcinogens??" Not healthy for the environment, and not healthy for the body. But they have to do what they have to do, right?) Okay, so maybe the piles were not 100 miles away, BUT the orphanage was on about 2 acres of land, and the piles were about ½ way between the acres. Everything seems farther when you are exhausted and have been carrying bucketfuls of rocks back and forth. However, even though we were all exhausted, none of us ever complained!! It was incredible to feel needed, wanted, knowing that we were working for God’s kingdom, and we were working HARD.

The trek to the piles weren’t so bad because the view was absolutely beautiful!!! I WILL REMEMBER THAT SUNSET FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE!! The lush green leaves in the green bean field beautifully reflected the warm rays of the setting sun. The air was fresh and lightly breezy. It was as if Angels were softly stroking my dirt-streaked cheeks and lifting my weak arms to carry the bucket all the way to the finish line. I talked to God the whole way, each time, and all I could do was thank Him. All I could do was marvel at His majesty. His beautiful workmanship with the people, the orphans, the plants, and the sun. He is such an artist. The maker of Heaven and Earth, the mastermind behind humanity and the universe. And the great planner of this awesome trip. I am so thankful.

By the end of the afternoon, we looked like we were the finalists of SURVIVOR! We get to choose the ONE night we want to take a shower, and I’m pretty sure we all agreed that tonight was shower night. Marge had a sweet bandana on with war streaks of dirt across her cheek bones. Our sunglasses all had little chips in them from protecting our eyes from projectile concrete! Our shirts were nearly black, no matter their original color, and stretched out from carrying rocks in them to the Great Piles. Though beaten, bruised, cut up, and exhausted, we had great satisfaction. This was the work of God’s hands, and it felt GOOD! For the record, I was a BEAST at busting up concrete with a pick axe. Too bad I really hurt my hand . After we thought all was said and done, here come the kids. Running to us after dinner. Every day at the same time. IT’S GAME TIME!!!

We played and played until our bellies busted with laughter and our cheeks were stuck in the smiling position. We ingested more dirt, got more bruises and cuts, but MAN it was worth it! Another night of freedom. Thank you, Lord. Thank you.


Tonight, we invited Julia and Guadalupe to worship with us! We worshipped with them in Spanish during the afternoon devotional, but we wanted to show them how we Americans get down in the Spirit! The Spirit was so thick! We sang “Mighty to save.” We sang the verses in English while they sang the verses in Spanish at the same time. It was so cool! It reminded me of Acts in the second chapter when the Holy Spirit finally came down and everyone was praising the Lord in their own tongues (languages). MAN that was cool!! We always came together on the verses in the Spanish and it was SO GOOD!!! We sang LOUD and proud, shaking the Heavens and the Earth (and there was no one there to call the cops)! It was so inspiring, so uplifting, so…spirit-filling

We all talked about what was changing in us, and there was definitely a common theme.
SLOW DOWN
LIVE IN THE MOMENT
LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE
THIS IS WHERE GOD WANTS US

Julia said some really meaningful things to us tonight. She began to tell us about the dump we are going to see tomorrow. She kept apologizing for her broken English, but she spoke for about 45 min. straight, no exaggeration. There were so many words of wisdom; I thought I would share some with you all.

1) God is making His work here (Nicaragua).
2) If you don’t have passion and love for what you do…leave.
3) Let’s see where we land.
4) Don’t stop dream, and to get to them, you are going to cry a lot.
5) You never really know
6) I wanted to be a lawyer, I even got my degree and license, but there is only one problem, I like my job (here)!
7) All your life you want to accumulate things, and then you die and people have a party with your things.

She is just so wise!! I could write for hours about how she is a mentor to us, a mama hen. I will tell you the story of Hogar Belen orphanage a little later. But for now, off to bed. We go to the dump and the sewing center tomorrow. NIGHT!

p.s. I hope I’m not sore!!!!