For those of you who know the song I'm referring to with the title, I'm so sorry that your ears have been subjected to that torture. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, be eternally grateful. When you're playing Spades every night, you come across the word "diamond" quite often and this word triggers things you have heard before. Then a chain reaction starts across the room and mass chaos insues. Okay, maybe there was no mass chaos, but there were a lot of outrageous games of Spades tonight. The tournament is heating up, and with the double elimination our first losers were ousted tonight. I feel like this is bringing out the competitive side of all of us and that may or may not be a good thing. But everyone's had good sportsmanship thus far and I'm confident it will remain that way.
The day began with breakfast from 7-8. We had eggs, beans, and plantains made fresh by our lovely ladies in the kitchen. Then we had a singing devo to follow breakfast. That would normally be my favorite way to begin the day, but when you're singing bass because of a sore throat it's not as enjoyable. The singing was beautiful to hear though!
It's been a tough day for construction workers, and everyone was a construction (or demolition) worker today. There were two sites for house builds today. The one I was on was in Mololoa, so the crew for the feeding center and concrete busting rode with us there. We parted ways as we left the bus and hiked up our respective mountains. On our trek we found our wood laid in a pile by the creek and saw the wood being carried straight up the hill. As we followed the narrow path to the actual site, we had to watch our step to keep from falling off the side of the hill with our equipment and wood. When we finally reached our destination most of us were out of breath. From the stories I heard about the other house, they had the same problem. Not only did they have to wait for their wood to arrive, but they also had to spend an hour or two getting their wood over all the hills to make it to the actual site. Lucky for us, once we got all the wood up the hill, with the help of some strong Hondurans, the building of the house was fairly easy. We all worked hard and were done by around 2 PM. After we prayed with the family, we headed back down the mountain/hill/steep incline some of us with supplies in our hands, others with small children. Let me just tell you, it's hard enough trying not to slip going down the dirt paths, but when you've got a little kid holding your hand to add to it, you have to be extra careful or else you might sling them down in the process of trying to keep from falling. Thankfully, we all made it safe and sound back to the bus to load up our stuff. Then about half our crew headed back up another side of a hill to the daycare to bust up some concrete. When we got there, I could tell those working had gotten a lot done and were pretty exhausted. I heard Reggie McHaney picked up a pick as soon as he got there and never put it down until we were leaving. With more people there, we were able to take turns shoveling dirt/concrete into buckets and hauling the buckets into the pile inside and made a new pile outside. While a lot was done at the daycare, we still haven't scratched the surface. The hole they began digging needs to be 8 ft deep, and it's probably only about 3 ft at the moment. We hope to send another group back there later this week so we can finish what we started. The second construction team had a much longer day than the rest of us. They pulled up in the buses at least an hour, maybe two, later than we did. There were apparently no problems other than the transfer of the wood to the site, but they also encountered some rain which slowed them down a little bit. Thankfully, two new families are sleeping in brand new houses tonight!
There are two teams planned for tomorrow: One construction team of 16 people and the rest will be going to the hospital in the morning and the blind school in the afternoon.
Tonight Jeremy spoke in our devotional about our one faith. Our faith gives us the ability to get through any situation or problem. He found a definition of faith that read: A personal surrender to Him and the conduct based on that surrender. If we have faith in God, we surrender our lives to Him and conduct ourselves based on that faith and surrender. The faith that we hold turns hopelessness into possibility. Without the substance, which is faith, we would not be able to have hope. I know I've heard before that faith can move mountains. But in order for us to move those mountains, we must have faith. Those mountains could be poverty, starvation, or unsanitary water. In order for us to make the first step in making a change, we must have faith that a change can happen. Faith that God can use our lives to change His world for the better. Faith that He has an ultimate plan for us that is infinitely greater than anything we can imagine. It's when faith is the hardest to have, that we need it the most, and it will make all the difference.
And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you."
Matthew 17:20
Leah
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