May 18, 2007

I have spent much of the day wishing I could be two places at once. We finally split up between the two work sites and so much of my heart wished I could join in the work in Armenia as well. The roofers made it through the day without any major injuries, aside from the hole in Ben's foot from stepping on a nail. I guess Alli didn't do as good of a "mom" job as I thought ; )

Work in St. Margaret's was slow but intense. We spent the morning mixing and pouring concrete and the afternoon attempting to move an entire mound of rocks onto a square of maybe ... 15' x 15'? Due to a lack of supplies, we ended up using cement bags and digging out rocks and dirt with our bare hands. I think I'll be finding gravel under my fingernails for weeks to come.

This evening we sang at Church of the Nazarene in Raoring Creek. After a couple of delays (mainly due to a miscommunication about what time we were supposed to start along with the typical Latin American tardiness), we finally began the concert around 7:45 pm. although there were few people in the audience, they all were fervently engaged in the worship taking place. They joined in on Days of Elijah and, so I'm told (since I occasionally miss out on what's going on behind me), they were truly rejoicing along with us.

Our evening debrief began humorously. We decided to play a game of telephone which eventually led to funny stories about the day and inappropriate jokes. Even so, it was the perfect "refreshment" for BRH at the working midpoint of this trip to just laugh and simply go to bed happy.

This trip has truly been blessed. We've had a few minor glitches, but all-in-all I feel we've been effective and diligent in the work we set out to do. I know it is only through the prayers of those around me that I have made it through -- and I hope that all we have done has and will bring glory to God.