Spring Break...

I have to say, this spring break has been one of the best and most eye opening of my life. It started off fairly discouraging, I got into a 15-Passenger Van and drove/rode all the way down first to Redding, then Bakersfield then Mexico.

There's something about being in a car for 20 hours that is just miserable, particularly when you are surrounded by horny, drama ridden teenagers. We finally make it all the way down there set up our tents and begin to reacquaint ourselves with the orphans.

I've been to Mexico before, and seen the poverty and the people however something about the recent changes in my life made it seem as though I was seeing everything for the first time. As I rode along, the reactions and chatting of the people around me made me feel like I was on a safari. I actually started to get sick to my stomach as the other individuals in the vehicle started snapping photographs of the surrounding countryside and making comments like "how cute" or "gross, look at that mess."

On Sunday we finally got the semi trailer unloaded and the materials distributed to the work sites. Because it was easter we'd gotten a late start and decided it best to actually start construction in the morning.

Monday we wake up early and drive to the worksite (my site was about 25 minutes away) We were immediately beset with problems. The foundation wouldn't get square, the person cutting the lumber for the first wall kept being off by an inch or two. Things were not going well at all. At the end of the day we were well behind the other two houses and feeling discouraged.

Tuesday we started even earlier, hoping to catch up but things started going downhill even more. One of the leaders on the site was feeling nauseous and went back to the camp part way through the morning. We continued to have alignment issues with walls and roof trusses. Right after lunch I started feeling ill, it was weird because it didn't feel like heat sickness. (It was 96 and sunny) I sat around most of the afternoon, got sick a couple times and didn't start feeling better until it was time to leave.

Wednesday is our last day of construction, we had to be done by 4, and there was no way we were going to meet that deadline on our own. (A couple more people have fallen sick at this point) A number of people from the other two sites showed up and worked with us, eventually bailing us out of the trouble.

At this point in the week I was feeling very discouraged, down and just generally not happy about the whole experience.

Then came the house dedications and the handing over of the keys. Something happens when you hand over the keys to a families first house that makes all the stress fall away. Something about the way the leaders offer prayer, and the families start crying. I even started crying when the family that I'd worked alongside opened the door to their new home and went inside for the first time.

Every year the dedications get more emotional for me, and every year I think they can't get even better, but they do. All of the unhappiness and stress of the week melted away and I remembered why we do what we do. Somehow God reaches into the whole mess and makes everything right. Even when we think that everything has gone with a project, at the end it is still a quality new home for a family. It is a place that they can call home that isn't made of cardboard walls.

It renewed in me my drive to work to right the wrongs in the world, to work for bringing God's kingdom and to bring God's justice on earth. There is nothing like it, the Joy of God.

There will be more as I unpack the experience, but for now that is all.