0:) Good and Dirty

(Weds.) The rain came down and down and down. I have never seen anything quite like this. The rain is relentless and it is causing monumental problem. In the community of San Miguel we have shifted from mission to disaster relief. Houses are falling in during mud slides, the river is out of control and God has changed our plan for the work in this community.
Last night the church in San Miguel was turned into a relief shelter. 13 families spent the night in the building because they have already lost their home or because it isvery venerable to a mud slide. One women entered the shelter with 1 month old twins! The families will be staying there for several day. A team returned there today to help with work trying to control the water. They spent the day getting "good and dirty" in knee deep mud! Their task was to dig out the mud that slid in on the back side of the church and to dig a trench around the church that would channel the water away from the building. Of course most of this work was done as the rain continued to come down. Today one of the men running for Mayor sent in a "very big tractor" (like that technical name) to dig the river. It was amazing to watch this huge machine redirect the river and make it deep enough to hold all the water that KEEPS coming!! In the process the church property was helped by all the sand coming out of the river. It was used to re-enforce the river bank along the river so that it is not so venerable to the water. Our crew worked hard to keep the church building operational as a shelter, this community is definetly in disaster mode. One of the girls on this team told me "I don't know where my strength came from to day, I am not a girly girl, but I don't usually do work this THIS" , But we all know what God can do with a willing heart! Two of our team members Mark Herrera and David Blackwell wanted to dedicate this back breaking work to a missing team member...Jeremy "WOODY" Phelps!!!!! You are missed!!!


Today we built 3 houses in Via Oriental and two of them were in "memory of"...

House #1 was built in memory of Ed Sawyer who passed away just a few months ago. Mr Sawyer was a wonderful man of God and was the father of Larry Sawyer from Okolona and Grandaddy to Hannah, Andy, Stephen, Rachel and Joseph. All the Sawyer family and the Okolona team members had the honor of building this house. It was built for an older man with some disabilities and his family, who every time we built in this community was at our work site helping us build. I was so happy today was his day! The really cool story here is his gentleman said that because this house was a gift from God, he was not going to move into until he had people in to worship God!!! Ucho Canelo!!!

House#2 was built in memory of Floyd Nayler from Birmingham Alabama. He was a long time minister at the Homewood Church where he served as the Senior's minister. It was always said when talking about Floyd "I want to grow up to be just like Floyd" The members of our group from Homewood wanted to honor his life by building a house in his name, because giving and serving was Floyd's life. Our Homewood and DF group built this house together for a single mother and her children.

House #3 was built for a single mom her baby and brother. Her husband had left her alone and had no resources or family to help her. She had a small house that was about 5x5 made of scrap lumber and tin that leaked in the rain and let all outside elements in. She was overjoyed to be chosen for a new house. As I was walking by her house after we told her she was one of the recipients for that day she ran to me and grabbed hold of me with so much intensity. She was crying and was filled with joy to overflowing. Beyond that, it was a sense of relief. She knew it was a gift from God, an answer to prayer and she thanked us! It is easy to forget how REALLY life changing this is for the people here. That each house we build is an answer to many many prayers for God provision and each day we serve we are part of God's response...What a feeling to be part of His work! Thank you to all of you at home who have helped to raise money for this effort!!!!
Good things are happening!!!