#25 Work Construction
When our team was first moving in to the village, we worked almost daily on construction projects. There was ground to level, floors to pour, adobes to move, fences to be pounded in…
The list goes on and on, with all items including sweat, (tears?), and occasionally blood, although we tried hard to stay away from that one. After both of the houses were “more or less” put together, there was a still a lot of finish-work that became weekend projects. Stucco, painting, wiring–while not necessarily fun, holiday activities–at least gave our brains a chance to rest from language learning and gave our muscles a chance to be stretched.
For a span of several years, construction work has been at a minimum for our team. Yes, there is constant up-keep, but it has not been a major focus. But this month we are getting back into the swing of things with the arrival of our new coworkers. New coworkers who need new walls, a new roof, a new latrine…
Lots of new challenges for our team. And while our commitments to translation, literacy, and teaching won’t allow us to be as involved as we were the first time around, we are still committed to this new phase of construction because we are committed to our new teammates.
Is it easier or harder to swing a pick for the sake of the gospel than to witness to someone? Would you rather pound fence posts or sit at your computer developing cirriculum? Your answer–I’m sure–depends on your personality and comfort zone. But no matter how we serve we are not asked to dwell in our comfort zone. We are asked to die a little bit at a time to the self that tries to govern us. Self becomes less and less and Christ becomes more and more.
I’m not trying to paint an awful picture in which I compare construction work to dying. I’ve simply been reminded lately that God is the one who directs our steps. He places things in front of us, removes others, and in all things longs for our hearts to be obediently in-tune with his. And in order for our team to be headed in that direction right now, we will need to be focused, in part, on working construction.
