Goofballs for God

Day seven. One week. It's feels like a moment ago I was stepping on a plane to come here and now we will be leaving in 3 days. It's crazy how 10 days can seem like a long time when you're anticipating a trip yet when you're on it it flies by.

Today we continued working on Ana's house. I was the "framing assistant" and then a painter. Today seemed especially goofy and I loved every minute. Could be the lack of sleep from staying up giggling with Paula and Geovanna last night or maybe the 2 energy drinks I had heightened my senses including fun, who knows. Either way, today was a blast. It's great to see how happy Ana is when we are there. The kids obviously surround and almost outnumber us, and I think she's really getting a kick out of that. I know we all are.

I got to spend more time with the kids today, specifically Melissa, so that was fun. They love teaching us Spanish and learning English words. I was noticing that even the man leading the construction, Marvin, has warmed up to us and instead of being serious and very business-like he now laughs and jokes with us. It just kind of feels like we are throwing a little party and we just so happen to be building a house instead of sitting around a campfire or having a BBQ like we would back home. Although it's super hot and we are all sweating more than we knew possible and swatting bugs, time seems to float by. A few hours doesn't seem long at all.

In our devotion today we talked about how you can't help others come to or grow in a relationship with God until you first get your own relationship in check. It reminded me how on the airplane they would explain about the safety measures and they always tell you if the oxygen masks are released, make sure to secure your own before helping anyone else (even children). My initial thought is well that is pretty selfish! But it makes sense. If I do not put my mask on and struggle to help someone else put theirs on, no matter how sincere I am about helping them, that sincerity will not put oxygen into either of our lungs. We would both die. Same with our Christian walk. If we do not have a solid foundation and an intimate relationship with Christ, we cannot helps others with theirs.

Blessings,
Emily