Broken Water Lines and Horizontal Skirting

So this week has definitely been another great one. I was back at the place I was my very first week here-a trailer belonging to a precious woman with 3 children, who just went through a nasty divorce. She got the trailer from her deceased sister, but it needed much work. She hired some people to do the work, but they ripped her off about $15,000, still leaving the trailer in pretty bad condition. My first week here, I didn't know what in the world I was doing! But the group worked hard, and there was a different group the following week who also made some headway on it. I don't think anyone was there last week, then this week of course, I was there. At first it was discouraging, because we had already been working for so long on the trailer, but it seemed to be getting nowhere. We kept running into new problems, having to make trips to Lowe's more than once in a day for supplies. But Wednesday was very encouraging, because we got some tile and some carpet laid in the floor. That made it look so much better! Then we got some cabinets and countertop, which made it look more and more like a home..finally! Today, another missionary and I went back to the site (our volunteer church group left early this morning, as they usually do on Fridays) to finish up some plumbing, which ended up taking literally all day! We got to crawl under the house with all the huge spiders and other creepy-crawlies, get wet and muddy from the leaks, and feel high from the primer and adhesive for the pipes. What great fun! Really, it was a lot of fun, and I hope we have finally given her water to the bathrooms! It has not been pressurized yet, because we wanted to let everything dry well, but hopefully it will all be well!

Yesterday, before the church group left, we got to pray with the homeowner and her grandmother and present them with a Bible that both groups signed. The homeowner prayed over us, thanking God for taking care of her in such a rough time in her life and for always being faithful. She prayed blessings upon us, and man were we blessed! It was just cool to think of how far the trailer had come from day one, and to think that there is still much work to be done, but that it is almost liveable! (That was a tri-compound sentence, if that's possible!) It was cool to be a part of that blessing. And her grandmother, we called her Mammaw, had been faithful through the week to bring us super-sugary kool-aid, and today she brought us some fresh, hot, made-from-scratch cake (DELICIOUS!). What a blessing it has been to walk with this family through this tough time! While we have been working on the trailer (and before we came) they were all living in Mammaw's house along with the deceased sister's child. I think they said there were like 7 people living in that house at once. Lots of kids! And one of Mammaw's cats had three little kittens, so we enjoyed playing with them when we took a bathroom break up the hill to Mammaw's house.

What a blessing it was to work with my church group this week, Lynwood Baptist, from Cape Girardeau, MO. (Hope I spelled that right) The women from their group stayed most of the time at the Ministry Center working with Kid's Klub, so the majority of the time it was just me and the guys on the job site. But they were hard workers, and we got a lot done. Mr. Dale kept us alive with his excited humor, and Mr. Bill tried :). I'm kidding, Mr. Bill was great. Jared and Billy worked hard on the deck and teaching me to install vinyl skirting (hence the title of the post, horizontal skirting. Adam, my missionary partner for the week, tried to show me how to do the skirting..let's just say he was wrong! :) ). And of course there was my partner Adam, and what can I say? It was an interesting week with all the van swappage! (different story for a different day.) All in all, it has been a great week, and I think the Lord is teaching me much about trusting Him. Things don't always go as we would like them to, they rarely do, but His way is always best, and we must learn to trust Him with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding! :)

God bless.