Off to a Good Start

Buenos Dias!

After a day of smooth and safe travels we have arrived once again at the Hotel Don Pablito  Tesak.

After a much welcomed breakfast (though noticeably short on real maple Syrup) and a devotional by Stephanie Geisbrecht, we began our most important work for the week. No, not building homes - but building relationships with the people who will fill them. After, we had a Sunday Service and Jeff Riley bravely shared stories of surrendering wants and self righteousness in his own life, before dinner at Pollo-Campero and a return to the hotel for debrief.

In discussing the day, we shared an experience of the word gratitude. Gratitude seems to go two ways - in both giving and receiving. Giving is important as it promotes the detachment that Jeff and Stephanie shared. Giving away our wealth, time and effort teach us that what we have is not ours to keep (it's a gift from God to us in the first place). Equally important is learning to humbly recieve gifts from others. Receiving is difficult, awkward and embarrassing. Today, the community we are building in purchased every team member a bottle of pop - no small thing for an already destitute group of People. A powerful gift we have to make sure we are truly and deeply grateful for.

Tomorrow we build and tomorrow we'll be grateful. Grateful for the time we have. Grateful for the people we meet. Grateful for the lessons they have to offer us and the lives they are willing to share. Grateful for bringing glory to God. Grateful to be able to serve God.

Not all the families we are building for are families with our same faith. Hopefully through our good works, these families will come to know Christ in the same way that we know Christ, and that relationship building is our most valuable work.

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."

- Edward Everett Hale


But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

- Acts 20:24