Working together – by Julia Loewen

Working together to build this family a home

First day on the jobsite and already 6 families have new homes! It was a tiring day but the excitement took over and kept us all working hard, with spirits high. While the concrete floors are not in the houses yet (concrete will be brought in later in the week) some of the families will already be sleeping in their new houses tonight, and it is so incredible to be a part of bringing that about. The rainy season has gone late in El Salvador this year so we have experienced a bit of rain in the past few days. It is nothing compared to the rain experienced during actual rainy season but it was another reminder of what these houses really mean to the families we are building for. A roof over their heads, a door that locks, an escape from the downpour of rain that usually flows through their houses and leaky roofs for a few months of the year.

It is amazing to see how the team and the people in the communities are able to work together, encouraging and empowering each other to raise up six houses in one day! One day! That’s a lot of houses. All kinds of people come from the community, and all kinds of people come from Canada, whether young or old, male or female, experienced builders or newbies who’ve never held a drill in their life. Yet these differences just bring us closer together, allowing for relationships to begin even if you only know a total of about 10 common words between broken Spanish and English. It will never cease to amaze me that a simple question like “how are you?” or “what is your name?” can make you a friend. You may never know anything else about them outside of the answer to those questions, but you will also never forget. I love how picking up a drill can empower another girl from the village to also pick up a drill and join in the work. And I love how a girl from the village carrying heavy pieces of sheet metal can empower me to go do the same. And when the house is up and the job is finished we both feel the same accomplishment, and the same pride for having done something to make that house stand.

I am so excited for the next 12 houses that will go up in the next two days, and I am even more excited for the relationships that will begin and grow as we build. I am so blessed to be a small part of such an incredible mission, and humbled again that God chooses to use me to help further the hope he is spreading in the country of El Salvador.