Reflections

The center picture below, the one of the rope, has for me become a metaphor for the whole trip this week. When we first arrived, Tim and Joe looked over what needed to be done at the church. There was so much. Rotten wood, flashing for the roof, work on the porch, gutters. Too much for the few days we were here, so they would have to pick and choose what they could do.

There is a small bell tower on the church, and the bell was still there, but there was no rope or way to ring it. Tim and Joe didn’t have the tools to get up to the tower and work safely, but they really wanted to fix the bell in the tower. Each night at supper it would come up. They would talk about what they had done, but the idea of that bell in the tower just nagged at them.

Yesterday, as Martha and I arrived at the church to bring lunch to our crew, I heard a bell ringing across the hollow. As I walked in the foyer, there was Ernie, the pastor at Darbyville, pulling the new rope, ringing the church bell. Somehow they had figured a way to do it. Everyone was smiling – Pastor Ernie, the kids, Tim and Joe and our own people.

There have been a lot of challenges here this week. A lot of plans we had to change as we went. A lot of preconceptions of why we were coming that had to change. Each day we found ourselves scrambling to adjust our resources and our food and our materials and our time to meet some new need that had come up through the day. For most of us, we lived outside our comfort zone much of the week.

You parents who sent your kids – be very proud. Your kids didn’t just show up – they put their heart into this week, into the kids here and into being a part of the work. They saw some very different things here than back home. I suspect they will come back changed, and more appreciative of the blessings they have at home. And I suspect they will want to do this again. Because they have seen first hand that while none of us can do everything, any of us can make a real, tangible difference. These kids certainly have, and they have done it with joy and enthusiasm. I can tell you that every one of us here have a deeper appreciation and love for your kids than we had before.

If you liked the pictures, they were taken by Pat Rhodes, Drewry and myself through the week. You’ll see more of them on August 20, when we have a special mission report during Sunday School.

You read and hear about how when you give, you get back tenfold. Too often, we think of that phrase in dollars and cents. But anyone who goes on a trip like this one can tell you that the payback is not in dollars, it’s in a coin of the heart that we are repaid, and that it’s worth far more than coin of the realm. We’ve been touched by the people we came to serve, by the people we came to serve with, and by the people who have supported and loved us through this week – you.

Tom