Serving At Risk Families : The Foundation

We got the foundation for the wall laid today! This morning we had to shave about 6 inches more off of what we had done yesterday but by lunch time it was ready for concrete. We had a little bit of a set back just before lunch, however. There was a chunk of land on the side of where we have been digging that little by little had been cracking. When we arrived this morning to continue, we noticed that the overnight rain had softened the ground and the crack worsened. We cleared the dirt in the ditch and laid the rebar frame. As soon as everyone climbed out of the ditch, the piece broke off and fell right where Eric had been standing just seconds earlier!

At first, we were a bit disheartened and disappointed that it happened because we felt like we had been digging forever and this was just a slap in the face, but God revealed to us the purpose of it falling. If it hadn't fallen exactly when it did...

The dirt could have fell on top of someone and buried them
It could have caused someone to fall the 9 feet into the ditch, possibly a child
It could have fallen while we were laying the foundation, causing us to have to do it all over again amidst wet cement
It could have fallen while we are laying the blocks for the wall, causing the wall to fall over before it is finished
We could have moved onto the next part of the project and made a huge mistake by not putting in the column frames!

Patricio, the Guatemalan who is guiding the project was at another job site this morning, so we were moving forward and since there was time before lunch, we were thinking about pushing to get the cement in with the hopes of starting to lay blocks in the afternoon. Not only would we have forgotten the column forms (which we didn't know how to set up anyway), but we also would have gotten stuck working through lunch since it literally took us all afternoon to mix and lay the foundation. God is good, even when it seems like everything is going wrong!

We enjoyed a truly blessed devotional time this evening together on the topic of prayer, where we felt that we all learned something crucial about what God calls us to as not only His disciples, but His children. Thank you for your continued prayers and love as we continue to be obedient to what He has called us to do here this week.