Josh Zimmer is providing our driller perspective for today:
"Today was very humbling. To see the expressions of gratitude once the well began to produce water, it was overwhelming. We received comments of appreciation from some of the men of San Blas. But then one of the mothers was given an opportunity to speak...she had barely begun to heap God's blessings on us when her voice broke and I saw a genuine look of relief come over her face as she started to sob these tears of joy over God's answered prayers. I like to think I realized, maybe intellectually, what we were contributing to. But this was the first time I saw a glimpse of the emotion attached to what God had accomplished there."
Again, thanks to all my guest bloggers. I couldn't have done it without them.
And here is one more video from our documentarian (is that a word? If not I made it up...which someone once told me is a sign of psychosis) Dan Richardson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2unkyuSm2g&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Dan has done a fabulous job of chronicling our trip! Look for us soon in a theater near you!
After we finished with the well dedication, the ladies of the village served us a huge lunch, which was so humbling. I cannot begin to explain the poverty from which they gave. They would never serve their families a meal like that. I can't quantify that it cost each family a weeks income or 10 days...but it was massive. Think about the daily income of your family. Now think about if you spent 2 days income on a meal for complete strangers. Now think about 5 days - a week? What kind of meal could you buy for a weeks salary? THAT is along the lines of the gift that these precious people gave us today. And we couldn't eat it all. No way. And the other thing that just kills me about that is that conventional wisdom at the table was that the leftovers were most likely thrown in a big pot and served again for dinner. Maybe you can't imagine spending a weeks income on a meal, but I am pretty sure that you can get a pretty good visual of eating a complete stranger's leftovers.
I am so very out of words. But I have one last story. I have a foot that gives me problems, and there is only one brand of shoe that I can wear that doesn't cause me problems, especially if I spend any time on my feet. The problem is that the are open-toe. They suggest that we wear closed toe shoes to the community. After the first day, I was in quite a bit of pain, so talked to Jorge about it. I got a special dispensation to wear my good shoes - my flip flops. Almost first thing in the morning this morning, I stepped in cow caca. (In Nicaragua, caca is a totally acceptable word, so since I am still here I plan to use it at will). So I am shuffling my feet, trying to rid myself of the cow caca (caca caca caca), and my shoe (actually the non-caca shoe) broke. The part that goes between your toes. Now, in the US, the shoes would have gone in the trash. But Santo grabbed my shoe, dug around in the his little tool box, and fixed my shoe! Good as new! I walked all over, played frisbee, just went about my day as if nothing ever happened. That is what our Nicaraguan friends do. When something is broken, they make it new, and continue on as if nothing ever happened. And isn't that what Christ does for us? We are broken, broken people. And when we come to him, he makes us new again. We are a new creation and we are forgiven as if nothing ever happened. Jesus is out there, waiting for us to see him. And in today's world sometimes it seems really hard to do so. But I have seen him a lot this week. In the children who trusted me and clung to me, just because I showed them a small tiny kindness. In a mother in a community who is always watching out for other children whose moms are out picking illegal peanuts for less than $1.50 a day. In the men and women who pushed themselves past their physical limits to help provide safe drinking water for their hurting brothers and sisters. In the women who tirelessly loved on filthy, dirty, snot, scab and lice covered children with total abandon. In the Facebook posts of my friends in the US who are praying and shedding tears over the senseless loss of life in that Connecticut school shooting this morning. And, in the hands of the man who took my dirty broken shoe today, and made it new.
Father God, just for today
Help me walk your narrow way.
Help me stand where I might fall.
Give me the strength to hear your call.
May my steps be worship.
May my thoughts be praise.
May my words bring honor to Your name.
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