Rainbows and mountaintops

Nuevo Oriental (New Orient) Is a mountain we've visited several times over the years that have come to this country. There have been many improvements on the mountain. Some of the homes that were previously constructed of would are now built of cement. It's a good feeling to see life improving. I love building homes for people. To finish the day knowing that a family will be sleeping under a roof who hadn't had one the day before brings a real sense of accomplishment. There are so many people who have desperate needs that every gift and blessing feels like a tiny drop into a dry ocean. But when you build a home there is a fountain of blessing. As the family entered their new home tears spilled across their cheeks. They wouldn't spend another night as a family of three full sized people cramped inside an abandoned compact car. God is good.

Probably the most difficult part of the trip for me has been a clothing drive. We piled clothing in heaps on tables and waited. multitudes of people gathered around the building we were nestled in. Brown faces with bright eyes peered through a window betraying their excitement about what was to come. All I felt was anxiety. I knew we wouldn't have enough. I knew they'd get one article of clothing that wouldn't fit. I knew I wouldn't wear half of the things they'd be given. I knew, as one of the few spanish speakers, I'd be one of the ones having to tell them we didn't have any clothes for their babies. It was hard and it hurt, but families went home with clothes and God is good.

With raw emotion and dissatisfaction barely beneath the surface we road to a mountain top whose centerpiece was a cross consructed of junk car parts. As I stood before the cross staring at a vast canvas of greens and blues, the knots began to loosen in my stomach. Several of us started to lift our voices to the creator. "The poor you will always have with you." A cylinder of rain obscured a section of the country. The very place, in fact, that our mission house rested. Sunlight continued to blanket us. Low laying clouds wrapped themselves around us and, very slowly, an inch at a time. A rainbow began to materialize before us. The bluest cloud I've ever seen floated on the horizon. We watched the multicolored band stretch into the heavens. It was just what I needed. God is good.