My STINT Final Exam

Below are rare photos of me working.  Many people ask me, "so what do you do in Mexico at the children's homes?"  And it's difficult to communicate sometimes.  We do so many different things but many days- I do construction and I LOOOOVE it.  The photos below are from the last work day of our Back2Back summer and what I now refer to as my "Back2Back STINT Final Exam."  It was perhaps the best day of my entire summer work wise.  Somehow I got lucky when Greg divided up the work projects amongst the staff and interns and ended up with the task of prepping and pouring a small sidewalk with a team of about 10 americans who thought I knew what I was doing.... hahahha.  I sure fooled them!  They kept asking questions like, "so how long have you been doing this for?"  And I'd answer with, "oh today is my first time- fun huh?"  It was AWESOME.  

This is the inside of one of our 5 trailers which used to intimidate the junk outta me when i first moved to Monterrey.  On this work day, it felt like we used every single tool in the trailer to prep the area and build the frame for the pour

After we dug out the area, built the frame and put the rebar grid together, we started mixing the concrete, i had to direct wheelbarrows to dump one row at a time, and scrape out the concrete

then i'd move the concrete around so the slope was appropriate which was a move I've seen the masons do on concrete pours- seemed good

Then we'd smooth the concrete out- Chris (a sweet child from the Villa de Juarez home who came up to me and wanted to help) mostly played but he was awesome and SO proud of his work when we finished

me and Christopher with the finished sidewalk that I was pretty confident I did NOT know how to do- can you tell I'm proud?

So after a year here, I think I got an A.  I even knew the names of the tools in the trailer- crazy!  And I just kept laughing to myself the entire time about how if they could have come up with a final exam for me on purpose- that this sure would have been a good one.  

But as I was thinking back on this task that I had before me, which I didn't think I was capable of or fully equipped for - it reminded me of many times in my walk with the Lord.  Often, I feel like I've been dropped into situations that maybe I wasn't ready for - or at least that's what I thought - but then I realize that - "yeah... I just did that.  How crazy was that?!  Wow!  Didn't know I had that in me!"  God doesn't put us into situations in our lives and ministries just to show us what we don't know.  He puts us in these situations because He's equipped us or will equip us in the moment to complete the task at hand for His name's sake.  We just have to trust God to move in us and through us and He'll do the rest.  

I'll be in Florida in a week so if you have some construction needs - I'm for hire.  yeah umm... JUST KIDDING