Progression

Matthew 6:34 - "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own"

The fourth week at Rehoboth marked me being here for a month. On one hand it's great that I still have 5 months of work left ahead of me and I've already done, seen and experienced so much. However, it's gone over in the blink of an eye. Which, having worked every hour God sent this year, is a shame. Every day I thank God for bringing me here. I wake up every morning and smile knowing I'm here, doing work for such a fantastic cause.

I read this passage shortly before writing my entry for my blog tonight and realised it pretty much encapsulates all of what has happened this week. All this week, today has been a big enough day to deal with, let alone sorting out what tomorrow will bring.

Mondays at Rehoboth mean one thing...meetings. After the management meeting in the morning, the volunteers sort out their rosters for the week and sort out where they will be at what time. Me, being the optimist assumed it would be a fairly calm week weather-wise, with it being spring and not really hitting the heat yet. How wrong I was. 2 hours later, sweat pouring from my head, drinking my bottle of warm water and wondering why there wasn't a breath of wind. And to top it all off, in the 2 hours, I'd managed to ground only 8 poles from the 36 needed for the fence outside Rehoboth. The heat was like a wall. Hitting you in the face and then making your water hot to top it off. The Lord showed his mercy in the afternoon. As i sat eating lunch, I beamed with a huge smile as I saw a massive black cloud hover overhead. It was quite nice aswell as it reminded me of home!
Progress was the name of the game on Tuesday. All 36 poles grounded, compacted and ready to go. All of this after a morning picking plastecine out of my nose. Having spent the morning in baby creche, where the progress started. For the last month, we have had a little girl showing absolutely no signs of life, communication, reaction or emotion. Everything I tried resulted in blank stares. Every time I tried playing peek-a-boo or pulled a funny face or spun her round (which the other kids find brilliant), there was nothing. It became a serious point of prayer for us all. All we wanted was a smile, or at least some show of emotion and this week it happened. From nowhere, this child exploded with life and in the space of 4 days, she is attempting crawling, laughing, playing, having fun and generally doing what kids are meant to do. It just proves - Nothing is impossible for God!
My pizza making skills were tested again on Tuesday night as we invited Ryan and Reece Sullivan the site managers down for supper. Like last time, everyone had a great time. The pizzas were very nice if I may say so myself. I guess I didn't work 70 hours a week for nothing!
On wednesday, God wanted to make me feel at home, so it was cloudy. But the blanket of grey provided the perfect cover to get the fence on the road finished. With a lot of help from Ryan, I completed the fence, hammering horizontal poles in between the vertical ones, making it strong and sturdy. However, we have not tested it yet, we are still waiting for a willing volunteer.
After a hard day of work, cell was a nice way to unwind and finsih off the day. It is so nice to leave the village for the evening. Living at Rehoboth somehow puts you in a bubble. You could quite easily not leave the premises for a week and not have a problem but it's always nice to meet together for fellowship and fun with each other. There was the obvious gloating done for the Rugby final last week, good job I was excempt from it.
Having finished the fence construction on wednesday, I was able to spend the morning in baby creche again, which seemed to have overnight turned into a camp for grouchy and moody babies. One minute it was someone getting hit with a toy, the next it was one of them throwing puzzle pieces and they seemed to take it in turn to cry. I guess this doesn't really paint a pretty picture of me one day being a dad, but then I suppose I'm not going to have 17 babies at once...I hope.
Next on the list for me, construction-wise, was a bannister for the volunteer accomodation. That was started on thursday lunchtime and come friday morning, done and dusted. How's that for progression. It was however all Ryan's work. I stood there, lumbered the poles around and varnished the poles, but a done job is another to be ticked off the list. It was however interrupted during these 2 days by 3 new arrivals at Rehoboth. The first boy of 3 months old came in on thursday, wrapped in a blanket and absolutely petrified. Which was exactly the same look as the other two new arrivals, a 6 year old girl and a 12 month old baby, the sibling of the 3 month old. It is totally understandable that these kids would be terrified. They are being plucked from a completely black community and placed in something totally alien to them. However at time of writing this blog, all 3 are happy and well. Again a brilliant example of not only what fantastic work Rehoboth is doing but also a reminder of what a fantastic God we serve. He holds every persons future in his hand and everyone of them is special and precious to him.
It is brilliant to look back on this week and see all the progression God has made come about in this village. May your prayers for Rehoboth and the work it does continue.

Until Next Week

God Bless,

Rob.

(Look out next week - Lots of pictures)