Finished!

Woot! After weeks of hard work, we finished the house!  From building the walls to ditema, we pressed on toward the goal.  I can’t believe that I participated in nearly every part of building a house from bottom to top.  I touched cow dung.  I mixed dirt and water to make bricks.  I painted the designs on the sides of the house.  But, more than that, as an intern group, we came together.  We worked as a team to help each other out and encouraged each other to keep going despite the tasty smells and exhaustion that comes with hard work.  I am so thankful for how Tara and Andrew faithfully played with cow dung and smeared it on the walls.  For how Allen spent weeks prepping and putting the roof on the house.  For Chelsea’s singing and smiling face.  For Jen’s patient endurance.  For Amiel’s willingness to make mud and more mud and more mud.  For how Kelly and other staff members faithfully drove us to work on the house.  For Sam going to get water.  For the kids who gave us much needed play breaks.  Now, we have one more week to plant a garden, say our good-byes, and give the kids lots of hugs knowing that this house will stand as a testimony of God’s love for years to come.

Full

My heart is full.  Saturday proved to be a perfect, full day.  I woke up thinking and tweeting: “sunny saturday and no plans as of yet. not sure how I feel about that…”

I started out by staying in bed for a bit and then going outside to embrace the sunshine.  I read and got a tan while laying on a combo of a sleeping bag, blanket, towel and three pillows with music playing in the background next to six different books (Wide Awake, Out of the Salt Shaker, Her Name is Woman, Christ In You, The Bible, Inner Healing).  I even had a blank canvas, paints, a journal, pens, and of course sunglasses.  I like to be prepared/going inside and up the stairs to get something is not an ideal interruption.

Somewhere along the way I decided to pile all my stuff on my stairs in case I decided to return to my spot on the porch after I made delicious sweet tea.  Sweet tea makes my heart happy and feel like summer.  Though, I never did make it back to lay on the porch.  Instead, I helped (Josh–a volunteer here for 10 days) make a sweet video in iMovie.  I am so using that to make some fun stuff.

Then I intended to go on a walk (with Jace), which was delayed due to hanging out and chatting.  Eventually, we (Jace, Allen, and I) made our way to the pond where we saw some poor, sad, dead frogs while discussing how dirty the pool looked and how we needed to get gloves before trying to shimmy down the zip line.  After the walk, we (Jace, Allen, Jen, and I) jumped into a game of Settlers, which made my heart happy since we hadn’t played it yet.  Then dinner, hanging out (most/all of the interns plus the volunteers), playing guitar on an adorable little guitar, talking about life, laughing, time for prayer (for Tara’s family–pray for them too!), and then we ended the day with watching Wolverine.  I even stayed awake and got in some discussion about how some characters have some bitter roots!

Thus, the day ended with the thought and tweet: “what an awesome full saturday that is ending with a full heart 🙂 praise God!”  I am so thankful for the people God has put around me during this time to walk with me and build me up during this time of re-learning, un-learning, and learning while embracing who I am in Him!

I Can.

Running on base proves to be a little tricky here because I’m not a huge fan of hills.  I avoid them if at all possible.  I much prefer running downhill or on flat ground.  Lately, running proved to be a struggle since I took a week off for Cape Town and then was sick for a while during Family Days.  I’m just now trying to get back into the groove of things.  Though, I’ve been frustrated with my lack of motivation and lack of results.  I hadn’t ran in two days and then started talking with another intern, Allen, about running last night and the upcoming Flatberg race (15k including going up a mountain…).  The conversation gave me the drive to finally get out and complete a “good” run.

I started out this morning determined to get up and go.  I set my alarm and was out the door by 6:05 a.m. with my iPod Nike+ set to a distance of 7k.  About 2k into my run, I got this ridiculous idea that I shouldn’t just run 7k, but, no, I should run a 10k.  Mind you, the farthest I’ve ran in the last week or two has been around 35 minutes.  But, when I decide something that’s that.  So, I kept running and running.  Being bored, I did some run there and then run back along with some circles in the field.  Basically, I did everything possible to not go up hill and still complete a 10k.  All of that to say that I did.  I ran 10.02k in 55:30 min. which translates into a 5:32 min/km pace or a 8:54 min./mile.  This was only 1 minute slower than the 10k I ran in July. Woot!  For being out of practice, I was happy.  Also, I was reminded of the power of determination, persistence, and the need to set my eyes on an achievable goal while not letting my feelings get in the way or let my mind start believing the lies of “I can’t.”

So, what’s been your greatest accomplishment this week?