Day 10.  That’s hard to process.  Probably more on the “I can’t believe it will be over soon” rather than the “wow, we’ve been here 10 days” end of things.  We are so fortunate to have been launched out by Wildwood Church to serve here in Nicaragua.  We definitely don’t take it for granted – especially considering the challenges this country has been facing.  But we love the people here.  We love those we are serving with.  And we love those we have had the opportunity to share the Gospel and share our lives with.

Today was one of those days that you knew was going to be tough.  It can be summed up in two words that will likely show up in our sleep tonight… mas concreto.  More concrete.  That’s what we did today… more concrete.

A little back story.  Henry is basically the foreman for all projects at Ruby Ranch.  He is the Nicaraguan version of Chuck Norris.  Seriously.  The guy has some amazing stories and still does some amazing things.  His strength and work ethic makes us feel small… all the time.  But he has such a humble and quiet spirit.  He is also hard to bless.  Every time we try, he brings someone to our attention that “needs it more.”

But he reluctantly accepted this time.  Henry’s family is growing.  He has one son already and his wife is now pregnant again.  Henry lives in a very modest brick and wood, two room home with an outdoor kitchen/porch/family area and an outhouse in Las Parcelas.  Before we arrived, another team started the expansion for two more rooms.  It is already framed, roofed and wired.  Our job was… concrete.

The floor will be concrete and we had two rooms and the porch to complete.  But we knew we could only frame out and pour half due to the concrete style down here.  So we went to work making our own concrete mix by hand in a big trough.  We lost count on how many batches we made, but praise God, we got all that we could do done today.  Tomorrow we will have the other halves of the two rooms to pour.

Sometimes it’s hard to do the long construction days – especially when it is a tedious. repetitive task.  But our team pressed forward and did a great job today.  Despite being able to take many breaks or play with any kids.  But you know what… most of our life is made up of tedious and repetitive moments.  Yet we find joy in the journey.  So, we had some parallels to simply learning how to serve in non-glamorous ways just like we do with our faith.  We always want to be faithful in the little things.

God gave our tired bodies some awesome views on our way home.  The beauty of this place always blows me away.  God’s handiwork was most certainly on display.

We are in the homestretch.  Thanks for continuing to follow this blog, the pictures, social media and most importantly for continuing to pray for us as you read this.  We are asking God to allow us to finish strong and that He would continue to meet us, speak to us and mold and shape us through this experience.