God's Presence

Back at the site today, no rain but cooler. We begin screening dirt and rock; we miss moving and stacking brick. After we screen out the rocks, shoveling the rock is harder than dirt. I discovered that the gloves I bought are not worth what I paid for them, they continue to come apart.
The process involves separating the dirt and larger rock, loading the rock into a wheelbarrow and pushing it up a ramp to the inside of the building to fill the low spots of the subfloor of the building. We are not sure what the floor will be constructed from. Several of the ladies spread the rock around after we dump it. Later in the morning, we discover a sheet of paper taped to the wall with the guys names listed across the top – would you have guessed, we were competing in the “First Annual 2008 Ukraine Wheelbarrow Olympics!” The ladies began to shout scores as we dumped our loads. We were being judged on Execution, Degree of Difficulty, Landing, Creativity, and Happiness; I think this sped up the process. Later the ladies awarded medals they had created from rocks with the winners names painted.

Probably one of the most memorable events happened today. In the morning, an elderly lady came by on her way to the field to pick corn. Seeing the ladies shoveling and raking dirt and rock, she invited Betty Bohan to join her pick corn, suggesting she would be better off. After lunch when we returned to work, the lady came by on her way home with two large bags of corn hanging across the crossbar of the bike she had just picked across the street by the railroad tracks. She slowed down, waved and smiled. Tad went over to visit with her, not easy in two different languages but everyone makes do with hand signals, a lot of emotion, smiling and laughter.

Later in the afternoon we were all sitting around taking a break. The little lady came walking up the road and waved. Everyone was surprised when she came up the drive with a bag of cooked corn for everyone – what a great surprise. She apologized for the corn being a little old but who cared. Tad offered her the small cross Susan Sutter had passed out in the morning. The lady said she had several crosses but this would be special. Everyone felt God’s presence.

Doug