Keep Building

Joy, who wrote the piece we posted last week, actually wrote this one previously. Edited for our blog site, we include it here because it shows some a bit of what it means to live in the challenging environment of a majority-world Muslim country. Some might wonder, ‘is it worth the risk for a family with little children?’ According to a recent report, about 5% of the population respond positively to a text-message invitation to receive a Gospel-portion on their cell phones. That's millions of people!  ‘How shall they hear without a preacher?’ –in words and in deeds, one might add. Or, as God said to Jonah (about the Ninevites, a very savage and violent people): "And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" (Jonah 4:11)

Just days after hearing another story of destruction, of bloodthirsty men claiming lives, my husband and I took a walk around the neighborhood where we live.

We don thick sweaters and shawls to brace ourselves against the January chill, a cold less sharp than we've experience before, but one that gnaws at our bones.

The boys ride their bikes ahead on the paved roads, racing each other under the hazy sky, while our toddler rides on his daddy’s back

"What are they building here?" I ask my husband as the boys park their bikes, eyes transfixed on the digger, the mounds of dirt piling high.

"They're adding on to this school building,” he replies.

We watch the digger move dirt, preparing the ground for another foundation. In just a few weeks we'll see laborers tossing bricks up the scaffold in one amazing assembly line. We'll see bamboo sticks holding up walls (or the roof or something....I'm not a carpenter;)) in one construction wonder. And then one day, we'll walk past the completed project.

We walk around  a large grassy area where the boys join local and expat friends for afternoon play. As we round the corner, we marvel at another finished building...

 "Let's go look at it." My husband leads the way to the new elementary school built for all the laborers' children. A project that began as a pile of dirt and rubble.

There are doors and windows and little desks lined up inside. We can almost hear the children's shrieks. The laughter in the courtyard or the lessons taught from the classrooms. 

"Where's the playground, Mama?" Little E. asks.

"I'm sure they'll build one," I say.

We make our way home now under a inky sky, and I think of the note my sister sent me, telling me she saw me in a dream, exhausted and weary. Reminding me of the words in Galatians 6:9: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

There's a new determination as in my step as I click our green gate open. We'll just keep building too, no matter what the headlines read. 

Our gardens' sporting leafy green lettuce and spinach now, and soon it'll have radishes and turnips ready to share with needy families inn our neighborhood. We’ll both soon be back at our jobs and the busy life of raising a family here.

We'll just keep building. Keep building. Building . . . . 

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.  (1 Cor. 15:58)

Joy David