A team from my church arrived back from a short mission trip to Beaumont, Texas this last Saturday night. It was a wonderful time of fun and productivity as we worked on three separate homes that were damaged due to hurricane Rita from two years ago. I have been asked why they still need help since it was "a long time ago". One of the leaders from the Rita Recovery team stationed in Beaumont explained it to us this way: After the hurricane made its presence known on the gulf coast of Texas, over 2100 houses were
tarped to aide the homes from sustaining any more damage. If one roofing crew worked all day, every day, all year (assuming that not one of those days had rain to make it unsafe to be up on a roof), they would be able to fix 350 roofs. Of course there are more than one roofing crew working, but that is just Beaumont, and there were other cities that Rita visited without welcome. That is hurricane relief. The next step is hurricane recovery. Relief is focused on safe and dry; recovery is about bringing life back to normalcy and permanent fixes. So our trip mainly consisted of hanging, taping, and floating drywall in place of molded or swelled walls and ceilings. As we drove from a church were we stayed to the different houses, you could still see blue tarps that are shredded and weathered from the years of waiting for just a bit of help. Can we do that - offer a singular moment in the course of our lives to extend a hand up for those that simply have a need that can truly be easily fulfilled? I surely hope so because that is my hope. I am reminded back to an article in a local newspaper in Poland that was shown to us. It asked the question: Is service to your neighbor a shallow expression or is it more? Can we be that witness of grace that says, "I am here for you. I see a need in your life. What can I do to help?"
It is true that during the time that we were down in the mountains, it was their rainy season. These months are the only times that rain re-hydrates the earth in this area, so God knows that the rain that comes has to be sufficient for the whole year. Enter stage left: Noah and his ark. It did not rain all of the time, constantly, but it did rain somewhere nearby all of the time. And I thought that Texas weather could be hard to predict. We would watch as the clouds would start forming into intimidating gray / black beasts and then come toward our way. Then the clouds would split and go around us and join back together somewhere else. This was in process of happening one early afternoon when suddenly the winds shifted. Not more than five minutes after that sign, came running the group of students that were working up the mountain a bit yelling, "It's raining!" Well it wasn't where we were standing ... yet. It is amazing to watch rain fall heavy a foot a way from you, but you yourself not in it. 
So it rained, and we were trapped on the mountain at the site for a couple of hours until the professor called it a day, and we slowly gained courage to make our way back to the house in the thunderstorm. I was entirely soaked because the day before I had lent my rain poncho to somebody else and forgot to request it back. Oh well, it was my day to shower anyway. A good soakin' never hurt anybody anyway.
Typical day on the job at Beaumont just taping and mudding newly installed drywall. (April, a good friend, in front and me behind). It is amazing that nobody was seriously injured working on 10ft. ceilings by having to straddle, balance, hang, and other fine acrobatic moves between ladders, counters, tables, shelves, and other mostly stable objects.
Here is a morning thought for you all. I recently heard a statement that can be potentially powerful: "It just goes to show you that anything can happen when you show up for work." Hmm. Are you showing up?
Our first weekend there (not including the drive down), we took a trip to Guachochi, the "big city" to do grocery shopping (and a liquor and beer stop ... Norogachi is dry). Next to one of their parks is this waterfall. We drove down to the base and were allowed to 'go play outside'. The sound was restful: the constant gentle hum/roar of the water splashing against the rocks and meandering its way down the river. Of course, leave it to me to be the one that nearly falls in - in my defense, it was slippery. It was fun to see the natives, especially the children, get excited with laughter playing near the water's edge. Our next waterfall adventure was even bigger and more dramatic.
