Building and Rebuilding

Tomorrow is the dedication ceremony for the new covered court. As you can see it is right in front of Nate's classroom. Now, when we join him for lunch, we can eat lunch right by his class. Also notice in the back left of the picture a white gate. Just out that gate is our new house! It's so close we can hear Nate's students playing their music! We don't have a key to the gate, though, so we still walk around to the other side.

They also built a new playground right by the court. What a blessing! It's almost done. Elijah can't wait to go down the slides. Now we are getting REALLY close to Nate, with the house in the back gate and the park out his front door! How blessed we are to be so close.

Now for the update on the rebuilding of the houses that were burned by fire...

Just minutes ago I walked and took these pictures. As you can see, we can praise the Lord that all of the families have new houses, and many are better than they were before! The community also seems bonded together.

You can still see remnants of the fire...but also the resourcefulness of the people. Nothing is wasted. This boy is sawing a piece off someone's house to use for firewood for their dinner.

As you can see, some of the houses are even better than they were before the fire. This makes me think about how during the fire I was struck with parallels with the last fire and Day of the Lord; yet now I'm reminded of the hope we have of eternity, that God has planned a better place for us that cannot fade or be burned.

"Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." Hebrews 11.16

"These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." Hebrews 11.39-40

Yes, we look forward to that city that God has prepared for us. Jesus went ahead of us to prepare a place for us. We need to be ready for him, but if we are ready, and we have placed our faith in Jesus, then all we have to look forward to is something better than we can imagine.