WEEK 2: "IOWA," NOT "IOWA"

Hey friends, it’s the end of week two! I’m all over the place this week, and it went by a lot faster than I anticipated.

MURAL UPDATE: I got to work on it for a second time! I sketched out the full design onto the shipping container, praise God for a sunny day in the middle of a tropical depression. It's supposed to rain all of next week, so...slow progress...We'll figure something out, or maybe God will bless us with a clear (but maybe not so hot and humid) day or two. :)

The bulk of my week was spent working at Raychell’s home. She is a homeowner from Lake Charles whose house got hit by the hurricanes, and she had a lot of work that needed to be done. Some of my tasks consisted of cutting and nailing the trim in the master bedroom—I used a power tool! Don’t ask me what it was called, because I couldn’t tell you. It was pretty neat, though. The nail gun took a while to get the hang of, especially connecting the air to the gun; it took me about ten tries. You know what they say, tenth time’s a charm. The rest of the time was spent painting the trim and laundry room. By now, you can call me up if you need some interior house painting done. There was a little girl, seven years old, who kept hanging around me every day that I was at the house. She would ask me all kinds of questions, and would ask me to teach her new songs to sing, since she liked to sing. I taught her the chorus of “Our God,” and we sang it together over and over again until she was confident enough to sing for the whole house. She would hold my hand and ask if she could help move my ladder when I was ready to move, or hold my bucket of paint while I had my hands on something else. What a sweet gal. She also told me a lot about her family life, since I asked. She absolutely loved to talk, and she was a great storyteller. She joined us for every lunch, and would mimic us to get a good laugh. Her and her mom joined us for dinner every Wednesday, and one night she made us crawfish nachos, which were incredible.

This week, a team from Iowa came down, a multigenerational team of nine. There is a town near us called Iowa, but pronounced "eye-oh-way" not "eye-oh-wuh," which became a running joke with this team. In my group for the week, we had the adults and the teenagers. It was so cool to interact with both age groups, because both of them had something different to offer to the team. I learned so much from getting to know the older adults in the group. Their names are Jodi, Bruce, and Sheldon. I enjoyed hearing their stories, and seeing their hearts for their families. Also, they all live on farms, and I just about flipped hearing about their pigs, chickens, and goats galore. Living on a farm was my childhood dream so I was almost living vicariously through their family farm stories. The younger ones, Mykah, Marina, and Philip, were fun to chat with. They were funny, enthusiastic, and hard workers that encouraged me in my own work. I also enjoyed having dinner with Jeremy, Talitha, and Brandon, who are young adults. This week was filled with heartfelt and Spirit-filled conversations. I learned a lot about how to engage well with others, and really be okay with just listening and being silent when someone is sharing, rather than feeling the need to pitch in my two cents. I got the opportunity to hear about several of the team members' life stories, including a woman named Jodi. Her and I were talking one night after dinner, and I asked her about her family, and she told me about how she adopted all of her three children. She is incredible, and getting to hear her story was a treasure. I'm happy to say that I got to have meaningful conversations with several members of the team, and I could clearly see God at work in each of those people. This group was full of jokes, intelligence, tenderness, and service. I'm going to miss them.

This week, I also took the time to chat with a few people from back home and college, which was helpful to process and reflect on my experiences so far. I got to connect with several people that we met on our prayer walk, and God really led us on the right path, where we got to hear some really interesting and miraculous stories. One man invited us into his garage to get out of the rain, and he shared with us his testimony, having been a drug dealer before knowing Christ, and serving seven years in federal prison. Absolutely wild. We had the chance to pray for most of the people we met on our walks, which was very encouraging. One thing that has been consistent throughout this experience is the need to pray for those who do not yet know Jesus, because man oh man, life is so much better with him in it.

1 Thessalonians 2:8 was a reference we talked about, which says, "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us." This struck me, particularly because of how much I value intentionality in relationships with others. I believe that it is important to form a genuine relationship with someone, rather than hitting them with the gospel and thinking "my job is done." Honestly, what good is that? This week really encouraged me to sit alongside someone as a person who truly cares.

I hope this encourages you to be more intentional with those around you, because I don't think we realize how much we don't know about someone until we get to sit down with them and hear about their lives. I'd like to end this blog with a few highlights from the week:

1. Meeting the team and having fruitful conversations

2. Learning new skills

3. Making progress on my mural!

4. Seeing areas of growth in my character

5. Winning Apples to Apples

Thanks for making it through the long posts, you guys are champs.

Blessings,

Brooke