Men of God

There is a group of six men here now putting the roof on the new apartment building (the one where we live). Each of them has been to NLCH many times previously. This place would not exist if it wasn't for them. Every time that I am around them, I am deeply impacted. These men work hard in the U.S. and deserve a vacation. They could easily choose to serve themselves -- using their money to go on cruises or nice vacations where they could lay on the beach with a tropical drink in hand for a week -- and no one would fault them. Yet instead, they take time off of work and pay their own way to come here to work from sunrise to sunset for an entire week, sometimes more. I watch them at night, some limping around from the day's labor, other smearing Bengay on their aching joints, and yet they gladly get up and do it all over again the next day.

Last night, I came into the guest kitchen to find them meeting with one of our local staff members. This incredible woman of faith and prayer has served NLCH faithfully over the years and loves the children here as her own. She will be moving into one of new apartments when it is completed. The men were explaining to her that they felt the Lord leading them to pool their spending money and give it to her so that she can buy furniture for her new apartment.

She is a generally a strong, reserved women but she burst into tears as she was presented with the money. She began telling the men that she had been praying to the Lord to provide a way for her to furnish her new apartment. She explained that while her own children assure her that they have never been ashamed of her, she has felt embarrassed for her children to invite their friends into their current home and has always wanted a place that they could be proud of. This was the most I had ever heard her talk about her personal life.

Watching these men respond to the Lord's leading and bless this extremely deserving woman with their money was an incredible and humbling experience for me. I was convicted of how often I so selfishly serve myself and look after my own desires when someone is right in front of me that God could use me to bless if would only listen to Him.

May God greatly bless these men a hundred times over for their example and servant hearts.