Rain

Hello everyone! Justin here. I hope you all have enjoyed the videos thus far. I have enjoyed hearing that the some of the videos have touched people’s lives in ways I never would have expected. If you haven’t seen Tim’s dancing video, I recommend it to all. It is truly life changing. :)

I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you all a short story. Yesterday morning, I decided to head to a work site after doing some things around the Harmony House. It was a normal day in Harmons, except that it started raining. Pretty hard. This was the first time we had seen a rain like this since the beginning of the summer. The first reaction from everyone in the group was frustration. Here we are, trying to build this house that is close to entirely built out of cement, and the rain comes now?! How are we ever going to finish three houses in one week with rain like this? The cement is never going to dry, we won’t be able to continue working, etc.

We continued working and the rain continued to pour. When it was lunch time, we started to walk back to the Harmony House. Right when we started walking back the rain came down the hardest it had been all day. Seth and I decided to run back so we could shower in the rain. There is a place in the back of the Harmony House where the roofs come together. When it rains, the water pours off of the roof and creates a natural shower. We hadn’t been able to do this since the beginning of the summer (this was in the middle of our nine day stretch without showering), simply because it hadn’t rained.

As I stood there in the rain, I felt complete joy. There are a lot of things in the world that make me happy. My family and friends, listening to my favorite music, watching a good movie, my mom’s homemade fajitas, Seth’s beard, just to name a few. But never before have I felt so much joy over something that happens so frequently. Before this summer, rain was just an inconvenience. But after being engulfed into a community with no running water, rain is so much more. It is tomorrow’s shower water or used to clean dishes the next day. Every last drop is caught from the roof and savored to the fullest extent. As I stood there with rain water being poured on me, I truly sensed its importance. It is so easy to take little things for granted. The fact that we can turn a knob and water flows out of a faucet can be something that seems so miniscule in the grand scheme of things. But when that water is taken away, or comes with a price, every drop seems that much more important. It is cool to see the way that God provides for each of us; even it is through ways that we may not notice at first.

Little experiences like my shower in the rain make me realize the big things I have, without even noticing it. I am excited to see what other experiences are in store in my last few weeks here in Harmons.