The man pictured above came to us when we were walking through his neighborhood looking for a house that would meet the criteria for new roofs.  Early on we needed to establish a criteria for what we were able to do and what was beyond our capacity.  We decided early on that since we wanted to reach as many people as we could, it would rule out the simple fact that we could not totally rebuild a house.  Our criteria was if the walls were destroyed we would not pay to have them rebuilt.  We were in the re-roofing business and that would enable us to reach a far greater number of people and spread our resources farther into the community.  It was hard on all of us when we would have to tell a family that we could not give them the funds to rebuild the walls to their homes.  We cried with them at times.  What we were able to do was encourage them to put the walls up themselves and if they were able to do that, we would come back and install a new roof for them.  

    The man above was one we told that his house was too destroyed and that we would not be able to rebuild the walls for him.  He was very discouraged and I was very saddened by the words I had to speak, but I did tell him that if he would get the walls up I would come back and see that he got a new roof.  

    We came back through his neighborhood a couple of days later and this man had salvaged enough bricks to start the front walls of his house.  He must have worked all night and all day to get as far as he had.  When he saw me, he sat straight up and smiled and let me take this picture.  I was  struck with compassion beyond capacity and reached out and shook has hand and gave him the big thumbs up gesture.  I’m not a ‘wear your emotions on the sleeves’ person, but I was on the verge of tears.  This man had gotten to me, and I reached deep into my pocket and gave him the funds to complete his humble house.  It was not a large amount of money by any means, but enough to get his house rebuilt.  I don’t even know his name, but I felt like he would be someone I would know for the rest of my life.  On the way back to the hotel that night we ordered the metal roofing and eye beams for this man’s re-constructed house.  I will follow up on this man next week and show the finished home and the happy man with the excellent work ethic.

 

I hope this man and his story will remind us all of the resolve of the human spirit to survive and the supernatural ability of our loving Father to provide for us despite our feelings of hopelessness.  Jesus, said “If you’ve done this to the least of these you’ve done it to me”.

 

We’re still here and were still trying our best to keep doing it.