Bricks

Bricks

I was nervous heading off to junior camp. Our dear family friend, Nancy Waner, had asked me to be the missionary and gave me the campfire speaker spot at camp. I was nervous because I haven't worked with that age group in a long time and the fireside time meant that I couldn't fall back on a slideshow or other props to entertain the kids. It was a time for storytelling. I did have a lot of stories from my childhood that I could use and make applications for the mission emphasis, so I made an outline and gave it my best.

My project is raising funds to rebuild the clinic on the mission where I grew up in southern Zimbabwe. So with a lot of nervousness, I waited that first night while the kids sang their silly campfire songs and then Nancy got up to introduce me. Our theme for the week was puzzle pieces – how God fits our story into His story. My life fit the theme because my story as a little girl has prepared me for my role today in this project. Nancy shared about how when she was a little girl, a missionary came to speak at her church to raise money to build the hospital at Mashoko – one of our sister mission stations in Zimbabwe. A hospital that I am fairly familiar with… Small world, right? The bricks were five cents apiece and the children raised money to buy bricks to help build that hospital. It didn't take much research based on an email that I had just received from our African director, Zebedee Togarepi, with a breakdown of costs to rebuild our clinic to calculate that it would cost 20 cents a brick to rebuild the clinic at Dine’. (Not too bad of an inflation rate in 50 years!) The kids got behind the project and were excited to come up each day and tell me how many bricks they gave in the offering for missions. We made construction paper bricks with the kids’ name on them and put them up on the wall. Each day there were more and more bricks with children’s names on them.

I am pleased to announce that those 50 sweet nine to 11-year-old campers gave $254 at junior camp. That is 1,270 bricks! And who knows, maybe in 50 years one of those dear children will be talking about how they gave twenty cents for bricks when there is another mission fundraising project. I wonder what it will cost per brick in 50 years?

Yes indeed, God does weave our story into His story and each person is a vital piece of the puzzle. Thank you dear children of Junior Camp at Pleasant Valley 2017 for your generous support to help rebuild the clinic at Dine’, Zimbabwe!

What are you building with your life? With your resources? What bricks are you making for God’s building projects? How does your puzzle piece fit into His story?

If you want to donate for some more bricks for the Dine’ clinic, follow this link for an online gift. Your gift of love will be greatly appreciated and put to good use! https://hippovalley.reachapp.co/campaigns/dine-clinic

Donna