It's been years since I've watched the show "Extreme Home Makeover". I guess the excessiveness in which the homes were built ended up being too much for my taste. However, for some reason. I recorded it this weekend and watched it over the last couple of days. This time, I didn't watch it so much from the perspective of the recipients, instead, my eyes (and heart) were drawn to those doing the building. The parallels between the home makeover and the house build our team did in Mexico were unmistakeable. It didn't stop there, however, I have began to see specifically where my heart has shifted and my view on life has changed.
The extreme home makeover tv show comes in and builds a new home for a family in a week. Often it's an "over-the-top" home that generally stuns and overwhelms the family. The generosity is obvious, yet it goes way beyond meeting the family's needs (whether truly beneficial or not, I don't want to say). What is incredible is how much a focused team can accomplish in such a short time. More often than not, the team walks away impacted by the joy of giving.
When we traveled to Mexico and did the build, we had the great privilege of seeing a family's life transformed. What started as a hut with tarps and irrigation piping ended with a strong walled home complete with windows, door and roof. We were able to see a house built, outhouse dug and a family given hope in only 5 days! What's even more amazing is what this build and trip did for our own family.
I think the first change I've seen in my family is the embarrassment of how much stuff we truly have. There's closets and boxes and seasonal clothes and then the things we just don't wear, use or need . . . Ugh, it's time to be more generous with what we have, resourceful with what's around us and reasonable with what we truly need.
The second change has hit me hard. I've never shed as many tears as I have in the last 2 1/2 months. My heart feels like it has been laid bare, as I've been overwhelmed by first, the expression of love and support from our church, second, by the incredible people we met on the trip and third, by the heartache and need we encountered. I've shared about our church and friends (again, thank you, your generosity still brings tears to my eyes), and I've shared a bit about the people I've met. Honestly, if we could return to Mexico tomorrow, to serve with any incredible people we met, we would. Our heart longs to be back. The men, women and children we've been able to get to know are daily in our thoughts and prayers. We see how God is moving, we see how His love is demonstrated daily and we see the impact that is being made on the community.
Most of the tears shed, however, have been for the needs we encountered. Daily, our hearts were touched by the poverty, pain, joy, and heartache we saw. In some, there was tremendous joy despite horrific circumstances, in others, a lifetime of pain reflected in the eyes of the very young. We were faced with things we never thought we would witness within driving distance (albeit a very long drive). We don't even look at our food the same way . . .after seeing the miles of greenhouses where much of our fruits and vegetables grown.
We were asked today if the trip was worth it . . .the years of saving, tears, sacrifice, driving, stomach ailments, fatigue . . . yes, a thousand times yes! It was a trip and an extreme heart makeover of a lifetime!
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