With Gratitude

Rushing Wind

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

-John 3:8

Billowing in from the north, new warmth encompasses La Senda

Laughter, coffee, hard work, cinnamon rolls, Five Crowns,

and checkmarks on the list

Sprinkle relief on a cracked-earth day.

Little wisps of fresh air flitting around the campus,

The men and women of Harvest Community Church

Come to bless and to serve.

One man jokingly offers to flip the bird

almost as readily as the moth-thin Bible pages,

yet challenges each to consider his relationship with God.

Another tinkers with Pringle-can telephones

and tree houses

and teeth-baring saws alike

all for the delight of the children.

Loco is known for his jokes and teasing ways,

though he barrels through the list

like a locomotive

(keeping hole 18 in mind the whole time)

The purple-bandana-clad painter mutters

as he investigates the mechanics of all things functional,

stopping to paint walls and fashion new tools out of old.

Another, gentle, quiet,

grounds the negative charges,

keeps the pipes clear

and straightens table legs with his giant strength.

The last man is in want of a wife,

joyfully waiting with a winning smile

and a whistling woodwind,

making sure all is “Good enough for government work”

in the mean time.

With the cinnamon-sweet aroma of freshly baked bread

and the hum of the sewing machine,

there’s no question who creates comfort for those she serves.

The Keeper of the List checks daily for completion,

but she’s a gentle master, refreshing the group

with her homemade, savory sherbet and dinner.

A mother-daughter duo shines their light brightly,

saving the world from dirty pennies and sins,

sharing about God’s love with the children

who love the coloring, the singing, the hip-shaking.

Two more, fresh from the Peruvian peaks:

One regales us with Spanish stories and boyfriends,

filling in with willing hands

to clean, to blend milk, to read stories;

the other, being molded into a priceless pot,

subs and serves and sews where needed.

And for all their work, no thanks are needed, they say

As they leave pounds of cakes and cookies and bread

And a newly fashioned tree house and bleachers

And freshly painted rooms and organized storage spaces

All for the kids, all for Mommy and Daddy,

All for the love of the Lord.

(And in one tiny house, not but ten minutes away,
Lives one grateful girl counting her blessings

Among blue and green walls and neatly hung curtains,

Even a fridge that swings open,

Refreshed by the wind from the North.)

-written with much thanks to the members of Harvest Community Church, Guatemala mission trip 2010