The Rain Can't Stop Us

During our morning devotion time, we spoke this morning about how awesome the day was yesterday. How everything went as planned and we were able to get so much accomplished. And then I read the scripture passage from 2 Corinthians 4:4. "The god of this age blinds the unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ..." Now even though we are believers, that doesn't stop the god of this age to try to blind us from Christ, to try to stop us from growing closer to him, to stop praising him. I shared that we have made the evil one angry with how well we jelled as a team and the progress we made. I warned that we needed to be on alert for his attempts to fracture the group and impede our progress. Well it came - all day. RAIN! Nothing can stop a mission project like rain. As soon as we got started on the roofing phase of the porch, the skies opened up. We attempted to work though it, hoping that it would let up, but no such luck. We left the materials out just in case, but we ended up only putting up a few 2 x 6 frame boards until we had to call it a day. And there's something about rain that keeps all the kids inside. Raoul has often made the joke that Bahamians are allergic to rain. Even when the rains periodically slowed to a drizzle or stopped, there were no kids to play with. That left 18 workers on one project - the yard. When we started the landscaping project yesterday, only a few people were in on it. They mostly wanted to bang nails on the deck. So today when the work required all of us to chop branches, pull weeds, and move brush and garbage, the mood of the group was not a good one. There were a few comments like "I want to do something else," and "When can we build the roof?" But with no other options, all of us went to work. It didn't take long for everyone to realize just how awesome the yard started to look, which in turn got us more excited to keep going. Over the next 5 hours, we cleared an approximately 50 x 50 foot space that hadn't been landscaped in well over 10 years. There were trees, bushes, grasses, weeds, and garbage all over the area. We not only had to chop and clear the debris, but we also had to move the large pile to the front curb so the garbage collectors could get it. And we did it the whole time while it rained. The very thing that could have divided the group and dashed our spirits was only helping us work harder and grow closer. The cool temps kept everyone refreshed. After the previous two days of pretty high temperatures, it was a relief to get a day like this. It also was beneficial for our traditional Tuesday Night Game - FLY SWATTER HOCKEY! This game is typically the highlight of the nightly games we play, and because of the day we had, the game was a pretty intense one. Usually we play a round robin tournament because of the number of small group teams we have, but since there were only two teams we played one longer game to decide the champs. After winning the first game of the week on Saturday night, the Juicy Leopards were on a five game losing streak to the Sinking Saints. (Ask the kids about how we come up the team names.) So tonight was the Leopards last chance for victory. After a hard fought first half and a tie score, the Leopards erupted for 5 second goals and won 6-3 to claim the Stanley Conch Trophy. As we wrapped up the night in small group, we shared how awesome our God is that he was able to help us persevere through the possible roadblocks, find a way to accomplish our goals, and give praise to Him all though the storms.