In The Middle

by Dale

Depending on the context, being “in the middle” can be a good thing or a bad thing.  If you’re driving in the middle of a snow storm or stuck in the middle of a conflict these are generally viewed as bad things (and rightly so!).  On the other hand if you are talking about a jelly doughnut or better yet an Oreo cookie, “in the middle” is where you find the sweet stuff.

Today (Tuesday, March 8) I find myself in the middle of our time here at Naomi’s Village; three weeks in and three left to serve.  I believe most of my family has found his/her sweet spot in serving.  This is definitely a good thing!  As you can imagine it looks different for each of us and we continue to try serving in different elements of the overall ministry.  I have enjoyed washing dishes for the night kitchen staff, doing road work with the teens and helping run activities during special times like mid-term break, which took place last weekend (Friday thru Monday).

Another aspect of the ministry I have had the privilege of joining is working to organize the Naomi’s Village workshop.  Isaac and I spent a few hours each morning for a about a week separating a conglomerate of parts, pieces and tools into general categories such as electrical, plumbing, hardware, etc.  Below is a picture of the mostly finished product.  I say mostly because there is still more to go through and several tools that could use some repair.  Rachel posted a “before” picture in a previous post but I’m not sure a picture does the chaos justice.  I don’t mean this in a derogatory way because it is hard to keep things orderly when you have several different men with as many different styles of work living in a location where parts and replacement tools are not easy to come by. 

It feels good to help accomplish something like this by the middle of our time here.  This is something no one has had time to do as things are quite busy here.  I don’t know how long the organized state will last but I’m prepared for it to be disheveled by the time I leave.  In working on this project I discovered that the maintenance crew was in need of several items and so I discussed this with my new friend, Anthony.  He made a list of some immediate needs and today we were able to make the trip to the hardware store in Naivasha to pick up some of the things on his list.

Again, I found myself in the middle and it felt like such a blessing!  So many friends from church and beyond helped us get here to NV that we were able to freely donate these much-needed items with some of those funds.  I was able to honestly tell my new friend of the generous folks back home and that these were really a gift from them; I was just in the middle.