Dedication Day

I forgot to journal yesterday because I was so pooped but I’ll tell you briefly what happened.

That day was really tough for me so I stuck with some of the more simple jobs that were less taxing like handing bricks up to people in the scaffolding. It was really hot until the second part of the day. We were almost finished with the church and the sidewalks when the clouds released a torrential downpour upon us all. It happened so rapidly. It was dry then all of the sudden, it was drenching us to the bone. My dirty brick-stained shirt clung greedily to my body and my shorts flowed with water at my every step. I looked over at the newly poured sidewalks and was disappointed. The rain was slowly eating up our cement. But at the end of the day, the only drawback was that we could not finish one side of church with sidewalk but overall, that section was unneeded.

That night, we had the goodbye ceremony and an exchange of gifts. It took a long time because each of us had to get up and do some sort of dance. I was thoroughly embarrassed but Soojin went with me so it was ok.

When we dedicated the churches, I had such a feeling of accomplishment inside me. Now the people can come to a place of worship where God’s presence can always dwell.

Leaving, we all packed up on the bus to go. I had mixed feeling about leaving. On one hand, I was excited to go to the beach, relax and see my family soon. On the other hand, I was sad to leave the people that I had just began to know and share my heart with. I will probably not see these people again until we meet in heaven, even that thought is bittersweet. I wish we could have more time, one more week at least, to further our relationships with the people. Instead of working, we could simply delve into their culture and their lives. I will miss everyone, especially the pastors, who were so friendly and nice to me.

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