1 Corinthians 3:10-11
10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

During the second week of our time in the bush of Kenya the men on our team found ourselves with an amazing opportunity. The local church we were serving alongside had realized some time before we arrived that there were members who walked as many as 20 kilometers every Sunday morning to join in worship. Steve, our host pastor, is a man who's always looking for ways to expand the reach of the gospel, so he took this as an opportunity to plant a new church in a small, neighboring community called Morgan.

By the time we arrived about a month ago, the plot had already been purchased and measured and was ready for the work to begin. The men on our team were asked to dig the foundation for the new church building and, never being ones to shy away from a good man-challenge, we delightfully accepted grunts, chest bumps and various other displays of virility.

Aside of being in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, this turned out to be a huge blessing for us. Every afternoon for about a week we were able to drive to the middle of nowhere (at least by my classification of "nowhere") and labor for the sake of the gospel both spiritually and physically. We would gather together every day before digging and pray over the soon-to-be building and the people who would one day hear about Jesus there. Then we would pick up our shovels and pickaxes, dig for a while, and then end with prayer again.


The foundation had to be dug two feet deep in about a 25'X50' rectangle. This sounds easy enough but we quickly figured out that the task was more menacing that we originally understood. Apparently our team had an anointed ability to break every tool we got our hands on while trying to dig through the boulder-infested clay. While spending a great deal of time removing huge rocks and fixing the rapidly disintegrating tool handles something really began to hit me. We, as part of the church, were doing something of incredible eternal significance.

It hit me that what we were doing was not all too different from what Paul, Peter and the other early disciples were doing. Given, many of the people of Eburru, Morgan, and the surrounding areas had some exposure to the gospel already but we were setting a foundation on which others might come and build. It was great to have a part in constructing the church building, itself, but so much larger than that we were proclaiming Jesus as the foundation for The Church, that He is THE Way and THE Truth and THE Life! I'm about to jump about of my chair as I type this! What greater privilege is there in life than to lay down ourselves and pick up something that really, finally matters, Jesus Christ? So go now and be Church builders. Dig foundations, break up the tough ground and show people that our Savior is the only good foundation. Amen? Amen!



God Bless,
a foundation digger