Kicking and Screaming!

Can you believe it, I am still alive. The in-laws didn't even dis-own me over the last post, I don’t even think they saw it, so I guess we know who my avid followers are. Who can blame them, they get to hear me talking to myself all the time anyway, why should they read it to themselves? I am sure the live version is much more entertaining!   

Here we are, April already. I am kind of sad to see it here so soon. This month will begin my last trip around the sun in my twenties. I don’t feel old, and I am not apprehensive about the big ‘three-o’, but I have all these horror stories running through my brain, of when people realized their life was near half over, or they were not quite where they hoped they would be at a milestone in their life......

  I don’t think I feel that way.

I can remember growing up and thinking that I would become a highly revered business professional, would wear fancy clothes, and would eventually, around 30 (28 actually), I planned I would find time to entertain the idea of marrying, but was doubtful I would ever have children. I still, to this day, feel a little inexperienced to have and care for a family.

 I guess all the more proof to give the credit to God for their survival… and mine.

 

We successfully completed the butchering and curing process of our second cow, and are once again eating meat! Red Meat! Aged Red Meat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The underground foundation walls of the Hospital are all poured. We have begun backfilling all trenches and just this morning, digging some of the new channels for the underground drain and water lines.

We have had a few visitors in the last month, and tomorrow, we welcome the first hospital construction specific work team. Four men from Iowa will be joining us for a week, with hopes of getting the ball rolling on all the underground rough-in plumbing. I say with 'hopes of', because we don’t actually have any of the pipes or supplies yet. I know, I know. Sounds crazy right!

Someone asked me a few weeks ago, how we were able to coordinate a group to come down and help with plumbing, at exactly the right time. This still makes me chuckle. As a dates & numbers gal, this is definitely something I tried desperately to accomplish. No matter how may expectations we placed on the construction progress, it was always impossible to predict. There are too many variables, and unknowns, not to mention when you throw any one of us Fickers into the mix, things just get downright crazy!   
 

 

The crew unloading block onto the block stock pile

But here we are. The team arrives tomorrow, mid-day. The shipping container, loaded to the gills with plumbing supplies, is in port in Guatemala, and has been a large consumption of energy over the last two weeks to speed its release. We are expecting the container to be in-transit by tomorrow morning, and that should put the contents into Canilla, after a long day of shuffling the contents from one rig to another and driving over the last few dirt roads, Thursday evening.

So, how do we plan ahead? We don’t! I will say it again, for my own sake, WE DON’T, He does. Oh, I have tried. I will continue to try, I am sure… But I yearn to follow His lead. Sometimes kicking and screaming, and other times obliviously. Sure we make general plans, but in the end, we attempt to build our lives around how the Holy Spirit leads, that still, small voice. We are unable to ignore it, but so quick to neglect it, and convince ourselves otherwise.

I pray your lives can afford the flexibility to succumb to His Schedule, and His Agenda, and His Plan for your lives. Thank you for your prayers, and encouragement, and continued support of what we are attempting to accomplish here in our corner of the world. We are grateful for every thought, kind word, and portion of provision.