Never seen anything like it!  Never felt any exhilaration like it!  Wish I could craft a block of words to share the feeling with you because I believe you'd like it!

I'm referring to the workday... house-raising... benevolent effort at Willie's House (a. k. a. Jill's House) this past Saturday.

Part of the great feeling comes from knowing that God was in it.  Wow, pick any spot out in advance of the workday--three months, a month, a week, four days, two days... there were so many obstacles to overcome and seemingly no way!  I'm not talking humanly impossible, but I'm sure camped on humanly highly improbable!  So I ask you, from a point of view of someone who believes God works among us, how do you explain it when everything that has to happen happens exactly when it has to happen and, most every time, the answer to the problem comes from someplace the folks involved hadn't even thought of? 

I'll pick four days before the workday (Tuesday) as an example.  The plumbing isn't yet installed in the muddy, muddy fill, has to be inspected whenever it gets there before trenches it's laid in can be back-filled and concrete poured--with our planned concrete crew telling us they're not available until five days after the planned workday.  But a Paragould plumber-hero suffering fever and chills from something like flu turns up and--as "luck" would have it (tsk! tsk!), the plumbing's done and inspected Thursday morning, backfilled with plastic and steel reinforcement in place by 6:00 Thursday evening.  Meanwhile, Allen Engineering learns of the concrete problem and has a crew on site Thursday setting grades and back Friday morning at 7:00 for the pour.  

I'd say more, but you probably get the scene.  Were I a betting man with no faith and a $1,000 in my hand on Tuesday, I'd have placed what I would have surely thought was the surest bet anyone ever made against anything happening Saturday, May 30th! 

No less a part of my excitement was the throng of people who showed up Saturday... too many, really, but what a great problem to have.  About 50 came from several area churches, and some who are part of no church came... they knew Willie from here or there or they saw the KAIT promo and wanted to join in.  We had knowledgeable tradesmen and a bunch of eager helpers and toters, camera crews, refreshment crews, food crews, and some onlookers (Jill and most of her immediate family were either working or watching).  It didn't come off without a hitch here and there, but carpenters--who each have their habitual way of handling building details--scratched their heads and agreed how to do it there and the walls rose quickly.  Every wall of the house was in place, some beams set, and the site ready for trusses by shortly after noon.  I know the scope would have been far grander then, because of the national need for God's people to be protected, but I was drawn in thought to the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls after the exile in Nehemiah's day, which he explains as being accomplished successfully in a stunningly short time because "people had a mind to work."

Human heroes who need mentioning?  From my point of view, absolutely!  There are many donors of money and materials--some I know now and some yet to appear whom I see by eye of faith.  There are some guys who have worked long and hard and, because of their faith, been undeterred when Satan seemed to be throwing every wrench into the works he could find.  But I'm thinking they're not so interested in acclaim as they are in giving God glory for His gift of the opportunity to do good and love each other in a way Jesus told us would make the world know we are His disciples... INDEED!!!