Paint Week and Getting Settled

My team painted a house this week. That was the primary job. 

The house is for sexual exploitation victims and their families to live in as they get their lives back on track. 

I had a lot of fun with it, unfortunately I kind of wrecked my squad shirt and khaki pants with the paint. 

My squad mates were telling me to be lighter on the roller and use less paint to get less on you, but they clearly didn’t understand that I was becoming one with the paint splatter. All things will become one under God at the end, so I was just prepping for that with the paint. 

I am not paint boy: I AM PAINT MAN! 

IN ORDER TO CREATE TRUE ART, YOU HAVE TO MARK YOUR TERRITORY ON THE WALL, GIVE THE WALL  A BIG OLD SPLAT AND THEN SPREAD THE PAINT OUT FROM THERE. MY TEAMMATES WERE SIMPLY ACCOMPLISHING THE TASK, HOWEVER, I AM AN ARTIST WITH A WHITE PAINT HAMMER GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. FOR IT IS WRITTEN THAT THOSE IN THE END TIMES BEHIND GOD WILL BE WEARING WHITE LINEN: 

 “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭19‬:‭14‬ ‭KJV‬‬

CAN YOU TRULY SAY THAT YOU ARE READY FOR THE END TIMES IF YOU HAVEN’T ASSERTED YOUR DOMINANCE OVER A WALL WITH WHITE PAINT AND DROWNED YOURSELF IN IT TO THE POINT WHERE YOU SMELL AND TASTE LIKE PAINT?! 

… 

It went better than I am currently indicating, I promise. 

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My teammates certainly enjoyed my soliloquies while we were painting. They also seem to enjoy how often I say “don’t worry about it”. It’s something that I say a lot at home, and it seems to have carried over here. 

We prayed over the house a lot, and were going to cover it in scripture verses. That didn’t really happen, so here are the two versus that I was going to put over the house: 

 “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” ‭‭John‬ ‭9‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭KJV‬‬

I thought that this was important to put over a house for individuals who were sex trafficked for pretty obvious reasons. 

“And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.” Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭KJV‬‬

The house is for victims with children, so putting God’s response to Hagar as her child was pretty important to me. Hagar did undergo a very similar situation, then underwent trials in the desert for her boy. I hope that those women will be able to feel like mothers again and those children will be able to feel like children. God’s response to suffering many times is humanity, so hopefully they continue to find the right people to help them. 

Regarding other stuff, routines are starting to develop. We were having a pretty good routine running, but between minor injuries and illnesses that kind of paused. At least one of the boys has been sick since we got here. One boy in particular has had a constant cough for a week, and has had a visit to the hospital. 

I’ve been pretty good since the 40 hour food poisoning travel day. 

We also went to a flower festival a few times this weekend. The first was with a kids ministry, the second to pray for the blind and lame there, and the third to be with one of the other teams that was visiting. 

Next week we go back to an office and will be prepping classes for victims to learn skills to be administrative assistants, so that will be interesting. I will be good at that given my background, but part of the reason I went on the race was to escape that lifestyle. I’d be shocked if office work occurred for all the countries, but if it does, I would genuinely be pretty upset about that.