This Home's Story

I love living in a town that has a lot of old restored homes with great stories.  Driving through "old Victoria," seeing some of the painstaking work that has gone on and hearing about some of those stories is a part of life here.  There is something all those home stories have in common - they all go back to the original owner and builder.  Whether that is an interesting person or a largely forgotten person, every home has a builder and every home has a story.

This past week on our mission trip, we started building a home.  It will not qualify for something in "old Victoria."  We did not get as far on it as we would have liked because of the rain but we started a home and we started a story.  I wonder what that story will be fifty years from now?  No doubt the story will go back to builders and the owners.  But what else will it tell?

It is not a fancy home or one that inspires to beauty.  It is a simple home in a poor colonia not far from the border but it has more than pier and beam foundations, it is a home built on love.  The love people have because God has changed their lives and has given them an opportunity to pass that love on in very real ways.

The story of the home on 4 Mile Road in Penitas, Texas is also the story of a home being filled with love.  I did not have to be around the family (Pablo and Lily's) long for me to tell that love was making a difference.  I went from watching their children's behavior at the build site to seeing the behavior of a rowdy bunch of kids at the church at which we worked.  It was a stark contrast.  Pablo and Lily's kids know that they are loved, they are beginning to learn how to show it and share it.  The other kids from the colonia largely showed that the do not know that kind of life changing love.  I hope we were able to give them a taste.  Lily and Pablo's family have a feast by comparison.

In some ways we have established a small beach head for a family to grow in love in a place where is seems to be in short supply.  We can pray that it overflows into their colonia, their neighborhood, because it is a desperate need there.  Thank God that with Him, there is always enough for every home to have a story about His love.

for the journey...

Tim