Greetings from the AWA Philippines Mission Base on the island of Palawan!
I was just hanging out on the rack at the hardware store, along with some of my friends, when everything changed. Someone stood in front of us, trying to decide which one of us to choose. I was screaming “PICK ME! PICK ME!” but since I am only a shovel, I cannot actually speak aloud. They first grabbed my friend hanging next to me, a flat shovel, and then they quickly grabbed not only me but the one behind me too. All three of us were all going to the same spot! We endured the one-hour bumpy trip with eager anticipation to our final destination and the work that lay ahead of us.
The next morning dawned early with roosters crowing, and we were picked up and dropped off in a field. There were two men, two women, and two teenagers who grabbed us, along with a pickax and started to dig. I was not sure what we were part of, but the human team worked hard all day. Each day the humans would pray before starting work. They were a good team, and laughed and joked, even though the sun was hot and the air thick with humidity. It had not rained a drop of water in several months, so the earth was hard. We could not have done it without the pickax that they brought along. I not only dug trenches but also shoveled gravel and sand into buckets to mix into the cement.
As the days wore on, we could see that the trenches were going to be the foundation for a mission house. A couple of weeks later, many teenagers from Canada came to help build the walls of the house. One day, a fire broke out in the tall dry grass and rapidly moved toward the village. Everyone grabbed what they could, including me and my other shovel-buddies. It was hot work, but they used us to whack the fire, which put out the flames one bit at a time. I could hear them praying under their breaths that the fire would not be spread to the nearby village. God heard their prayer and the fire stopped just short of the village filled with flammable bamboo huts.
After the Canadians left, different hands, of local workers picked us up and used us to finish the house. The rains started to fall, and we dug gardens, and trenches to keep the small rivers off the roadway.
Last year, we were thrown into the back of the truck and taken somewhere different. It turns out we were helping to build a new, small church in the middle of a sweet potato patch. Those were happy days. Thrown into the truck again recently, my fellow shovels and I all surmised that we would be returning to the church, but the truck made a different turn this time. As we lay in the back, looking up, we could tell we were going through the village and then stopped at the church. Loads of sand and gravel lay waiting, along with piles of cement block. WOW! We were so excited to find out that we would be part of building a NEW church right here in the village of Sagpangan. Local workers were happy to have work and used us again to dig the trenches for the foundations. The heat was terrible, but we kept working! At the end of each day, they would wash us, and lock us all up in the church outhouse, as it was the only secure place. Later, more teenagers came from Canada and took us up, once again, and started mixing cement and laying block at the church.
I am still in good condition, though I am starting to show some signs of wear. I am glad I am not still hanging on the rack and can continue to work here for years to come. I know I am just a shovel, but it has been great to be of use in God’s work. The funds to buy me and all the other supplies for the work all come from people in the US and Canada who donate to this AWA mission project in the Philippines. They still need a few thousand dollars to finish the church, and through listening to the people who use me, I know God will provide. I look forward to seeing the mission base grow and the humans reach out to others in need.
Your AWA Mission Family stationed at the Palawan Mission Project,
The Espinosa Family (and Shovel)
