My day was full of frustration. We opened up a trench near the property line of the building behind the church, and it was our hope to have that trench filled with the concrete of a footing by the end of the day. Around the noon hour it began to rain as hard as I have seen it rain here in Albania. Hurricanes bring more rain than what impacted Tirana in the early afternoon today, but not much more. We were having lunch when the first cave in occurred.
It was not a lot of dirt, a little less than two wheel-barrows full. However, Sajmir and I knew that the entire area could collapse at any moment. Water was seeping through the wall of earth we were working to reinforce and every minute that passed was a minute we did not have. Here is where being a missionary is challenging. I want to show kindness, and love to all of the people I meet and most certainly with the people I am working with. Rain and concrete are in direct conflict with a man’s sense of patience. I was trying to explain to my crew “we need to work faster, let’s go, let’s go. Its raining so hard, we need to work faster.” While they were telling me “we need to work more slowly. Can’t you see how hard it is raining? We need to stop working if we are going to do anything different.”
How do you instill a sense of urgency in the people around you when a wall of earth is about to collapse on top of you? I do not know the answer to that question. Perhaps I got a taste of how Paul, Peter, and the other authors of the Bible felt as they wrote their letters to the early Church. “Come on, work harder, move faster, love better. Can’t you see, the wall of sin is about to collapse on top of these strangers, and swallow them up for ever. It is our job to reach them with the message of Jesus’ love for them. Go, go, go!”
As I was running with one wheel-barrow load of concrete after the last back to the problem area, I knew that the pace of work was unsustainable. I also knew that my crew lacked a point of reference for what was so very urgent about today in juxtaposition with all of the days we have worked together before now. So, how do you get the people you are leading to mirror your sense of urgency?
albaniacalling 
Your growth in patience, in comprehension, in compassion is NOT unsustainable. Your work is pleasing to God, and a tribute to your love for Him. Bless you, son. Walk on. I’m with you, but more importantly — far more importantly, He is.
I know. Thanks Pop.