I Go to Prepare a Place for You...

John 14 is a beautiful passage where we see our Savior Jesus, comforting His disciples, by telling them about the place He is going to prepare for them.  This particular portion of Scripture has been streaming through my head all week.

Monday morning I received exciting news that myself and the ladies who make jewelry, now have a new location to meet!  We have been wanting to add more women to the group for quite some time.  However, it was close to impossible for me to be able to gather more supplies for the ladies if I was having to pack it all up and travel to the church twice a week.  Also, we were quickly outgrowing the two small tables we were given to use in the front of the church.

There are several rooms on the mission property that have not been used for years.  After some time and thought on the logistics, I was given the go ahead to prepare the place for these precious ladies!

As I worked with the ladies on Tuesday morning, my heart was ready to explode inside me with excitement over our new location.  I have not told the ladies about the new location yet, because I want to get it as ready for them as possible before they see it.

I wonder if this is but a small small picture of what the Lord means when He tells us He is preparing for us things we cannot imagine!  This new space will allow more ladies to participate in the program, it will even open the door for other churches to join.  As I think about this time of growth we are in, I am aware that it is no small task.

Preparing a place is not easy!  I spent hours on Thursday afternoon, with a precious woman who helps clean at the mission, sweeping and cleaning and sweeping some more.  Think about the complete sacrifice our Lord has made for us, as he prepares our place.

Above is the floor in one of the rooms I was sweeping.  A building space that has not been used for 10 + years, in the open airs of Haiti can definitely accumulate a HUGE amount of dust and dirt.  I am still cleaning the dirt out of my nose from all the sweeping!  All this interaction with the dirt and grime made me oh so happy that the Lord does not ask us to clean ourselves up before we come to Him!  Deep cleaning is hard work, if not impossible!

Above is one of the rooms after a day of deep cleaning.  The job is not finished yet.  I plan to head to the rooms here in a few minutes and work some more.  I am beyond excited to have a place to store all of our cereal boxes, paper cutters, glue, varnish, etc.  I think Trey is more than ready to have some space in our guest room and in the storage room next to our house.

It is very exciting to think about the next step for the jewelry project.  I have been so encouraged over the past few days with the direction of this project.  School is out for the summer, and several of the ladies are bringing their kids to work with them.  It is neat to see the excitement the kids have over the work their moms are doing.  The moms have taught their kids to make the jewelry as well!

 This is one of the 12 year old sons of the ladies.  He is putting his moms card on each of the necklaces and bracelets she brought on Thursday.  Pray for the preparation of this new place.  Pray that it would be an encouragement to the ladies, as well as a great way to continue to grow the program.  What a blessing it is to see ladies in the church, looking well to the ways of their household, Proverbs 31:27.