A Different Kind of Serving

Can one serve God faithfully and serve his country as well? This is a questions that has been on my mind for awhile now about being devoted to God, yet being enlisted in some type of military branch for the U.S.

Casas Por Cristo - Juarez, Mexico

As I was sitting on my plane pending its arrival to El Paso, Tx I was interviewed by Laurie one of the crews cameramen. She asked me a bunch of questions I really never thought about before. She asked me questions like, "What are you expecting?" or " What do you think it will be like?" "What do you think you will learn?" As i was starring into the camera i simply blurted lame answers that I came up with in a few seconds. As Laurie went back to her seat I sat their thinking about what she asked me. I couldn't imagine what it would be like, I've never been to anywhere in the world like that before and I've never done something like build houses for less fortunate people before. I continued to think, "What will this whole experience be like?"
Our first day in Mexico was quite a sight. The south is quite an interesting place and beyond the border can not be described well enough with words, pictures, or videos. As we began to arrive in the outskirts of Juarez it looked like a trash dump combined with a dessert with small shacks people call home scattered around. It was certainly nothing i've ever seen before.
When I learned our work schedule I was a little nervous, working intense hours in the Mexico sun worried me a bit but as soon as we began to build none of that mattered anymore. I made sure that the last thing I worried about on the trip was my myself. The week was about serving, and it was incredible. On the third and final day working on the house, I looked at it when it was complete and I thought about how each persons hand had something to do with the house. Each persons hands created what we called, "a free gift from God." As that day progressed it got even more amazing. Our dedication ceremony touched even the hardest hearts. This blog post isnt even 1/100th of what happened there but just the shortest possibly cut down version, maybe the real deal will come later on when I've fully understand what really happened there.
It was definitely an honor serving with each and every person on that trip. Our first meeting was scary and I didn't know many of the other people going, but by the end of the week I felt like I could talk to anyone. It was truly amazing we felt like one big family.
Thanks everyone for making it one of the best experiences of my life.