Manual labor

Here are a few photos from Thursday, July 1st when I had the opportunity to do some manual labor here. Carl and I helped Maris from Riga Reformed Church at his home where he is rebuilding half of his house. This was nice because I haven't really worked with my hands very much since I have been here. Thankfully all of these large pieces of lumber that you see were very dry and were surprisingly lightweight. We moved all of the wood that is pictured out of his driveway where the delivery truck had dropped it off. Then we had lunch which Maris' mother prepared. Lunch was very good! We had barbecue chicken wings (I think that she fixed this with Carl & I in mind), vegetables, salad, and bread. Then for dessert she brought us fresh heavenly manna, cookies, and ice cold milk. I was very humbled by the way that she served us. She didn't know english so I was only able to say "paldies" (thankyou) to her, but even without speaking to her I could tell that she was very happy to serve us. She not only prepared all of this food fresh, but also brought it out to us, along with all of the dishes so that we could sit outside and eat. Then she happily cleared the table and brought everything inside to be washed. This is a woman with a true servants heart! And as my mom taught me and my siblings,"If you want to be great in God's Kingdom, learn to be the servant of all." (Yes mom I still remember.) I remember this because mom put these words to music and sang them with a melody, which makes everything easier to memorize. Anyway, after lunch we covered the wood with some old metal roofing to protect it from the rain. After that we lifted a large metal beam up on top of the walls, and this part was actually a little difficult. Then we moved a few of the concrete blocks pictured (these were very light also because they contain a lot of air, which is supposed to act as insulation) and it was time to head home!
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The last picture is a typical Latvian broom. These are very popular and actually work quite well. I just thought that this would be interesting because what we have in the US is very different.