Brute Wheelbarrow (Thur Aug. 25, 2011)

While the other projects had adequate support, I stumbled on another need.  They only had one wheelbarrow and it seemed to me that a second one would be helpful.  So I started looking around for some scrap wood to build one.  Since most of the wood was cut to build the remaining pieces of the bunk beds, I pieced together enough scraps to build a second wheel barrow.

The finished product however looks like something you might find in the middle ages.  It looks like a device Robin Hood might have used to cart around dead goats or fire wood.  It’s a little harder to push around than I had hoped, but it will definitely last. 

Earlier Thursday morning, several more helpers arrived to assist in the meal we would provide later that evening.  By dinner time, when we started bringing out the tables and pots of food, there were lots of people waiting outside the gate.  By the time we were ready to eat, there must have been 250 men women and children that came through the food line.  That meal together was one of the most memorable times for me – I think we all had a sense of reward and accomplishment that night… it was kind of a culmination of what we had been doing all week together, but in the middle of the meal it struck me that as great as we felt about providing food to those in need… there were many who may have only had that single meal all day… and maybe that single meal was going to last them for the next day or two.  


It was  a privilege to be a part of, but what hit me hardest was that in a matter of days we were going to be able to go home to clean water in our sinks and fresh food in our refrigerators.  It’s not fair.  That experience and  memory is branded on my mind and my heart forever, and I'll continue to consider ways to help and serve in a sustainable way … that doesn’t just enable people… or to propel me or other Americans toward “Superman-Complex”.  There has to be a better way for long term sustainable help… more on that later…