the reason why.

I find my words failing me today. I have thought for some time how I was going to start this little update and I can never seem to find the right words or the right train of thought to follow. So, I will simply write what comes out and allow that to be enough.

When I think back on the past few weeks I can’t help but smile. What a life. I spend one day helping kids with their horse therapy time and then the next day I’m mixing cement to help finish a roof. My clothes are now covered by dried concrete, my face is burnt, my arms are cut and bruised, but the only thing that gets me going are the faces.

The other day all the girls went to help give a charla aka a woman’s talk. I was fortunate enough to help out by holding up posters so Rebecca could point and demonstrate what she was talking about. Now granted, it’s sometimes funny because a part of me never left my five year old days, but there was another part that was absolutely haunted.

I saw every woman’s face. Every expression. Every smile and every hint of pain. I stood there holding up a poster of some human biology yet I was witnessing something far greater. It seems to happen from time to time, I will be working on some project and then I will just look at the people around me, and be changed. It so easy, too easy to get lost in the job of the day. Mix cement, lift buckets, lay bricks, count beans, milk cows, I get so wrapped in those job that the true purpose of performing all those actions gets pushed away.

It has been and always will be about the people. Why do I mix cement? To build a house for a family. Why do I count beans? To help feed a family. Why do I milk a cow? To help provide milk for children. The action without this purpose is absolutely meaningless.

So I will gladly hold a poster, but the purpose behind is worthy of my ability. I will gladly chase goats around, or wash pigs or even scoop up some poop because the purpose behind it all is worth more than me.

wsl,

Mallory K. Kornegay

Beans and Bricks

As always life here is an adventure. Just when I think I’m starting to understand the flow of life here, something new and surprising arrives and I once again find myself confused. It’s easy to get lost in the desperation that is so evident in this place. However, I have come to rely on two things here. Reguardless of whatever goes on I will always have beans and bricks.

You see I have been put with agriculture and groups for the past week which I absolutely love. I may not speak spanish, I may not play football that well, but I can lift bricks and I can count beans. It may seem silly, it may even seem a waste, but with every part of my heart I love it, and not because of any of the reasons you may think.

I love doing all that work because when I look at a bag of beans or a stack of bricks I don’t just see that. I see hope. I see people no longer hungry and children growing. I see houses built and families safe and warm. I see a better future than this world has allowed. I see more than just beans and bricks, I find my hope in those beans and bricks because God works through them.

So that has been my past week and if that were to be how the rest of my time here was spent, that would be enough for me.

wsl,

Mallory K. Kornegay

So I learned to paint toenails, no big deal

So I haven’t blogged in two weeks… my bad. So to give everyone a heads-up on what my life has been like I will try to condense it.

I have: left home, arrived at Mission Lazarus, driven to surrounding cities to meet and greet people, milked a cow, scooped some poop, cleaned some pigs, fed a horse, gathered some chicken eggs, sorted 7,000 peppers, filled bags with 100lbs. of beans, downloaded books, filled bags full of coffee, watched it rain for 4 days straight, went horse back riding, floated down a river, got leeches stuck on me, and have been viciously attacked by mosquitoes. Life is good.

But more importantly, I have seen the face of God. Every time I turn it seems like I am captured by another side of God. Whether it’s by watching the clouds dance upon the mountains or by making a child laugh at my lack of Spanish skills. Our God is alive and he is good.

One of the fist days we were here we went to a charla (a women talk). I stood there in the back and listened as best I could to Rebecca inform and challenge these women. So I might have been getting a little crunk… no big deal. Anyways, after the talk we the interns were instructed to paint the women’s nails. Now I realize no one here knows me, but let me say this, I don’t even paint my own nails much less someone elses. I was a little intimidated. Well I finally got the guts to grab some polish and proceed to paint these lovely ladies nails. Then I get to this one woman. She looks at her fingers nails, says “no” and points to her feet. I thought to myself, “oh Lord, I’m going to pain this woman’s toenails”. I sit down and with shaking hands began to paint her toe nails. In that moment I realized something, if my savior can wash someone’s feet, surely I can paint them. In that moment of clarity it all became clear, in that moment of clarity life made sense, in that moment of clarity I found God. If I had to go home after that day, it would have been a summer worth living for.

Well I believe that is all for today. Sorry for being lengthy, but I figured I needed to make up for my lack of writing last week.

wsl

Mallory K. Kornegay