A word from Tyler...

A few weeks back, me and my friends decided to chase the sunrise. I see the sun setting everyday, and it’s not as spectacular as it once was. However, a sunrise is a whole different story. As an 18 year old hooligan, 6 AM is one of those few hours I claim doesn’t exist. So, me and my friends went to see the sunrise. It was pretty cool, and I had a blast. It was an adventure getting up before the crack of dawn and having a breakfast picnic. It could hardly compare to the feeling I had this morning when I saw the sunrise. There is a completely different set of emotions that washes over me when I see the sunrise as I’m scrambling for shovels and trowels to build a concrete wall. Well, that’s the rush I had as I was still in the “I’m nearing consciousness after sleeping like a rock” stage. It was pretty radical, and a nice way to start the day. (Even if I did have to wake up an hour and a half before breakfast even started).

I’m always baffled by those who find calculus difficult. I’m a major math geek and appreciate all the intricacies of derivatives and differential equations. Today only helped to strengthen my belief. And I think I finally found a way to convince everyone that math is easy…have them lay brick. Laying brick is a ridiculously hard. Its more than just the manual movement of the heavy bricks and mortar, it’s the fact that no matter how much you tap, measure, and twink the blocks will NEVER be in a straight line. It’s just a fact of bricklaying. Not to mention the fact that I’m getting tan lines! After spending hours in the sun every day at the pool as a life guard, I get tan lines after half a day in the morning sun. I guess this is God’s way of saying, “Welcome to sunny Texas, now its time to get over yourself.” So its time to look on the bright side and realize that at least my time in the sun prevented burns, unlike the other members of my elite teams who did not escape the rays of the sun.

Bill taught us how to lay bricks. Bill is a “retired” missionary who spent over 20 years in Brazil. He ministered with the Nichols while down there. Bill was full of stories and he loved to tell them. You could see the twinkle in his eye when he was remembering something from his past. Bill and his wife live in an old renovated school bus turned into a mobile home. It has over 400,000 miles on it, its engine was last rebuilt in 1980 and the rig gets 800 miles to the tank (its got a hundred gallon tank…do the math). When his wife’s hip went out, he designed and built an elevator lift in his bus. Back in the day he was a diesel engineer for the navy after hardly graduating high school. You can learn a lot just by working next to a man with such experience and a great personality. God can have such an impact on a man’s life. Bill was born in a Christian home and accepted Christ at the age of 7. He didn’t walk with the Lord throughout the entirety of his years though. He went the way of the world for a while, he was a motorcycle rebel. Yep, that’s right, God can even use motorcycle rebels to have a profound impact on the establishment of his kingdom. How encouraging is that.

Well, that was my morning, I’d write more but everyone is trying to get on here to type, so ask me about the rest of my day later. God bless.

-Tyler