The little blue bird house

Spent another week in DeRidder! This time was a lot different than the last, but the community was just as good – beautiful and welcoming like the last time! Again, there’s so much I could say about my week there, but there’s one specific story I want to share. This ones about a sweet little bird house!

We arrived to DeRidder just in time for dinner on Sunday night! Then Monday morning we woke up bright and early to start our week of ministry! We headed to a house not too far down the road from the church we were staying at. We get there and see a few branches sitting in the yard and a roof that seemed to already have been tarpped. As we start to pick up these branches we realize that there was a lot more than we had originally thought. I’m telling you, this yard seemed to grow bigger and bigger with every branch picked up. Eventually I realize there is an entire tree covering half of this yard, branches coming from every different angle. 

The home owner arrives and informs us that she also needs her metal roof to be tarpped again and that there were holes all in the roof. I don’t know much about tarpping so I tried to stick to cleaning up trees as best as I could, but I do know that this roof was not an easy job. 

We end up spending our entire day at this one house. Most of the day was spent just cleaning up this massive tree, and our team leader trying to figure out how in the world we’re going to get a tarp on this roof. During our time cleaning up this tree we discover a beautiful blue bird house that the tree had taken with it when it fell.

 The next day we go back to the house to actually began putting the tarp on the roof and finish cleaning up the few branches and pieces of wood that were left over. Thats when I got the idea to build this homeowner a new bird house. I had it all planned out. I was going to use the chainsaw (that I had just learned to use) to cut small circles of wood, then I would use the saw to cut them into triangles, and glue them all together to make a beautiful bird house. The idea was much better in my head. 

The time eventually came when the yard was cleaned as if a hurricane hadn’t just come through, but the roof was no where near being finished. The thing about tarpping, is you can’t put many people on a damaged roof. So often times there’s a few people sitting around or talking to home owners. That was my chance to make the bird house. 

A sweet man named Brian that was volunteering with us that week was gracious enough to help my dream come alive. Brian was very patient and was even the one that taught me how to properly use the chainsaw. I tried cutting the wood with a hand saw and that was a big bust. So Brian grabbed me a tape measure and a circular saw, and helped me cut each piece of wood that would help make up this bird house. We eventually realized triangles weren’t going to work, so we had a circular base with rectangular sides. Once we cut all these pieces up we searched for some sort of glue in the van to hold this thing together. But there was nothing. So we grabbed what we had, roof tar. We took scraps of wood and painted this tar onto each side, hoping it would stick together. 

It wasn’t pretty. It didn’t hold up very well. It was actually the worst bird house I’ve ever seen. But it was made with so much love. There was so much time put into it. My teammate Angelina even saw a little glimpse of Jesus through this bird house. So I loved it. But I felt bad leaving this homeowner with something that was about to fall apart and wasn’t eye appealing in the slightest. So we took it back to base with us. 

I decided that I wanted to ask the Lord who I should give it to. He never highlighted anyone in specific. But I kept asking until we got to the day we had to leave beautiful DeRidder, and that’s when I accidentally left it behind. I left this bird house that had taken at least 3 hours to assemble and I had spent so much time praying over behind. 

The story doesn’t end there though. I made a sweet friend Andy the last time I was in DeRidder. Andy is a man who looks a whole lot like Jesus. In the way he speaks, the way he serves, and the way he loves others. He loved each of us so well the two weeks we were there. He always wore a smile on his face, and would bring every situation back to how good the Lord is. I’m blessed to call him my friend. On our way back to Georgia the other day we got a text from him telling us he had taken the bird house home. How special. The side of the bird house had a few of our names signed on it. Now Andy gets a piece of us and a piece of Jesus to hold onto. I couldn’t have picked someone better to take care of it! Thanks God for giving it a good home. 

Thats the story of the bird house. I have another story I want share from beautiful DeRidder, so expect that soon! For now, I’m starting ministry in Georgia at the boys and girls club. I’m so excite to continue ministry. We also officially found out we are leaving in early January to go to South or Central America. PS: I’m still fundraising, I have to raise $1,900 by November 15th in order to stay on the field. Please be praying for the Lord’s provision, and how you can partner alongside me through this! Thank you for all the support thus far! See ya real soon,

Sydney<3