My dad and I just stood up after nailing two boards together. I heard a creaking noise coming from above; it did not click in my mind what was happening to us. All of a sudden the trusses started falling around me; wood was cracking and coming down in all directions. I did not even have time to think about what direction would be the best to go to avoid getting hit. With out thinking about it I dove to the side near the wall hoping to survive. And then all at once everything was quiet almost like a death scene.

The Church that I attend was very excited to send a team of five members over to Africa. The main focus of this mission trip was to help a church in Bwiri, Tanzania build a roof for their church which did not have one. The second goal we had for the trip was to build relationships with the people from Bwiri. There were several challenges that we faced during this trip. The main challenge that we faced was the span of the building we were trying to put a roof on. The dimensions were one hundred and twenty feet by forty feet. Around here it would not be a problem to put a roof on the building, but in the village, where we were thirty minutes away from the nearest town, living without running water and electricity, and working with out power-tools, the project started becoming a little more difficult. The church hired a head funde, a skilled craftsman, to oversee the project, and three other fundes to help him. These men were not from the village, which meant they spoke different languages. The fact that the fundes, the people from the village, and us from the states were all working on the roof together definitely created a language barrier. The people of the village along with the fundes wanted us to be able to see the roof finished before we left to come back home, on the other hand, we just wanted to make sure the roof was stable.

The people of the village along with the fundes started making the trusses before we came. When we arrived we realized that the trusses were not as stable as they could be, but because we did not want to act like we were in charge, and because we knew they built roofs differently then we do, we decided to let it go. We had three good days of working before the roof collapsed. There were about ten to fifteen people inside the building when the roof came in. A man from our team was on the very peak of the roof. Miraculously we all came out alive, and no one was seriously injured.

We definitely saw God at work through this tough time. Before we left for the trip we had a prayer time. Someone told us we would experience something like Daniel and the lions den, but that everyone was going to be okay. We knew this accident was what he meant, and it was amazing to see God preparing us for this. He also prepared many people for the accident with dreams and visions before. My father felt God telling him one day before we left that something horrible was going to happen but we would all be okay. Many people were praying for us and we felt those prayers, and they were being answered. The accident happened on a Saturday and we were very thankful because if the roof would have collapsed on Sunday, during church, many more people would have been injured, and perhaps even killed. We had an amazing church service the next day filled with praise to God and prayer for the coming week of work. God gave us an idea of how to build the church roof sturdier and before we left there was a good foundation laid for the roof. Out of the few phrases that I learned in the village language, Luo, one of the most important phrase is Ruithapaki, which means Praise the Lord!