Nakawakawa Painting Part 2  Miracle of the Primer

When we last visited the saints in Nakawakawa, the chapel had no walls, just uprights to support the roof. The Chapel walls are now timber they ripped into planks with chain saws. I hated to cover the natural beauty with paint, but we had to protect the outside from the heavy rainstorms.

 We fully intended to prime and paint the outside of the missionary flat and the outside and inside of the Chapel; however, we quickly saw that the primer was only half enough, and would only do the outside. It turned out to be a blessing, because I think the inside is gorgeous the way it is, and this gave us an excuse to leave it that way.

 Quite a bit of primer was spilled at first before we taught them how to fill the trays properly, and the rough timber sucked in the primer. By the time we had the last short side halfway painted, the roller trays were completely empty. As the people who were painting with brushes finished their projects, we had them dump all the paint from their containers into the trays. Then they brushed all the paint they could muster straight onto the rollers. No way did it look as if it was going to cover the remaining area.

We told the story of Elijah and how he had asked the widow to make him a cake first when all she had was enough to make one last cake before she and her son died of hunger. She faithfully obeyed, and they were blessed to make it through the drought.

I was working on getting the last of the paint out of the big 6 gallon bucket. Using my brush, I got all I could off the sides and bottom and put it into the tray. It seemed as if there was nothing more to get, but I kept brushing the bucket, then brushing the paint straight onto the roller. It seemed so little at a time, but we just kept brushing and rolling until the whole wall was covered with primer. We felt we had witnessed a miracle. I had to wipe away a few tears as I saw and felt the faith of these great people. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who hears and answers prayers and blesses us with His tender mercies.