\u201cWe haven\u2019t prayed\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We *always* pray for safety among other things before we start work and God has *always* been faithful. We could fill books with His miraculous protection.<\/p>\n But today – we were even going to use the big machines, it was a small job, nothing could go wrong – we would be finished in an hour.<\/p>\n WRONG!<\/p>\n As the kids raked the concrete to one edge, disaster struck. Part of the formwork collapsed, spilling about 500kg of concrete down below into a soak.<\/p>\n No!!!<\/p>\n This was probably the biggest mishap of our whole 15 year building project.My immediate thought was \u2018this is impossible to fix\u2019\u2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before we had really even begun to assess what this meant or how we could even start to minimise the mess, the driver pulled away, hitting and damaging a wall in the process(!).<\/p>\n At this point, we are all in overdrive trying to sort different parts of the mess. And now, when things were time critical, even small issues start to mount up: I think it was when I realised we needed to use the big machinery that I FINALLY thought “we\u2019d better pray\u2026”<\/em><\/p>\n Shovelling concrete, wheelbarrows, ramps, Acrow props, wood, block and tackles, jacks, chains, even using a Ute to try to pull the Formwork back up into place and move the concrete on its journey back to the slab – we were all slogging away for three hours to try to get the job back on track.<\/p>\n What a nightmare!<\/p>\n At one point, a thought appeared: \u2018this is the worst case scenario\u2019. I am very thankful that God enabled me to stay positive and (I think) happy, at least not angry with anyone.<\/p>\n At one point I grabbed my daughter & shouted excitedly:<\/p>\n \u201cYou haven\u2019t lived until you\u2019ve had formwork collapse on you once!!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I resisted the temptation to blame anyone, even though a few thoughts like that reared their head\u2026<\/p>\n (ok I SUPPOSE, everything is a leadership problem\u2026so I GUESS this *my* fault\u2026(?!) )<\/p>\n A few more issues (like the bobcat bucket falling off into the concrete due to a broken hose and running out of petrol in the vibrating screed) gave more opportunity for bad feeling, but no one took the bait.\u00a0<\/p>\n The team pulled together and it really was miraculous that we managed to get the slab finished at all. After cleaning up I read something relevant on our family message thread\u2026 TWO people had the same verse – about guarding our hearts.<\/p>\n I can honestly say I doubt the truck drivers had ever seen such a positive attitude and atmosphere – especially with such a big issue.<\/p>\n It is a pleasure to work with this family – I am always amazed at what they can achieve: mind blowing!<\/p>\n I will not forget today for a long time, yet another vivid example of Gods faithfulness despite us (ok me) not putting Him first, not checking everything properly etc – I am truly grateful.<\/p>\n Family fun this afternoon: I\u2019d better make it a good one!<\/p>\n #thankYouJesus How many times in a day can you fail? Today, a new record!! We had planned to do a small section of concrete – only around 40m2 – which I thought we would have finished in an hour. We hoped to get it fished before the worst of the rain hit.\u00a0 The truck arrived 10 minutes early, and amazingly, the driver managed to get right were we needed him with only knocking down one fence. In the past, we\u2019ve had huge issues, so the only hurdle for the day was already passed – or so I thought\u2026\u00a0 As he reversed, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[32,22,98],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owner-builder-rammed-earth-family","category-gfrc-concrete-benchtops","tag-building","tag-concrete","tag-protection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_1476-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pasDCW-B5","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2300,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions\/2300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Torches that haven\u2019t been charged, tools that haven\u2019t been put back, even keys for cars that needed to be moved could not be found.<\/p>\n
What nonsense!<\/em> I could instantly think of 5 things that could have been even worse – and that was without anyone getting injured or killed.<\/p>\n\n
But we did so without having to mix more mud – even the stairs look like they will be fine. And, \u00a0parts from my feet (no boots, concrete ate my feet away) nobody was injured – amazing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(We all post scriptures from our personal Bible reading morning and night to encourage each other).<\/p>\n![\"Disaster](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Disaster-Day-Guard-your-heart-above-all.jpg?resize=942%2C600&ssl=1\" "\\"Disaster")
<\/p>\n
#grace
#grateful
#godtimes
#family<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"