I recently got my own volume of Col. J.H. Patterson's The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures.  As of this writing, I am still reading, but so far I have not been disappointed.  In the book, Patterson recounts how in 1898 he was tasked with designing and building a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River.  As if the job were not big enough, Patterson and his men were forced to build while being terrorized for nine months by two enormous seemingly supernatural lions who behaved as though they derived pleasure from killing humans. I won't spoil the story for you, but I do want to recount one episode here.  Col. Patterson wrote:

Curiously enough, only a day or so after the bridge had been completed and the intermediate cribs cleared away, a tremendous rain-storm broke over the country.  The river started to rise rapidly, soon flooding its banks and becoming a raging murky torrent, tearing up trees by the roots and whirling them along like straws.  Steadily higher and higher rose the flood, and standing on my bridge, I watched expectantly for the two temporary trolley bridges-which, it will be remembered, we had built across the stream in order to bring stone and sand to the main work-to give way before the ever-rising volume of water.  Nor had I long to wait; for I soon caught sight of a solid mass of palm stems and railway sleepers sweeping with almost irresistible force round the bend of the river some little distance above the bridge.  This I knew was the debris of the trolley crossing furthest up the river.  On it came, and with it an additional bank of stormy-looking water.  I held my breath for the space of a moment as it actually leaped at the second frail structure; there was a dull thud and a rending and riving of timbers, and then the flood rolled on towards me, leaving not a vestige of the two bridges behind it.  The impact, indeed, was so great that the rails were twisted round the broken tree-trunks as if they had been so much ordinary wire.  The double tier of wreckage now swept forward, and hurled itself with a sullen plunge against the cutwaters of my stone piers.  The shock was great, but to my immense satisfaction the bridge took it without a tremor, and I saw the remnant of the temporary crossings swirl through the great spans and quickly disappear on its journey to the ocean.  I confess that I witnessed the whole occurrence with a thrill of pride.

I read this passage and just imagine this young man, a real man who honors the Lord, having built his bridge in a foreign and wild land.  And no sooner has it been completed but the testing comes, a storm, a great flood.  And the man walks out onto his bridge to view firsthand how his work will hold up.  He watches as the mighty waters sweep away the temporary structures and sends them hurdling toward the permanent bridge.  And it stands, not only in the raging rush of water, but against the impact of the wreckage of the other structures.  You see, he has built it to stand.  He watches in satisfaction and safety from the mighty floodwaters.

The Lord wants to build our homes through us, His men.  The enemy prowls outside seeking whom he may devour, hating us, hating our children, wanting desperately to stop the building.  But the Lord has established the homes of those whose hope is in Him and who tremble at His Word.  "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock" (Matthew 7:25).

Patterson, John Henry. Completion of the Tsavo Bridge. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures. Bungay: Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, 1907. 111-13. Print.