On our evangelizing walks(like stop, evangelize and listen) we trekked in what seemed like the Saharan desert for a while and when another village was coming up there was always a town meeting place of some type, which happened to be a sweet tree every time. Seriously, every new little community we stumbled upon there was always this like town hall, which was a grandmother willow-esque giant tree that everyone was gathered around.
I was always more than thankful for these trees and not just because my blonde hair don’t care skin color was lobstered daily. I, for some reason, had these semi-revelational thoughts under these trees (feel like I’m getting old.) I was thinking about what a tree provides (Rachel, you know what I’m talkin’ bout)- water, shelter, food- everything we need. We were there to tell them that there’s hope, they’re loved, that they’re not alone- we shared truth with them, which was also everything they need. I really don’t think we can ever do enough to save them from what they go through- I mean, I can’t believe people live like they do in 2011, it was such an eye opener and I feel like we could never give them enough – but we can tell them about a God who wants to know them and has a plan for their lives, which changes everything.
I loved that our 15 mile hikes were broken up with these amazing lion king worthy trees where a huge crowd would gather and discuss, laugh, question, etc… It made me feel like old school disciple-ish because we were literally walking the gospel to places that had never heard of it-where pretty much multitudes would gather and bombard us to hear what we were doing.
One day we got invited to lunch by one of the tree listeners, and it was cool to see how that family gave us so much and felt honored to have us rag tag hobo’s in their homes. They were so inviting-the equivalent at home would be like if you invited a stranger (imagine that the stranger looked like a month nine world racer who hasn’t bathed in a while, which is an understatement) off the street and cooked them a thanksgiving meal, plus sent them on their way with like fifty bucks, after washing their feet or something-just insanely giving for not having anything really.
Bottom line, really loved the trees and won’t forget talking to village people under them.
