So
we’re coming close to the end of our time here in the jungle. We have been protected up until now from all
the crazy animals. Our whole team has
also remained healthy throughout our time here which is a huge blessing from
God. On Monday after it had rained for 3
days straight I prayed that God would give us a little sunlight. God decided a little might not be enough and
he cleared the skies Monday afternoon and it has remained that way for the
whole week. I don’t know what the
forecast was, if we happened to be here at the direct end of rainy season, but
seeing completely overcast and rainy skies turn sunny after a prayer for
sunshine let us know that God hears our prayers. Of course as he answered our prayer, we
naturally have a little regret as it has climbed into the 90 degree range with
the sun shining all day.
The rainbow after the 40 days of rain.
Our
schedule here has come into place, and it is very slow. We work for about 3 hours in the morning on
the farm in the next village. We do not
do anything in the afternoon. That is
partly our fault; we are not aggressive in pursuing work opportunities, but
partly the fault of our host village.
There has been no communication between us and our host pastor. Our translator who simply told us when dinner
was ready and translated the church service for us Sunday morning left on
Tuesday so we haven’t been able to communicate with any one. The kids here are deafly afraid of us. We approach some of the young kids and they
run away crying. While the older kids
simply stare at us as we try to interact with them. I know there is a responsibility on a
missionary to adapt and connect with the people you are ministering to. And I know us, in month nine, haven’t done
the best job of committing ourselves fully to our work, but I also believe
there is a responsibility upon the host village/church. I know communication is tough, but it is
disheartening when the pastor of the church we are staying at has not said one
word to us or approached us at all. I
wish the adults would at least tell the kids they have no reason to be afraid
of us.
The garden we tended.
In
a previous blog I mentioned our desire to speak with the men and women of the
village. This never came to pass. Our translator communicated our desire to the
Pastor and he never gathered the people together. So hopefully the village chief that I
challenged at the church service will feel led to step up as a spiritual leader
in the village. While ministry has not
been ideal this month we have grown together in amazing ways as a team. We have made the most of our team community
time and are enjoying being around each other.
I know God might have simply brought us out to the village to grow
closer to one another and closer to him.
So for this month we got away from all distractions of internet, news
and family; we didn’t exactly have the best ministry set up; but we certainly
grew closer as a team and grew closer to our Father in Heaven. After all that’s been said, the only thing
left to say is we survived the Malaysian Jungle.
This is what it takes to call somebody from the jungle, climb the tree house.
