Hey guys! I hope you are all doing great! This past week, my team and team WOHC tribe got to partner with a ministry at a farm. This farm provides food and jobs for people in the community. This week, we did things like pull weeds, water and harvest crops, pull up dead cabbages, and help the workers. In the evenings, we not only got to bond with each other but also our incredible hosts by watching spooky movies and playing games. Some of the girls participated in something called “the chicken challenge” where you prepare a chicken start to finish.
In all of the things we did, the Lord was working. To be honest with all of you, manual labor isn’t where I love to serve. It’s hard for me to see the fruit of pulling weeds, or watering plants. I couldn’t see how I was advancing the kingdom. The first day, I had the mindset of just trying to get through the week, not really putting anything in or taking anything out. When I was asked to do something, I said yes, but it was hard to enjoy what I was doing. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, not only physically but spiritually. But then I remembered I can’t do this on my own. I remembered that the Lord is our strength in everything that we do. I asked Him to give me strength and joy to get through this week, because I couldn’t do it on my own.
The next day, as I was watering the plants, I felt joy. I came with the mindset that anything we do, even watering plants, will give His name glory, because I was doing it for Him. But I was still struggling because I still couldn’t see how what I was doing was making a difference. I felt joy doing these things (because I asked for it), but I still didn’t want to do them. As the week went on, I kept going into it with the mindset of I’m doing this for Him, and even if I don’t see fruit I’m going to continue to serve.
The last day, we got to go to a care point with kids who are about five years old (this one is different than the one I usually go to). This filled me up. We got to teach the kids songs, they showed us things they were learning like counting, the alphabet, how to introduce themselves, different parts of the body. After, we got to play with them. And holy cow did my heart explode. I love working with little kids, I see the Lord so evidently in playing with them. Before they left, we gave them each a bundle of spinach. When we handed it to them, their faces lit up and in that moment I saw the fruit of everything I had done the last week. The seeds I planted, the crops I watered, the weeds I pulled, were all for a purpose. Whether it’s providing some veggies to these little kids, or food for a family, or helping a worker out with their daily tasks, it all helps someone. And that’s all I wanted to do.
This week I learned what it truly means to pick up your cross and die to yourself. My squad leader Bry shared with us that when she thinks of the cross it involves sacrifice and struggle, but at the end something so good comes. I learned that if I truly want to serve the Lord, I have to sacrifice my wants and desires and it will be hard, but something good from the work I put in will come. I learned that I should serve without expecting to see fruit. Whenever the Lord asks me to do something, I should always come with a yes, no matter if I will see the good at the end.
Thank you guys so much for reading about my week at the farm! I’d love if you guys would pray for the ministry at the farm, that it would grow and keep providing for these people.
