We’ve made it through our first few days of ministry in Mwanza. We’re working with a church that is about an hour outside of the city, and it’s amazing how quickly things get VERY different from city living.
Each day we jump in a truck that takes us to the village. We then spend a few hours walking around to different ‘houses’ to encourage believers and share the gospel with people who don’t know Jesus. So far I’ve seen 4 people come to Christ, and that doesn’t count the homes that the rest of my team have gotten to visit.
As we’ve been walking I’ve been overwhelmed by the beauty of the places we are getting to walk through. Our first day out we estimated that we walked about 4 miles. What made the walk worth it was that we were able to see banana trees framed by rocky mountains, while we were balancing on the top of small paths between rice fields.
If you’ve been reading my blogs you know that rice fields are special to me. If you missed it, click here for a refresher. So you can imagine that now my head is spinning as I think about all th ways God is teaching me through these fields of rice. The thing that blows my mind the most is that I always thought that rice fields were only in Asia. That’s what I think of when I think of rice. My views on that have changed over the past few weeks since we eat rice at almost every meal (I’m not complaining, I like rice).
What God is teaching me this time as I walk through the fields is that it’s time to harvest. One of our contacts reached over and took off the top of one of the rice plants and handed it to me. He said, “It’s rice, and it’s ready to be harvested.” The last time I talked about rice fields they were dry. The fields were brown and hardly recognizable to my uninformed American eye. This time they are green and ready for harvest!
I’m getting to walk through the fields on the way to the houses of people who may have never heard the name of Jesus. I’m privileged to be walking these paths with the intent of seeing people enter the Kingdom of God. The fields are ready for the harvest! And God is allowing my team and me to be the workers. So, for the next few weeks we will be working in the fields of Tanzania. Pray for the harvest!
