- blog written Wednesday, October 3rd
Sunday afternoon my team gathered together for some sort of “surprise”. On the World Race that word can mean all sorts of things. We found out that we’d be packing up that night and moving to a farm the next morning! Y’all, I was excited for the opportunity to get even more uncomfortable and share Jesus with the people there, but I think we all know that working on a farm can look like a million different things… (cue the the not so distant thoughts of maybe spending the next week shoveling tons of cow poop)
We arrived at One Heart Africa (about a 45 minute drive from our compound in Nsoko) on Monday and met our hosts for the week- Macaira and Jesse! One Heart Africa provides jobs for locals and teaches sustainable farming to them. A huge part of their ministry is discipling those that they employ! Jesse and Macaira love those people so well and taught me so much about making ministry life and life ministry.
A day on the farm looked a little like this:
My mornings begin with a nice weak brew of instant coffee (lol still look forward to it though) and quiet time with Jesus. After throwing on my overalls and gloves I head down to the rows of spinach, beets, and onions to see what dirt needs to be shoveled. Or which weeds need to be pulled. Or how many seeds need to be planted. After a few hours of working, I head into the farm house to help Nomsah cook lunch. This woman. She is overflowing with joy. And despite the language barrier we have the greatest time chopping onions and cooking beans together. Once lunch is eaten I head back to the fields to see what needs to be done. Today i helped Figelay remove bugs from lettuce plants in the aquaponics system. This was a wonderful opportunity to have meaningful conversation with her and learn about her day to day life. I’ve noticed that people here value an ear to listen and conversation far more than they value help with chores. Connecting with other people and sitting in their presence means more to them than completely the task at hand. They have a deep appreciation for the journey to completion. At about 4pm all of the work is done for the day and we head into the farm house for team time and dinner!
Life on this farm is so much sweeter and lovely than i could have ever imagined. I see so much of Jesus here. He’s in the people-their hands and hearts. He’s in the sunsets and stars. And
He’s in the mountains, hills, and valleys.
