some of us have made it a race tradition to watch certain movies that go along with the theme of our month or the city or the continent we are on. For example, before going into Africa we of course watched The Lion King! before Asia… Mulan! and now I just recently watched The Jungle Book and Planet Earth… why?
month 11 has brought on a whole new meaning of ‘roughin it’. our ministry this month is literally working on a farm all day. Our lovely contacts Peter and Carol have set us up with Pastor Tony. We are about an hour outside of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, or KL as the locals call it. Pastor Tony owns an organic farm here- where his ministries are solely supported by the profits from the farm. so in other words the farm is self-sustainable. we also get the lovely treat of yummy veggies for dinner every night from the farm.
we are not only living with the bare necessities, but we spend our days with Manik and Nazrul the farm workers. They are originally from Bangladesh and each have wives and two young children back home who they haven’t seen in over 2 years. They work from 7am-7pm, 7 days a week, 365 days out of the year all to be able to support the families they never get to see. They are both Muslim. so we are here to not only be a blessing in helping work on the farm, but to also be a living witness of Christ to them. through our actions. Manik is funny. he can speak little English, but it is enough to have us plowing the soil with a hoe and our hands, planting green bean seeds and carrying bamboo literally out of the jungle. there is so. much. bamboo. and how could I forget our daily task of fighting off leeches! yup. leeches. they can smell us from a mile away. thankfully we have our awesome yellow rain boots to save us some time before the leeches can latch on to us.
eatin lunch in the hut^^
the farm work is hard. and it is very hot. The farming isn’t on flat soil like back home, but on the hills. I mean the only other time I think I have worked this hard and sweated this much was back in Haiti building houses. it is hard, but oh so much fun. I love the conversations we have while working. like naming all the things you could make out of bamboo and discussing how do leeches even function? ha. not to mention we are surround by the gorgeous jungle and the daily noise of the monkeys!! sometimes i feel like I am on a Disney ride.
it has also been awesome working again with team Truth. we have been with the ladies 3 out of our 4 months in Asia. Tara, Mari, Robin and Brittany are such fun women of God and it has truly been an honor being with them our last month. They have touched my life in many ways they don’t even realize. and through them, God has been showing us a lot from leeches and farming…
leeches. gross. it took me a good whole day to get over my fear of them. once I was bit a couple of times, they weren’t so bad. they are impossible to avoid, especially after it rains, they.are.everywhere. they remind me of Satan. they suck the blood right out of you. most of the time unless you are looking for them, you don’t even realize they are there till after they have let go and you see the remains of them biting you. You can flick them off you, but they will come right back inching their way to you. The only other means of killing them besides hacking them with a machete is by fire or salt. Jesus said for us to be the salt: “You are the salt of the earth.” Matthew five:thirteen. Salt is used to preserve and season, to make things better. Without salt, you can’t fight off the big leeches. Without Jesus you can’t fight off the enemy. put too much salt on your food and you ruin it. force too much Jesus on someone and you ruin their idea of who He really is.
it’s that simple.
coming in to month 11 we wanted to give it our all. to not chose out, but to chose into this month. We could easily say “oh it’s month 11, we will be home in 20 days so who cares about finishing strong.” but that is exactly why I love that this month has been the hardest living conditions we have had and the hardest work we have had to do. There is no internet to distract us or the comforts of air conditioning or a warm bed with kittens or an American toilet… everything we are about to go home to. We are getting to live out Matthew 9 or Luke 10. we are literally harvesting and there is plenty to harvest but the workers are few. without our help, it is only Manik and Nazrul to do the work. The Lord has sent us to the harvest field and we have been able to help with every part of the process. We work hard all day, come home exhausted and then sit together playing cards or we worship or just lay in bed reading the Bible out loud together.
it’s that simple.
