Harvest Time

Okay so first off, it is actually harvest time out here but I haven’t spent any time harvesting. The title is more of a metaphor for what has being going on out here (see below). Second, sorry that I didn’t get around to posting last week. Things have been a little crazy out here. I’ll try and catch everyone up on the happenings of the past few weeks. So a couple of weeks ago I went out with another worker out here and we went and had lunch with the potato man. We call him the potato man because he sells potatoes out at the back gate of my apartment complex. One of the girls who had been here for a couple of years and just went back to the states had been sharing with him for a while and she wanted us to do some follow up. So we went out to talk to him and asked if we could take him out to lunch so that we could talk and practice our language. So we went out to eat lunch and I went over some language stuff with him and then my friend started to share with him. The potato man listened to the entire story and then at the end of it said that he believed it. He actually said that he had been listening to stories that my friend had left him and that he had believed for a while. So we spent some time talking to him and explaining to him what all that meant and what to do next. Towards the end of our conversation his wife came over and things got a little awkward. She doesn’t approve of his decision and I think it is tough for him. So please be thinking of the potato man.

I also went out to eat lunch with my friend Gao. While we were out we started talking about things and it turns out that his best friend, the one that we went out to the lake with about a month ago, had sat down during the week and had shared with him. Gao said that he believed it and so we talked about what all that meant and we had a great day of just getting to talk about things and hang out. At the end of the day I gave him something to read and told him that we should get together and talk about what all he is reading. He seems very interested but he has also mentioned over the past week that he has been very busy and it has been hard to find time for him to read. So be thinking of him and hopefully he will start going deeper with some things.

So other than that the week has just been busy. I met with some friends for about four hours this past Monday and we talked about what all has been going on and what all is coming up. There was a group of people who came to visit from the states and did some great work out here over the past week. At our meeting we looked at pictures of people who have been shared with and believed and talked about each one of them. Over the past week there have been twenty-five people that have joined the family. There are some pretty crazy things going on out here. A lot of times it is hard to see any fruit when you are doing groundbreaking type work with people who have never been worked with before, but when you do see things happen it is great. So it has been a very encouraging week. I’m glad too, because I think we’re going to need it with the month that we have coming up.

July is going to be crazy out here. Basically we have people coming from the states to visit every four or five days throughout the entire month. This means a lot of work and showing people around and helping them get things done. I’m excited about it though. I’m going to have a roommate coming on July 4^th and I’m looking forward to having another guy around. He will be doing the same thing that I did and spending his first two weeks out in a village. So I think July is going to be pretty crazy but I’m looking forward to seeing what all will happen over the next month. There were two college students here last night that I got to spend some time with and it is great just getting to swap stories and talk to people in English. Things are going to be busy, but I also think that things are going to be good.