sacrificing the body...

Jesus, gracias por el tiempo aqui, aunque estoy bien cansada....

Whew. It has been a long week. I ended up not going to Luis's home this week because he is planting his bean fields and his land is very steep. I think it was a good decision he made. It's not just about an experience for me, his family is economically poor and if I messed something up, it would be rough. In any case, we did walk up to La Moriah three times this week. One thing I never considered is that if you plant up there, you have to get the harvest back down to your house. This means that twice this week we came back with lots of crops. Bananas on Wednesday and corn on Friday. We carry as much as we can and the road is long. But, it will all be worth it when we get to eat the corn for dinner!

One thing that I continually realize about life like this is that you have to sacrifice your body for the food you grow. It seems ironic because you're growing the food to preserve your body, yet the toll it takes is incredible. Bug bites and scratches and sunburns and lots of sweat and sore muscles, these are what a farmer has to go through. It's not all bad, at the end of the day, I often feel satisfied, knowing that the work I put in actually matters in a very tangible way. There is a very real difference between the idea of farming and the action of farming. Farming in theory sounds great...being close to the land, trusting Jesus for rain and sun, fresh food on the table, taking care of the land. All these ideas can get really romanticized in the mind if I let them. I think maybe that's part of the reason why I am here, to learn that the action of farming takes time. We working in La Moriah for at least three weeks before we even started planting, let alone the harvest which will take three months!

PAUSE, I will finish this later because I have to go!

OK, I'm back. We drove up the cuenca road to meet with some other missionaries in the area to pray over all the ministries and such. It was good.

Now I am back.

This week we got chickens. 5 mamas, 1 papa and 10 babies. They are in an old monkey cage that is on it's side, for now at least. It's not the most convenient place, but like Victor, the guy who helped us push it down the hill, "algo es algo" (something is something), which is true. After we got back tonight, I had to feed them. One of the hens got out this morning and was hiding under the cage. I tried to get it in and two others came out! Yikes. So, after dinner, we got our headlamps to search campus for these chickens. BUT, praise God, they were roosting under the cage and we caught them while they were sleeping. I was so ready for a more exciting adventure, but we are all pretty tired, so it's probably better that it worked out that way.

A while ago, Erick asked me what my favorite band was, and told me he liked the Dixie Chicks...probably my favorite. SO, right now I am listening to them on the computer from his jump drive. What a wonderful thing.

I hope everyone is doing well. If you think about it, send me some things I can pray for (lexideSosa@hotmail.com) and I will do that.

Please keep praying that God would give me the strength to love people here and to love myself more. God is teaching me a lot about both, and it's wonderful.


....vale la pena. Estoy creciendo, y es la verdad que estoy "bien" cansada. Cansada, pero, porque de trabajo bueno y crecimiento dificil pero necesario. Sigue, por favor, con las obras que haces en mi corazon. Y gracias por la gente aqui y la comunidad que me ofrece, aunque algunas veces no participo. Ensename, Senor, la significa de amarte.