Worms and Scorpions

The church group left this morning and it was sad to see them go. They were troopers through everything we did to them. Saturday night after my last post, my friend Steven and I staged an earthquake. We through rocks up on the tin roof and yelled. We told them they had 30 seconds to grab anything they could and we evacuated them to the slums. The slums is a place on the farm constructed from wood pallets and old tires. We put a few old mattresses out there and an old couch. They were given a basket with a box of match, a hammer, a few nails and two tarps. We told them they were not allowed in any buildings, only to use the compost toilet. Communication was now cut off from the world. It was hard to do because they had 2 kids with them and they cried during the earthquake. They next day they thought they were going to be picked up for church but no one came. They waited for about an hour and then held their own service in the slums which is what the picture is. It's hard to see so sorry about that. They continued a normal day and then that night we staged a riot. We had Rene who is from Africa go to them and yell at them in his own language and explain in broken English that they need to go and he wants his house back. Rene left and came back with 5 guys with machetes and BB guns. Faces painted, rolled cigarettes, bandannas. They yelled at them and stole some things and made them back what they could. Then marched them up to the north of the farm. 5 or so guys harassing them and then 2 guys following in a truck honking and yelling. (Where are the kids you ask... Right, they were at home safe and sound. So don't worry) Then me, Annali, and Katherine were waiting at the top of the hill. We had 2 Christmas trees drenched in diesel behind us and we lit a match as the got closer. We stood in front of it with pitchforks and as they got closer we tried stealing anything we could from them. Flashlights and sleeping bags. We marched them all the way up to the old school bus and they stayed there for the night.

Then Annali and I sat on the swing outside the dorm and I was cracking pecans and eating them. I swore I got a worm in my mouth and Annali swore pecans don't have worms. I was in the dark so I couldn't prove it. Then we went inside and I continued to eat them. I cracked one and there it was. Worms. Little whitish, yellowish worms eating the pecans. I ended up finding like 5 before I got totally grossed out and gave up.

This morning I woke up and did my usual. When I came back from the bathroom, I went to pick up my socks that were drying on top of a bag that was on top of a tub. I noticed something was on my sock and looked closer. It was a scorpion!!!! I picked up the sock and put it on the floor and told my roommate to come look. She immediately grabbed a shoe and smashed it four or five times. We stood there in our pj's and looked at out clothes on the floor. We looked at each other and I said, we can't live like this. We shook out all our clothes we were wearing for today and checked our shoes numerous times before putting them on. We got so paranoid. When I talked to David this morning he told me he has been stung like 4 or 5 times. One time his wife put on a t-shirt and got stung on the chest and she found one under her pillow as well. That's creepy.

We had devos with the church group this morning and got to hear from their side all that they experienced during their stay here. It was awesome to hear all they learned about living in poverty.

Yesterday I was helping Bronwyn, who is from Canada, weed the lettuce. It was a true blessing and encouragement to spend time with her. It was encouraging to hear that she struggles in the same way I do with the view of Christianity here. Works are placed above Christ here. It was awesome to listen to another person on this farm who really has a heart for the Lord and loves Jesus very much. We both agreed that even if we never farmed another day in our lives that as long as we preached Christ, that was more then enough. The answer is Jesus to anything and true changes from the power of God. I'm so sad that Bronwyn is leaving on Friday. It has been such a blessing rubbing shoulders with her and now she is leaving and I am alone again. Well I can no longer think of any thing to say. Good night, I have to milk at 6!

So Much!!!

So I have a lot to share with all of you! I'll start with last Sunday. I went to a church in Waco with one of my dorm mates, Ali. She took Steven, he is from South Africa, and I along with her to the church under the bridge. This man, Jimmy Dorrell, started this church and it's called Troll. Kinda clever. "Church Under the Bridge attempts to avoid denominational, cultural, economic, or racial distinctions. We are a multi-cultural church committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the unity of His Spirit. We welcome folks from wide and diverse backgrounds to love God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with all their heart, soul, and mind, and to love their neighbors as themselves." (http://www.churchunderthebridge.org) It was really awesome to be sitting in the midst of such a diverse church. There was even a lady sitting in front of me who was smoking! It was unbelievable to see so many people so openly welcomed to worship and loved and absolutely no judgment! I was quickly saddened to hear the message of the preacher. He claimed that he hated legalism but his entire message was about not gossiping and watching your tongue and the things you can do to control yourself. It was sad to see him preach a message of bondage when Christ came to set free! I so badly wanted him to speak of the freedom in Christ and see the holy spirit move among these people in such a way. Here's your chance man! You have captivated the attention of the rich and poor, the homeless and the rich, different colors, different ages! Tell them of Jesus and how he set them free and they don't have to live the perfect life but Christ in them has already done it. Just place their faith in Jesus. Tell them the works of God are to simply place their faith in Christ. After the service my friend asked what I thought and I was honest and just said I didn't agree with the message so much and it sparked a fire in her to want to debate and I know that doesn't get anyone anywhere. She seemed so defensive and guarded that I knew no matter what I did I would be in the wrong.

Monday- This day I got to play the role of a vet. We needed to vaccinate our pregnant moms that are at a certain time in their pregnancy because it will transfer to their kid. Then when the kid is born they are protected for 6 weeks then they receive a vaccination. This save money by not giving shots to babies and using the medicine or needles and we don't have to stick week old babies with vaccinations that sting really bad! It's a win win! It was awesome to load the meds up and then give a shot. It was so fun! The ladies took it really well too. They behaved awesome.

Tuesday-This was a triumphant day. Jess has been trying to sell one of our bucks, Rasputin, for 5 months. I sold him on Tuesday! This guy showed up interested in him, with a trailer full of does. Him and his wife and son were from Holland and they had amazing accents. They were really friendly and nice and loved the farm. He handed me the money right away and got Ras loaded up. He went right to work of course. He had around 5 new girlfriends in there! It was awesome to sell him after being here only 2 weeks. I also tackled the sales tally for the week on my own and made my first customer phone calls and answer the phone as well. It was pretty intimidating to answer the phone for this organization but it ended up being no sweat.

Wednesday- Today I fixed the fencing in the kid barn. It took me a while to get the chicken wire wrapped around the pen and then use hog nose clips to hold it all together. I had to do this so babies won't escape and bigger goats won't get their head stuck in the fence. I went on a feed run with Jess and we took goat's milk to a man who is bed ridden with cancer. I'll be keeping that up when Jess leaves. He was a really nice sweet man. It was sad to see him and how constricted he is. Later, when we got back Jess and I went out and played with the babies for a while and ran around with the goats. It was fun. I also started the baby watch on this day. I have a pregnant doe who is going to kid any day. I also got to feel the baby kids in the womb. It was incredible!

Thursday- This was the day I wasn't feeling so well. Jess gave me the day off after doing a few hours of office work. So I went out and slept in the pasture with my goats. Daisy came right up alongside me and laid down. He laid her body right next to mine and laid her head across my legs. It was awesome. Then Arbor came and laid on my other side. The sun was hot and there was a slight breeze. It was so perfect.

Friday- This was a crazy day. I was the designated chef for the day. Not only was I cooking for our community but for a group that was staying the weekend at the farm. So instead of about 25-30, I have 40. So I made baked potato pizza, black beans with various seasonings and onions, coconut rice with cilantro and chocolate chip cookies. It was a huge hit and there was even left overs. I felt very proud to conquer what seemed like a daunting task! Then I had class in the afternoon about what kind of agricultural missions are going on in Haiti. After that I went to an art show where pictures were being shown taken from a man working for World Hunger in El Salvador. Also a lot of the farm was featured as well. It was pretty incredible to see technologies that we teach, sitting in a white display room.

Today- We have a group staying here for the weekend doing a training exercise. This group is from a church in town and they are preparing to live in Haiti for 3-4 years. So they are staying in our Nic house for the weekend. I'm on weekend duty with Mark, who is taking care of this group. So all I have done is just supervise them doing the chores that I was supposed to do this weekend. Their stay gets a little harder the longer they are here. We have them 13 pennies this morning to buy items for breakfast. The catch is that if they wanted a spoon or bowl they had to pay for that too. Some of them paid for a glass and coffee, drank their coffee then bought cereal and put it in their cup. Then we took away the education building and access to clean water. They now have to walk all the way to the north side of the farm for fire wood and about 50 yards for water they have to boil. They had to kill two chickens today for their super. It took them 4 hours to cook their meal over the fire. It was truly a picture of how people live everyday in the third world. Tonight Steven and I will be simulating an earthquake and tell them they have 30 seconds to grab all their belongings and move to the slums on the farm. It's an area set up with old pallets and old tires and some mattresses. They are given a basket with one hammer, one box of matches, a few nails, and 2 tarps. We live them there and tell them they are cut off from all communication. From then on all of us from the farm are not allowed to speak to them in English or speak to them at all. They now are completely on their own. We will drop off food in the middle of the night that they have to figure out how to cook. They still have to take trips to the north of the farm to collect fire wood. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Well, I'm off to prepare for tonight! I'll let ya'll know how it goes!

Worst Day So Far

So.... Yesterday was my worst day here so far. As all of you know we have been blessed by the presence of three little baby goats who are growing quickly and are a joy to play with. We also are preparing for many, many more babies to be born. As amazing and fun as this new livestock internship can be, it is also extremely challenging in a lot of ways. Yesterday was a prime example. For the males, we castrate. For both males and females, we disbud. For all goats we give shots. I did all three yesterday to these precious little ones. We can't use the male babies for our herd to breed because we can start inbreeding and we all know that's bad. So we usually buy a buck every 2 years to keep things genetically clean and introduce new genetics into our herd. So sad to say poor little Philbert will probably be goat me some day. David, the farm manager is the one that castrates. It was quite a sight to watch, but is actually considered more humane then the banding technique. A quick castration allows for quick pain. Banding is 2 weeks of constant pain. I won't go into any more detail then that because it was like watching a surgery procedure, well I guess it was. So David did the deed then Philbert was squirted with a generous amount of iodine and we were off to the next round of torture. Kids are born without any type of horns. Usually around 7 days after birth their buds pop through the skin and horn growth begins. Disbudding is used to prevent goats from getting tangled in the bush or fencing and to limit aggressive behavior. It needs to be done when they are 3 days to 2 weeks old. After that the horn buds are to big. So when we disbud we put them in a box with their heads poking out and hold their heads and put an extremely hot iron rod on the bud for 15 seconds. This destroys the bone growth cells and prevents the horns from growing. So Jess used the rod and I got the job of holding them down. I have to place my right hand over its ears and hold the neck and my left hand over its mouth and hold it still. They kicked and cried. Their tongue came out and one even peed in the box. Then we had to give them all shots which really burns when we inject them. After each kid was through we gave them back to their mom and they would go right to her and suckle for comfort. Experiencing this all was so hard. Theres the sights, sounds, touch, and smells. I could smell burnt hair for hours after that.

I quickly hurried Jess to get her afternoon chores done because I was holding myself together the entire time. I had tears in my eyes and just tried to keep my cool. Once I got back to the dorm, I barely got one foot through the door and I just broke down. I wept and wept. It was good to have that little bit of alone time just to cry it out. Then I had a girls night out and that helped me recover a bit. What really was good was my talk with Jess later that night about the whole experience. I told her that it's times like that where I realize how fallen we are. The same Jesus that created the world now resides in me and I in him and my spirit just cries out that something is wrong here. We weren't originally created for this. I can't believe I'll have to do many, many more of these during my time here.

Other then that, things have been great. I only have one more work week under Jess then I am the official new livestock intern. She will be around for one more week after that but not working. Her and her husband are going to be packing for their move. She will only be around for a reference for me when I can catch her but will not be doing anymore with the farm. So in two weeks I am completely on my own for the job. It is exciting and frightening at the same time. We had a good talk today about the road ahead while we were shopping at Tractor Supply for goat fencing. I actually bought my own pair of hoove trimmers. Haha!

So continue to pray please for me to rest in Christ and keep my eyes on Jesus. I have many challenges ahead. Also be praying for my sanity as I will have a heavy load of responsibility on the farm. There are also some meetings in the works for me to start something brand new on the farm. This is exciting but will be a lot of work. I won't tell you what yet. We will see what my meetings hold! Well, I better go check my babies. Until next time.

Little Philbert Kisses and MLK day

Philbert is my favorite of the triplets for sure. I was holding him today and he kept nibbling at my face. It was so cute. Today was MLK day at the farm. Martin Luther King day of service. All of us that live and work on the farm are divided up and travel to different churches in the Waco area who have urban gardens. We help them with whatever they need like planting and some garden education. Unfortunately it was to wet from the past two days of raining to plant. Jess, the current livestock intern and I went to Calvary church in Waco. We didn't get to get our hands dirty but listened to a talk about how their garden got started and what their goals are for it. The thing I really love about these churches with urban gardens is they are not just giving an easy way out of hunger for the poor. Like just giving them a sack of food which is usually not all that good for you, but they are gardening and educating others about starting their own gardens and how you can do it really cheap! They are debunking myths about buying lots of fertilizers or spending money on things for the garden. They teach composting and how to use the products from the garden and not just the fruit but the whole plant. I actually learned today from Jess that dandelions have all kinds of good uses. You can use the leaves in salads or in tea and you can do all kinds of things with the roots and they are really good for your liver. Who knew? So anyway, Jess gave a lesson on why we can't plant right now and how the soil reacts from us messing around in it when it's wet.

When we got back from that I went up to see the babies and milk out the mother. I need to see if her milk is able to sell and have a test sent in to check for any infections and such. I placed her milk in a jug in the fridge and I'll wait 3 days to see if any blood settles to the bottom which can be a sign of mastitis. Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland that can be dangerous and sometimes deadly. So if both tests clear then I'll be putting her back in the milk rotation to sell her milk and start bottle feeding the little babes. I am expecting another mother to be kidding any day now. The funny part about this is, her name is Triple because she has 3 teats! Haha. So we call her Triple Teat or just Triple.

Later this week I will be castrating little Philbert and dis-budding all 3 of them. That will be a hard job listening to them cry. I'm sure it will break my heart!

The scripture on the forefront of my mind today is in Ephesians. "Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." 5:15-21

I think what I'm really getting from this is not to be filled with worldly things or to fill yourself with worldly things. It would be very easy for me to be here and fill myself with doing good deeds. But what Christ wants for me is to be filled with the Spirit and preach Christ and be lead by the Holy Spirit. There are no good works I can bring to the Lord. I can only stand before God at the end and point to the cross and say I believe. Jesus even said in John and I have probably mentioned it before but, out of his own mouth said that the works of God are just to believe in the one sent. Simple. It's Jesus always, all the time. That's where our faith should always be. Not in a program or 12 steps but what Jesus did at the cross for us. If we seek another method then Christ died in vain. I pray that my time here would be lead by the spirit to what he wants, whether to serve, preach, be quiet, or milk some goats. Haha. I pray all of you would rest in Jesus and know that He lived the perfect life for us.

Names

Just wanted to stop in this morning before I go see my kids and let everyone know that they have been named!

Daphne, Penelope, and Philbert.

A dorm mate is taking me on a tour of Elm Mott and Waco today so I can see everything around here and I can know where every thing is. I'm really excited. Later!

Triplets!!!

In the early hours of the morning these little bundles where delivered here on the farm. What a welcome gift from the goats! haha! I have fallen in love with these 3 little ones and I have been by their side all day and I'm about to go out again and do a night feeding. They are having some trouble getting milk because the mom's udders hang low to the ground. Anyway, 2 girls and a boy. I love hearing their little voice when I walk to the pen. A lot has happened in the past 2 days. I had my first milking experience. It is a difficult task and I tell ya, takes a lot of forearm strength! It was fun though and the milk is so tasty! Yes, I drank fresh warm goats milk! Tasted so so so good! Today I was greeted with these new bundles so I have been working on pasteurizing some milk because kidding season has begun and I need that milk to give to baby kids who we don't want milking from their mom. If the mom's is sick or has various diseases, we don't want her giving it to the kids through her milk. It's so exciting to see new life. I have another momma goat getting to kid any day now. Well, Jess is calling me to bottle feed! See ya later!

Triplets!!!

The Throne

This is the composting toilet in my apartment. I thought all of you would like to see the throne I shall be sitting upon. Jealous? Haha.

There is so much to tell you already that I'm not sure where to start. I got here last night and met a lot of people. All very nice and welcoming. I have to roommates in my room who are very nice and I think we will get along fine. Today I went to the morning devotion and then had a brief orientation for an hour and then I helped clean the barn up a little. Got to meet Jess the current livestock intern who will be training me. There is so much to learn and it's really over whelming. I got to meet all the goats and gathered some eggs from the coop. I really miss home cooking already. We are talkin' full organic all the way. This is going to take some getting used to. I walked into one of the rooms tonight and there was a yoga session going on with some calm music. All day I have heard prayers but not the mention of Jesus or the Holy Spirit. This is a huge deal for me as I know Christ is everything. I don't want to just do a good thing but I want to tell of the one good thing, Jesus. Jesus Christ is the answer. All of these things here are nice and I'm excited to learn about agriculture but I won't be taking anything else from this place. I'm not the answer and development isn't the answer to save someone. It's Christ and him crucified. That's the most important. Some people would say well, wouldn't you feed a hungry man before you told him about Christ. What if he died before you had a chance to tell him? This is the passage that's been on my heart today, so I will share with you.

John 6:25-59

^"25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” (not on us, on Jesus who we are in and Him in us, therefore we are justified)

²⁸ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (We all know that this contradicts the common teaching today of what the work of God is, but here is Jesus clearly defining the work of God to just believe in the one God sent!)

³⁰ So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’^c]">”

³² Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

⁴¹ At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ⁴⁴ “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.""

I'm praying for God to show me what he wants for me here. I think it's more then just to learn about Ag. God did give me the scripture of fighting the good fight of faith and now I understand how serious He was about giving that to me. Holy Spirit fall. Jesus I can't, but you CAN.

God, provider

It has been a crazy two days. I was supposed to be getting some kind of refund from KCC but there was some technical issue in which I was not receiving the funds. This would have been a nice cushion for moving to Texas. Here's the thing though. It was my plan. I planned it out but God had better. In the same day, one friend and her husband sent me a check to cover all gas money to get to the internship, another friend gave me a check, another couple gave me a check, a friend called and said she wanted to pay my car payment every month I'm in Texas, my grandparents made an appointment with my great uncle to have my car get an oil change and to check my car over! So this morning I took it into my uncle Richard and the water pump was busted. Not good. But it was covered!!! So I'm sitting in the coffee shop waiting for my car to be fixed. How amazing that God worked all that out. Yesterday at this time I literally had no clue how I was getting to Texas, but I called out to him. My friend told me she had been praying the past couple of days that either the door would be opened for me or it would be shut if that's what God wanted. Looks like the door is open! I talked to Matt at World Hunger and there is a room ready for me and the internship was approved by Lincoln Christian University. Everything has just clicked into place.

"...put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything..." 1 Timothy 6:17