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!