Say and Do...

There are very few days that I can say I haven't learned something..and most of the time it comes in unexpected ways. I feel constantly amazed by the lessons that come my way if I keep myself in a attitude to listen. On the last outreach with the Harvesters, we went to the Takeo province to serve and love and I learned a lot from my students and the people in the village.

When we got there on Saturday morning, we split into two groups to walk through the village and talk with people. At one of the houses where my group stopped, there was a man building a chicken house. A couple of the students offered to come back later in the afternoon to help him and we then went on our way. At another house, we met and spoke for a long time with the village chief and a leader from the pagoda. This conversation was very enlightening for me as the temple leader was sharing with us what he knew about Christians. He said that other religions and groups say that the love and care about others, but then they don't do anything. He went on to say that Christians are the only people he has seen who say they love and actually have actions to back up their words.

At this very time, unbeknownst to me, the other group of students was on the opposite side of the village building a small house for a little old grandpa to live in. It was the first house they stopped at and when they saw them busy building, the students asked my co-leader if they could stay and help. So for two hours, they labored to build a little house addition.
When our free time came in the afternoon, the couple students from my group were heading back to help with the chicken house. I assumed that it was only those two going and the others were staying back to rest. I decided to go with and as we were walking, I turned around to just take a note of which ones came along. It took me back as I saw that all eight students were there. All eight of them sacrificed their rest time to love this family and put action to their words. The fact that it was hottest part of the day and that we were going to have a full evening didn't matter. They wanted to serve.


I unfortunately don't have an "after" picture because we did not actually finish putting together the whole thing, but here is a photo of my students with the family.
Neither of the building projects were planned or initiated by us leaders, but came from the overflow of the hearts of the students. That says something great about this group and I am so happy for the privilege of working with them!

On Sunday morning, I was given the opportunity to share with the adults......while the students were outside leading a children's program with games and songs and skits.




After we finished the program, we brought all the kids inside (about 100) and fed them lunch...
This is one of those pictures that touches my heart and couldn't have been posed. I happen to look over as Seyla, one of my students, had knelt down to talk to one of the kids and the gentleness in his heart as he did this impacted me a great deal.
I love that these young people are being the love of Christ in action. We will be going on our next outreach in a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to seeing what more I will have the chance to learn.