Harvest Training

i'm officially a farmer. ok, not quite, but i did have my first harvesting experience. some of the members of our church came together on friday to harvest "sim-sim," sesame seed. i did my best to prepare for such an experience, making sure i had all the essentials for the labor-intense day ahead of us. hat...check. water bottle...check. sunscreen...check, check. knife...check. a clue about what i'm doing...not so much. in the words of my sudanese friends "mushkila mafi," no problem. luckily we were partnered with a few sudanese women who were more than happy to give us a crash course in harvesting sim-sim, including techniques for bunching and wrapping. i set out to a good patch of sim-sim, fairly confident that this would be an easily acquired skill. within the first 10 minutes, i had managed to rub a blister on my hand and poke my toe with the knife, not to mention my body was now saturated in sweat. but they made it look so easy! they cut and gathered at triple the rate i was going. one of ladies, joscelina, continued to encourage our work and explained, "you are in training. a preschooler does not know all their ABCs in one day. it takes time." i smiled at the truth in her analogy. even as christians, we are still training to be harvesters. though i often feel ill-equipped to share my faith and make many mistakes along the way, God is greater. we cannot do it on our own. how important it is that we partner with our brothers and sisters in Christ as we do His work. God has blessed us here with such a rich community of friends in mundri that partner with us in the harvest. john 4:35 says, "open your eyes and look at the fields! they are ripe for harvest!" i have enjoyed being the student today. there is still so much i have to learn, and i am thankful for the ways God reminds me of that.