The alarm goes off at 3:00AM, and I'm actually
getting used to it. Twice a week, and soon 4
times a week, I'll be getting up at this hour to
go to Bible studies with some key men and their
wives. These are the men I think that God will
use to continue His church while we're gone to
the States for a year.
I'm out the door and 4:00 and then the 45 minute
walk on a star lit road, next, a nice shortcut
through some very dark woods and I arrive at
Maximo's house. From a distance I can see the
firelight escaping from between the slats of his
cooking room.
He's been up with his wife for a while, talking
about the kids and the crops. They invite me in
to a small wooden room with a fire burning in
the middle of the floor. A blackend aluminum
tea pot sits among the coals. We sit near the
floor on low, short benches and drink hot tea,
chatting about how dry it is, how hard the
ground is, and and how the birds ate his first
planting of corn. Soon he'll say, like he
always does, "Let's go brother and read God's
word"
We walk about 50 yards to His father's house
because he has electricity for lights. Maximo's
mom hurriedly swats at the table with a rag to
clean off the dust and then reverendly puts down
a table cloth where I will set my Bible. It's
time to pray and get into the Word.
Today's lesson is about John 1:12, 1 Peter 1:3
and John 10:28. Maximo struggles to use his
pencil which is barely an inch long, his
handwriting and spelling are like that of a
second grader. Later I will work a little in the
fields with him, clearing brush with a machete or
hoeing weeds in his field. Then it will be me
who works like the second grader. In the field
Maximo will guard my pride and encourage me in my
work, even though I am slow and weak. Now, I
will encourage him.
Pencils, hoes, and machetes are but rough and
primitive tools compared to the Word of God and
the work it is able to do. We are not asking
God to change our handwriting or our fields, we
are asking Him to change our hearts.
The sun has yet to come over the horizon, but it
is light enough to be in the fields, so Maximo
must get on with the work of feeding his family.
As I rise to leave, we pray that God would
continue to guide us, and we pray for rain.
I love this man, and how I love to see him
growing daily in his knowledge of the grace of
God.
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