Penance in the Paddies

          Today I got to experience a completely new thing. I helped harvest the rice paddies. This involved about 13 guys, 8 of which went around with little blades and chopped the rice stalks in half. They then leave little piles of half cut rice stalks all over the paddies, and the remaining 5 go slogging through the mud to collect the good half for harvesting. I was one of the 5 going around picking up the little piles and brining them to an enormous pile. After all the stalks are piled up they are then fed through a machine that separates the actual rice from the stalks, and the rice is put into large sacks weighing about a hundred pounds each. To give you an inkling on how much rice we collected, we filled about twenty, 100 pound sacks. It feeds the kids and staff everyday, 2 or 3 meals a day for about a month and a half. So this was a ton of rice!
          I had such a great time! It was so refreshing to do some good old fashion manual labor. We had to walk around picking up this rice in knee high mud. I felt like Charlton Heston making bricks without straw in The Ten Commandments. The paddies are home to tons of animals. I saw tons of toads, snails, and the most spiders I've ever seen in my life. I was also told that sometimes there are snakes and leeches, but I charged ahead and loved every second. With my clothes and body covered in mud (I hope, but doubt that it was all mud!) I was able to internally wrestle about a question of my faith that this time here in the Philippines has made me think about.
          I've struggled a lot with the question of if I truly believe that I am saved by grace alone. It's easy to think about grace when you are sweating, covered in mud, and putting in a some hard hours working with your hands. But I couldn't shake the question. Am I saved by grace? It's funny because I believe Christians are saved by grace, yet I have a hard time believing I am saved by grace. This reminds me of the story about G.K. Chesterton when The Times sent out a question, “What’s wrong with the world today?” and Chesterton responded,
“Dear Sir,I am.

Yours, G.K. Chesterton.”

How can I think that others can be saved by grace, yet I can't. I guess that's the little Catholic in me thinking that I should have to do good things to make up for the sins I have committed. These thoughts can only bring despair because I know I will never be able to make up for my sins, but it is with that thought that I remember Jesus Christ died for me so that I would be dead to sin. I am free from its awful grasp, and for that I am so thankful! 

          While I was out there in the paddies I remembered this story that is told on the Indelible Grace album The Hymn Sing Live in Nashville. Here it is:

“Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go…this hymn was written by George Matheson who began to lose his sight in seminary…ended up eventually going blind.  He was engaged to a woman who left him – said that she didn’t want to be married to a blind man.  And he wrote this hymn on the night of his sister’s wedding.  His sister had lived with him and taken care of the house but now she was gone – off to her own life and he was home alone and he said that something of incredible sadness passed between him and the Lord and he said that this hymn came to him almost like it was dictated in the matter of about 15 minutes.   But I wanted you to notice there’s a particular line we’re going to get to in verse 3 where it says, I trace the rainbow through the rain.  And that image of the rainbow there in Genesis in the Noah story…it’s not like the little bow that you’d wear in your hair, it’s the word for battle bow.  And the picture that God gives us that he’ll never destroy the world again by flood is the picture of a battle bow cocked and aimed at Himself.  And what the cross is is that that battle bow has been loosed but not on us. So when trials come we don’t just try and keep our head up.  We grab hold of the covenant promise – the proof that God loves us – is that all the promises of the Bible are yea and amen in Christ, right?  Including that one – that he would never destroy the world because he destroyed his Son.  Therefore, as one of the Puritans used to say if you don’t understand justification by faith it makes every trial a double trial.  Because not are you only enduring the trial, you’re having to wonder if God hates me.  But if Jesus died in your place you know that his wrath has been fully poured out on his Son, right? So we have a love that will never let us go because we have a love that let his Son go in our place.”

He Giveth More Grace, and I will rest in that!

Scouting

On Tuesday morning Jake and I left Lucena to go meet with the Captains of different villages to set up the upcoming basketball evangelism tour at the end of Dec-Jan. It was quite an adventure! The day started off early when we caught a public transportation bus that would take us to the area we were going. The bus was jammed packed when we first got on. The seats were very hard, but I had such a great time looking out the windows getting a peek into a different part of the Philippines. We were headed into a very poor area, where the houses are made of bamboo. The trip on the bus lasted for about 4 hours, and by the end of it I was definitely ready to get off that bus and start meeting the Captains to set up some of the games.

We met Pastor Dan, who only spoke Tagalog, and he took us on his tricycle (motorcycle with sidecar) to the small town where we were going to make our base camp for the next couple nights. The ride was hilarious. Jake was in the sidecar like an Emperor, while I was on the back of the bike hunched over because the roof was made for someone that was 5 ft 6 in. I got some more rural sightseeing in, and about 45 minutes later we arrived at our temporary home. The place was a home connected to a church, and we were able to get out and stretch a little before heading out to meet some of the Captains. The Captains, as far as I can tell, are like mayors in the U.S. So after a short rest we climbed back into the tricycle and headed out to set up some games.

The travel from place to place was quite an experience! Everywhere you look is green. We were traveling through jungle areas. It was like something out of a movie. I felt like I was in Rambo or Platoon. The people love seeing an American and I got a lot of “Hey Joe” from the villagers as we rode past. The roads are rarely paved, so most of the tie we travelled on gravel/mud roads. It was so cool to look out and see the surrounding area. There were all kinds of trees, rice patties, animals, and little huts. I saw pigs, goats, stray dogs and cats, carabow, and even a few monkeys. Most of the houses we saw were little one-room houses made of bamboo. Only the Captains had bigger houses, and that tells you a little about some of the shady characters we had to meet with. Not to say all of them were bad people, far from it, but you can also see which ones are in their position to help others and which ones are in their position to help themselves.

The second day we unhooked the sidecar and Jake and I were on one bike while the two pastors that we were with were on the other. I wish I had a picture of our bike with us on it, but if you need a visual it was very reminiscent of the bike trip in Dumb and Dumber.  The two of us could barely fit on the bike, and though it wasn’t comfortable it was something I’ll never ever forget. We rode all over the surrounding area setting up games. The views are amazing, and it will be such a blessing to get to play and talk about Christ to the people in those areas. The people in most of the villages are dirt poor, and it really is such an eye opening experience to see people truly just getting by. The people work for food, and nothing more. It’s heart wrenching to see how these people live. Maybe it’s just because I’m from America and don’t see this everyday. It puts a whole new perspective on third world poor for me.

 The kids are so awesome. They seem oblivious to their situation, running around in the street in tattered clothes and even sometimes with no clothes. I had such a great time making funny faces and getting them to smile. This was also very easy because they never really see Americans riding on the backs of motorcycles through their villages. It was great to see all the double takes, and smiles as the realized I wasn’t from around there.

The third day was just as great, even though as we started it began to rain. We pushed through though and finished setting up the games for the upcoming trip.  Thursday night I was asked by Pastor Dan if I could speak to his church, and with the help of Jake as translator I was able to talk about keeping the faith during hard times. I found out I was going to speak on Thursday morning, so I had a few nerve racking hours of figuring out what I was going to say. One of my favorite musicians, Jack White, has a quote that I found very fitting for this occasion “Nothing breeds creativity like necessity.” I had to come up with something and with the grace of God I was able to put together a fifteen-minute talk that involved Hebrew 11, Lord of the Rings, Noah’s ark, and most importantly how Jesus kept the faith. A couple of years ago if someone told me that I would have to talk in front of a group I would be terrified. Now, though I still get nervous, I’m not as fearful to get up and talk especially if I have a chance to talk about Christ. So praise the Lord, and hopefully that continues to get better!            

It’s so cool to think about how many of these people we are going to be able to share Christ with. Uncle Tom has an amazing gift for evangelism, and if you haven’t met him you need to. I think of him as a modern day Paul, and to be able to help set up his upcoming trip has been such an honor. To take part in his great ministry has been such a blessing. His love for Christ and his desire to reach out and share the Gospel is an inspiration beyond words. This upcoming trip is going to be full of adventures, and I’m so glad I got a sneak preview of it as a scout for Christ.