Out and About

Had a great friend and brother in Christ come and visit a few days last week. Life has been moving at a really fast pace and it was fun to see someone else experience it with us. We pretty much covered the most northern end of the country and then flew down to the southern end in 3 days. During that time, we traveled by car, motorcycle, ferry & airplane. It's always so much fun just to make yourself available and see what God will do. Need to surrender to that more often!

In the north, we spent a little time "rubber tapping." They have been doing this for many years in Southeast Asia. The latex (rubber) collected from these trees is used to make anything from medical/household gloves, balloons, rubber bands to clothing. 

The field of rubber trees. Waiting on someone to come and harvest the crop.

As you can see, the trees are ripe for the harvest! That white substance is latex.

Our friend taught me how to do it, although it's not as easy as it looks!

This is some of the rubber that was collected. Ready to be sold at market.

After a morning of work... I needed a little break! Enjoying time with new friends in a village.

Had a chance to play with some of the kids in the village. That was the favorite part of my day. We were kicking a ball around playing a game like "hacky sack."

We then flew down to the southern end of the country and spent some time with some friends and teammates who live there. Very encouraged by all of them. During our visit, we stopped at a local university and found this...

A fast pitch mens softball tournament! This is not something you see everyday on this side of the world. Being able to sit and talk baseball with these softball players reminded me a little of home. I just needed a hotdog and coke to make it complete. 

All in all, we all had a great time and were able to do good work all over the country in a short amount of time. Very blessed to be surrounded by great people and I wouldn't trade it for anything. These last few days served as a reminder of the harvest field that we live in and that there are so many workers needed. I always see it best when God gives me visual reminders of the harvest field. For example, the field of rubber trees, but also the harvest field of kids and softball players that we spent time with too.