The day dawned beautiful, bright, and clear. The morning dew glistened from the single pink rose in front of our house. The air was crisp and cool with not a single hint of the trouble that we know is raging all around the world. From our front porch, looking out over the mountains all is peaceful.
A lady, MooBree, had come to our clinic the day before, inviting us to come and have worship in her home at 9 oclock in CoDeJo village the next morning. The name, CoDeJo means, “Wait a minute.” This is a village far up in the mountains east of us. A while ago the only way we could get to that village is to walk through WST and keep walking up up up a very steep mountain for about an hour. We called this little pathway, leech lane because in rainy season this place is swarming with those slippery, slimy creatures! In those days CoDeJo consisted of only 3 houses. Now however there is a way to get there on motorbike taking a western approach on a rugged pathway and there are a total of 7 houses.
MooBree told us that of the seven houses, 3 of them were now Christian. She herself had just joined the Baptist church. Her 2 teenage children would be leaving for school soon, and she wanted prayers for the entire family, because it is time to clear the land for this years rice garden, which is very hard work. She had invited the Baptist pastor and us, so we thought that he would be conducting the worship. Just in case, I prepared a suitable worship for the occasion.
DeeMu and his brother, DaClay also came on their motorbike. They followed behind us. The road got worse and worse, until finally, very close to CoDeJo, our motorbike just slid halfway around as it bounced out of one big rut to another. We almost went down, but BletJhaw saved it and I bounced completely off the seat, spun around and had only one leg over the seat and one hand grabbing BletJhaw’s arm! Somehow I did not fall off, but I surely must have looked like some sort of contortionist – not very graceful!
We arrived shortly before 9 oclock, but the people were nowhere near ready for the worship. It is customary to serve some food after the worship and they found out that I did not eat meat. This put them in a flurry and they sent their daughter out to buy some eggs. We waited for over an hour. The Baptist pastor was there. I am always so happy to see him because I have been praying for him for over 10 years!
The Baptist pastor is 3rd from the left
We all enjoyed the lovely view because CoDeJo is on top of a massive mountain and you can see 180 degrees of scenery. I made friends with a couple of ladies who took me to their house for a little visit.
Finally we assembled at MooBree’s house where I discovered that the Baptist pastor did not want to do the worship. He wanted me to do it. I’m so glad that I had taken pains to prepare something. It always thrills my soul to share Jesus with these people. Afterwards they served the usual meat dishes to everyone, but they gave me a wonderful dish of greens and also egg omelets.
As soon as that meal was finished, a second lady who was a Christian asked us to please come and have worship in her home because her small child would be going to school soon also. This time I was sure the Baptist pastor would conduct the worship, but no, he didn’t want to! I must do this one also and I had nothing prepared. Nobody else volunteered to do it. God helped me talk to this group of people also. The lady had some rice noodles served with meat water that she gave to everyone. I graciously declined as I do not and cannot eat any part of meat! It was a blessing for me because none of us were a bit hungry after our feast at the previous house!
No sooner had that worship and meal ended when the 3rd Christian family, not wanting to be left out, invited us to come to their house to do worship for them also! The lady couldn’t think of any reason for the worship, so she requested prayer for her shoulder, which sometimes gave her trouble. Thankfully there was no food at this house! BletJhaw and I decided that we could each one share something at this worship because the Baptist pastor still would not conduct the worship. So we went down the line and 5 of us shared, ending with the Baptist pastor who didn’t say much, nor did he use a Bible verse. I pray that somehow the Holy Spirit worked on his heart as well as the others, as he listened to the SDA worships because I felt the presence of Jesus and had been so blessed to be in these 3 homes and meet the dear people who are somehow happy to call themselves Christians, but who know almost nothing about God or the Bible.
At the end of the day, a lady who had walked up the mountain trail from WST by herself, asked if I would walk back down with her. She wanted me to check her husband’s foot that had been badly burned 2 weeks ago but not healing. BletJhaw didn’t mind staying by himself to treat the sick with the small amount of supplies we had brought, so down the mountain we trotted. It took us a long time to reach WST, but as soon as we entered her house, BletJhaw drove up on the motorbike! What excellent timing!
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In conclusion I must say that our lives are packed with opportunities to share Jesus in all different locations and circumstances throughout these jungle mountains. Most of the time the people will just show up at our door and ask us to come right away for a worship in their home. We have no time to prepare something suitable but must stop everything and go! Sometimes it is that their children are going off to school, or sickness in the family, or superstitions and fears from a bad dream, or because they experienced a bad omen. Recently worship were called because people had just been released from prison due to the possession and sales of opium. On and on the list goes. Some people must feel that having a worship will cast off a bad spell, or prevent calamities. Many times they call us because their sacrifices and ceremonies to the devil did not do any good, so they will try us! But our desire is that they will, in the process, fall in love with the dear Savior and that the truth of God’s Word will draw their hearts to Him!