Sunday with the Orange Trees (6/13/2021)

This morning I took a drive with Bapak Willy to some of his family's farm land. Much of the farm land in Indonesia that I have seen is cut into hills using terraces. Valleys wander through the hills; often you find yourself surrounded by plants while being able to see thousands of plants on the hillside opposite the valley. Most of the land owned by Bapak Willy's family contains orange trees (as well as some banana trees and avocado trees). On the hillside we were on, it was literally orange trees as far as the eye could see. I took the first picture looking down the row of trees to try to capture how it felt like the orange trees went on forever. Another example of the beauty in creation. 

 

A few thoughts jumped out at me. There are so many oranges. It's currently orange season. Who is going to pick them? We only passed one worker in the fields, and he was busy doing something besides picking oranges. The standard orange in Indonesia doesn't have to be colored bright orange to be ripe; many ripe oranges even look more green than orange. So many trees were loaded with ripe oranges needing to be picked, some even to the point of breaking, as can be shown in the second picture. Again the thought: Who is going to pick them. The words of Jesus came to mind.

    "Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray               earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

Not living in an agricultural society, I fail to truly understand agricultural symbolism and metaphors. Standing on a hillside filled with orange trees helped me understand a bit better. 

A big part of the trip that I haven't blogged much about is the spiritual training. We have studied through topics such as Indonesian history and culture, principles of holistic business, how to suffer well for the kingdom, and how to connect with people of different backgrounds. I have enjoyed all of them, but I think the most impactful training sessions have been about suffering well for the kingdom — the man who is leading the training sessions has nearly finished a book on the subject. We have learned about the certain promise of suffering for the believer, the types of suffering and our responses to each, what the believer has to cling to in severe times of suffering, how to suffer well looking at the example of our savior, and how to help others suffer well. There is way too much to fit into in a blog post, so I'll just highlight a verse that the Lord showed me. 

    “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves             break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust                 destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart         will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)
The concept of treasure has been on my mind for a while now. The concept of suffering has not. The Lord is showing me crazy depth to these verses at the intersection between treasure and suffering. The promise of suffering is real, but the prize of heaven is worth the cost.