It took us two and a half hours driving - on good tarmac roads, followed by good dirt roads, then potholed dirt roads, and finally heart-in-mouth-dirt-roads that looked impossibly narrow for our 4x4, to get to this little house church in the middle of endless rice and tapioca fields.
The believers had brought goat meat along on ice - two goats with bad tempers had meant that God provided a goat feast for us all that day... so while we heard about the amazing stories of some of these believers, one man got busy butchering the goat meat while others got on with barbecuing.
Of course when I say goat meat, it was mostly internal organs. If you click on the photos to enlarge them, you'll spot the heart, kidneys, stomach and intestines. Of course no good BBQ goat meal is complete without home-made bile sauce.
And so pretty soon the mat was laid under the lychee tree, and we sat down to a meal of goat, fish, sticky rice... and something strange looking that our hosts wouldn't tell us the ingredients of, except to call it 'bravery soup'.
Eventually my team leader Phil tried it and we were told what it was. With the 3-day-old suckling calf watching, we all tried a spoonful of... cow placenta soup!!
Yes, I hear your cries of disgust, but it really is all in the head... if you didn't think about it, it actually just tasted like a very flavourful, herby soup. And so I earned my bravery badge, much to the amusement of the Isaan people around us, to whom this special soup was a healthy and rare delicacy.
After the meal we all sat down for church, Isaan style - in a circle under the tree, singing together, praying together, sharing testimonies and the amazing news of the gospel for those there who hadn't yet heard.
Finally, we wanted to experience what all the rice farmers are busy with in this rainy season:
re-planting rice. Rice seed is first scattered in the fields until it has sprouted to about a foot high. Then the seedlings are uprooted and re-planted in an organised, evenly spaced way when the field is flooded by rain, so that they will produce a better crop. This is the stage they are at now. So we had the joy of joining our Isaan brothers and sisters in planting their rice field, wading in mud, wonderful chocolate-milkshake-mud!
We finished the field in under an hour with so many mucking in. Rice farmers are usually toiling at this all day, for days on end, bent over double for long hours in the sun. Our prayer for them and for Isaan is a bountiful harvest, the glorious provision of God described in Psalm 65 below, both physically and spiritually.
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We look forward to accepting our invitation to harvest the field in December, and to seeing a spiritual harvest of the work God is doing in this region in due time!
Psalm 65
1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall vows be performed.
2 O you who hear prayer,
to you shall all flesh come.
3 When iniquities prevail against me,
you atone for our transgressions.
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
and to you shall vows be performed.
2 O you who hear prayer,
to you shall all flesh come.
3 When iniquities prevail against me,
you atone for our transgressions.
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas;
6 the one who by his strength established the mountains,
being girded with might;
7 who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples,
8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas;
6 the one who by his strength established the mountains,
being girded with might;
7 who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples,
8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
