On A Hill Far Away
The guest house sits at the bottom of the acreage where the Bible schools is located. The French doors open up on a stone porch with a view of the mountains and valleys surrounding us. There are faithfully tended flowers and shrubs of all sorts. Rev C explained the compound was built in 1912 as a German Mission post. It was obvious God had protected this place on a hill and long used its sanctified ground as a place where His light had gone forth into a dark nation for close to a 100 years.
"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill... Now that I've put you on a hilltop..." Matthew 5:14-16 The Message
S explained, our afternoon tea time would be spend with different groups of leaders. And on our first day, the eight leaders sat on the stone bench with the beauty of the backdrop and took tea and biscuits.
We were able to ask them questions, and they were able to do likewise. We began by asking, "What is your day life?" It was hard to keep our mouths from dropping open as they said, "The day starts at 6:00 am, letting the animals out to pasture, gathering firewood, boiling water, preparing the meals, getting the children off to school. We finish at sundown to begin again when the sun rises."
They asked if we had children, husbands, etc... and we asked the same. The oldest in the group had 14 children (none born in a hospital) - again our mouths strained against dropping as they shared one by one just a few facts about their life.
Off in the distance, we began to see the roads fill with women that had left the conference. The sun was setting. S and the women began to point to the farthest mountain and share, the women were walking up that mountain, down the valley and even past the farthest hill in the distance.
If hearts could drop in humility ours certainly would have. The sight of miles away women walking up a hill to return home to tend to the animals, gather the firewood, boil the water, tend to the children and rise the next day to hear what WE would have to say!
"Come and see..." John 1:46
"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill... Now that I've put you on a hilltop..." Matthew 5:14-16 The Message
S explained, our afternoon tea time would be spend with different groups of leaders. And on our first day, the eight leaders sat on the stone bench with the beauty of the backdrop and took tea and biscuits.
We were able to ask them questions, and they were able to do likewise. We began by asking, "What is your day life?" It was hard to keep our mouths from dropping open as they said, "The day starts at 6:00 am, letting the animals out to pasture, gathering firewood, boiling water, preparing the meals, getting the children off to school. We finish at sundown to begin again when the sun rises."
They asked if we had children, husbands, etc... and we asked the same. The oldest in the group had 14 children (none born in a hospital) - again our mouths strained against dropping as they shared one by one just a few facts about their life.
Off in the distance, we began to see the roads fill with women that had left the conference. The sun was setting. S and the women began to point to the farthest mountain and share, the women were walking up that mountain, down the valley and even past the farthest hill in the distance.
If hearts could drop in humility ours certainly would have. The sight of miles away women walking up a hill to return home to tend to the animals, gather the firewood, boil the water, tend to the children and rise the next day to hear what WE would have to say!
"Come and see..." John 1:46
