Churches and Manure

Nothing really amazing happened this last week. I have only been doing two things lately: building churches, and shoveling manure. Which as I was thinking about it today (while lying down for my sabbath nap) is really quite interesting. I'll start with One Day Churches. Kibidula has a hundred and forty of them to build. But, since it is rainy season we usually only get in one a week. Thursdays are the church building day and they usually beging around five thirty in the morning, so that we can be to the church site soon after day break. Then we work really hard and, if all goes well, are done in time to sit down to a real good African Lunch of peas and rice. It is quite a fufilling day, in the morning you start with bare ground (sometimes not so bare, the first church we did first required the removal of some large bushes and stumps) and by afternoon we leave behind a new church and a happy congregation. The other days of the week I have been hauling manure for the farm here and at first appearances it is just about as fruitless as building churches is gratifying. It all has to be loaded and unloaded by hand, which takes maybe an hour and a half. and if we work hard we can do four loads a day. Unless, it starts to rain then you only get dirtier. And just as building a church only takes a matter of hours. I have calculated that at the current rate it will take a month of only hauling manure before we finish. However, as I was thinking about it I realized that both jobs are equally important because both jobs are essential to the work of God. While one does seem more satisfying the other is needed to make sure the first can continue. So, I have decided to seize the pitchfork with renewed vigor.