Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house. Prov 24:27

            I always considered myself a 'night owl'.  Quite a number of years ago, I worked at a golf course watering the fairways and greens. The work was at night and there were no automatic sprinklers. I had eleven large sprinklers and they had to be set and reset every 45 minutes or so. At any rate, it was an all night job and I just got used to being up all night all the time. Maybe I still am a night owl, but the Chad conditions and culture change has really adjusted what a 'night owl' means to me. It is dark here at 6:00 p.m. all the time. The house we're currently in has only two rooms where the main light works. There are some lamps that cast out a bit of light in some of the other rooms, but they are not really very bright. That is not all bad, though. Light attracts insects, and other creatures like the scorpion horse. The scorpion horse is a spider like creature that can be 2-3 inches long. They are quite a gruesome looking thing and very erratic in their movement, making it difficult to get them under your foot to give them a smashing jolt. A night owl here may be described as someone who is still up after 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. A big change for me, but  the change has also given me an insight into the 'other half'--the early risers.

            Since bedtime comes so early, getting up early just comes naturally, although my wife still gets up much earlier than me. She is up at dawn that breaks at about 5:30 a.m. I usually follow at about 6:00, and sometimes we take an early morning walk. It has given me a good demonstration of the above quoted verse in Proverbs. One of the first people we see in the morning is Mece, the station morning guard. Five days a week he gets up at four to begin his 10 kilometer bicycle ride from his home to the station. He puts in 100 kilometers a week going to and from work for pay that would seem ridiculous to any American, but is a good salary here.

            The next person we encounter is a young man who works in his garden nearly every day. They use cows to pull a plow to till the ground before planting, but weeds soon come and need to be dealt with. They don't use what Americans would consider a good weeding tool. What they use is a short strong limb with a crook in it where they attach a sharpened piece of metal of any kind that will serve the purpose. Bending over at the waist, they hold it with both hands and chop away at the dirt to get rid of unwanted growth. Not very astonishingly, this man has arms, pecs, and abs that anyone who has done P90X would be jealous of!

            Another scene that has caught our eye is a little further away from the house. A ways back, there is a backwater from the Shari River that stretches for about a mile. We were there quite early the other day. There were young boys who had herded their families cows back to the water to drink and graze, taking them out in the morning and then back to their home toward the end of the day. There were also men working in their gardens here. The gardens are planted along both sides of the backwater and look quite plush. They look that way because of the work their planters do. Having, usually, two large sprinkler cans that hold about 3 gallons apiece they walk to the river and dunk the cans, filling them to the brim. With one in each hand they carry them to their garden and, beginning at the row furthest away, they dutifully sprinkle the contents on their crop. Hour after hour, they walk to the river to fill the cans and then to the garden to empty them, knowing that as the days progresses their walk will get a bit shorter each time.

            None of these examples portray anything resembling instant gratification. Rather, they show that it often takes much hard work before any benefit is seen. Witnessing and ministry can be the same way. But what I pondered  while thinking about these examples was the kind of attitudes we have pertaining to these things. Are we willing to get up early and get to the work? Are we willing to toil all day to keep the tares away? Will we water the crop with the water of the Word and not expect to see anything quickly grow without being discouraged or giving up? Preparing the work...making it fit for the field, getting things ready to be able to do the job and keeping at it until the harvest comes is the way to get the job done.