Spiritual Concrete
Some things don't make sense, like: "Spiritual Concrete". What? Yup, we have spiritual concrete, or, I probably should say, concrete with spiritual value. It is hard to figure out why we are doing so well as a church. But, I have become convinced that it is due to a number of factors, and none of them are insignificant.God wants all people in relationship with Him. Most missionaries have figured that out. But how you get them from where they are to a point of faith? Now, that is the rub! Anyone who's been at this very long realizes that preaching alone doesn't get the job done. You really need to hear from God. It takes a revelation, and I'm sure these are different for every person.I believe that success begins by seeing people as complete beings with spiritual, physical, and social needs. The next step is to find the point of urgency. "Where is the pain?" Then, you reach out to them to meet that need in the name of Jesus. Now, if you can combine meeting needs, with issues that God is extremely interested in, like the care of orphans, widows, prisoners, and strangers, and do all this in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, you can win big. It won't happen by accident.We are pouring a concrete rice drying pad at our rice farm. Sounds real spiritual, right? Well, hold on a second! The orphans and widows we care for need support. We can't feed them relying on traditional means of agricultural production. We must do a better job, but that requires raising rice that must be harvested during the rainy season, and rice has to be dry to store.The solar heat during the sunny times of the rainy season is intense enough to dry rice in a single day. The key is to keep it from being rained on, and having a place where it can be collected as soon as rain is detected. With the 8 meter by 300 meter runway we're working on, we put the rice on our concrete runway, as soon a storms are visible we clean it up with a modified snow blower in seconds, then store it in rainproof silos with our newly constructed elevator.No Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) needed for drying. Now, that's green, but how is it spiritual? Ready? It allows us to care for the orphans and widows, shows the community the heart of God, and God confirms His endorsement with signs following. Entire communities are coming to Christ. Now, that makes this cement spiritually essential. OK?
