& the adventure continues::

Another week has come and gone, and I have the muscles to prove it!  I made it through...ready for this... three whole rows!  No, not per hour, not per day... that would be my grand total for the week!  I realize I won't be winning any weed wacking competitions at that rate; but these were the hardest rows we've seen yet.  The rows took about four or five hours each, and I was probably only using the wacker for 20-30 minutes of that time!  The rest of the time it's just me and the weeds; navigating through the maze, finding the daddy root, yanking on it from different angles (or sawing it!) till it's out of the ground, getting it to break free from all the other weeds, and then hauling it to the end of the row.  Exhausting, but worth it!  I'm fairly sure my chest actually swells with pride every time we drive past those cleared rows!  We are, quite literally, 'subduing the earth' (Gen 1:28)  But I was mistaken in thinking we only had one more acre to 'subdue'.  It's actually more like two!  Derek is teaching me proper machete technique, so I have a good way to vent any pent up emotions.  Just kidding!  I don't recommend swinging sharp blades when you're angry.  But, I am pretty fierce with the machete!
As much as I continue to learn and grow and surrender each day (and each weed!) to God, I still have a long way to go.  A few days ago I lost sight of the end game, became completely overwhelmed with the forest of weeds I was facing and the whole HOUR and a HALF I had to wait until lunch!  I was hauling heavy piles of weeds UP the hill and the sun was radiating off my body, I could feel the blisters forming on my feet, and I just broke.  Derek asked if I was alright and I barely choked out "I'm just SO done with this!' before turning away really quick so he didn't see me fall apart completely.  Truth is, there was so much sweat dripping down my face, he probably wouldn't have noticed a few tears!  But the crazy part is that, after calling them stupid and overgrown, I just kept hauling those weeds out and after a few more minutes, and a whole bottle of water, my rage passed.  Pretty soon I was laughing and telling Derek how ridiculous it was that I had been mad at the SUN, mad at the weeds, mad at the hill!  As if they were making my life miserable on purpose that day!  The best part is that the next day while reading in the Word, I felt led to Jonah.  Little did I realize that I would be reading about ME again!! At the end of the book I read about Jonah being mad at this little plant! mad at the SUN, mad at everything, mad that God isn't destroying the people of Nineveh!  And usually I think "Sheeeesh!  What a sad, little, angry man!!"  But this time around I'm thinking "Woah, I can totally sympathize with this guy!"  Leave it to God to lead me to, what I'm assuming is, the only place in the Bible where someone is SO mad at a PLANT that he actually says he wishes he was dead?!  Sound familiar, Bethel?!  I love God's sense of humor!  (I also love that He let me wait a day to read that, because I might not have found it so funny right after the fact.)
The good news is that it was a rainy week!  Not to assume that everything is about me, because I'm sure the ground appreciated the moisture too, but I'm fairly positive that was God's way of allowing me a bit of reprieve from the "Battle of the Weeds"!  In the afternoons we'd find things to do around the greenhouse, or mosey down to our favorite coffee shop and research things like private jets and boathouses.  Gotta have dreams!!
On Friday we started our GARDEN!!!  Okay, I need to give Derek credit here... he actually started all the seeds a few weeks ago and has been working on this project during his down time.  But, this was the first day actually dedicated to the garden, and it's coming along quite nicely!  I did learn that I'm not cut out for the life of a shoveler... about 30 minutes and I'm ready to check myself into intensive care!  But in a few months- when we're eating salads and cooking with fresh vegetables- it will be so worth it!
Thanks to one of our neighbors, we now know about a secret trail that wraps around the coastline and pops out at this spot that just happens to be phenomenal for snorkeling and diving off the rocks!  And today we were out in the kayak when all these dolphins started jumping out of the water, doing flips and summersaults, just a few feet away from us!  It was absolutely beautiful!!
We continue to fall in love with this island.. the people, the culture, the crazy plants!  I think I've discovered the all natural, organic version of gorilla glue!  It comes out of this yellow, mustache shaped fruit?! and is the stickiest, white, goo I've ever come across!!  Of course, I had to play with the fruit and rip it up and was then covered in the stickiness for the next 3 hours!
I wish you all the happiest of Easter Sunday's!!  Be blessed in the knowledge that Jesus Christ laid down His life for YOU, battled it out with the Devil for YOU and rose from the dead in glorious victory!!  What an incredibly, wonderful Savior!