Studies from Proverbs
When I was 19 years old, back in 1888, I had the opportunity to spend 6 weeks in Israel. But I was not there to tour. I went there to work. I went with a ministry that gathered teens together from North America into teams. They would send us to do work or evangelism projects around the world. In Israel, our job was to build a large chicken house for an Arab boy’s orphanage in a village called Beit Jala just outside of Bethlehem.
Now if you’ve ever been to Israel, you know that it is a very rocky land. Of the six weeks that that we were there, we spent 5 of them moving rocks and soil by hand. It was hard and boring work in the summer sun. But we were there to serve the Lord. So we were all supposed to be excited. Our leaders were very kind and gentle seniors. The husband supervised the work while the wife supervised the cooking. But the husband’s eyesight was declining. Our motivation to work declined as the summer progressed. Some members began to disappear especially during the hottest and hardest afternoon hours. They found some hiding spots to take an hour or more nap out of site of the supervisor. Or they claimed they weren’t feeling well between 1 and 2 in the afternoon. Our leader was a kind grandfather-like person. So he accepted all the explanations and just assigned them wherever was needed when they decided to return. But those of us who didn’t take unauthorized breaks knew they just skipped work. Our resentment grew. Before we knew it, the summer was over. We headed back to our homes and moved on with our lives.
