4 LESSONS FROM WEEK 4

Sara Reimer
Jun 5, 2016
3 min read

1. It's okay to be over 130 lugs behind, because no matter how stressed out I get, the asparagus doesn't disappear. Being anxious and dwelling on how overwhelmed I feel just makes my day 1000x worse.

2. I SUCK at hiding my emotions. Ben, one of the guys I work with in the barn, always calls me out if I'm being grumpy. The other day, I was feeling angry for no particular reason, and I saw Ben being super chipper and cheery as he always is, and got even angrier (apparently when I'm angry, I tend to look for things to keep me angry) because he wasn't letting me stay angry. When I asked him why he was always so happy, he just smiled and said "Well, what do I have to be mad about?". Ben is a 15 year old boy who should be out doing boy things and he's stuck in a barn for 11 hours a day, and he says he has no reason to not be happy. I love how God uses the randomest of people to teach us super huge life lessons, ie. Sara you have nothing to be mad about, so don't choose to be angry.

3. Again with the whole I-can't-not-show-my-emotions thing ... It's okay to cry in the barn. On Thursday/Friday, a few of us on the Costco line hit a wall. At one point on Friday, I told one of the girls that I was going to cry, and that was totally okay.

4. God knows when we need a break. Working 70 hours a week in a cold, wet barn with 160 people within inches of each other = sickness centraaalllll. This week, almost all of the Arkites were sick (shoutout to Kait and Whit, who managed to hold onto their health). On Friday night, at about 7pm, I found out I would be going to the St. Jacob's market the next morning at 3:30am to sell asparagus. I WAS STOKED. One less day in the barn? UHmazing. I got to spend the whole day with Hannah (former Arkite and now fellow Costco liner), and got to see some incredible friends who ended up working with us (thanks Jen and Mack). While we were at market, the rest of the Arkites were able to leave the barn at lunch (HOLLA PTL), so we all got some MUCH needed time away from the barn yesterday.

Thanks to all who have been praying for me/the team/etc.

-Pray that our minds would be protected in the barn. Most of our jobs are very repetitive and mindless, so we often find ourselves caught up in our thoughts and lies that the devil throws at us. The barn is a spiritual battle ground. SERIOUSLY. Pray that we would take our thoughts captive and refuse to allow lies to take root in our minds.

-Pray for health for our team (and the barn as a whole)

-Pray that I would be more intentional about keeping in touch with those that I'm not living in direct community with (ie. family etc)

-Pray for my family