the kilometers

Our congregation has territory in the city and also the left side of a road going up the mountains out of the city. That territory is divided according to the kilometer marker of the road, so it's called the kilometers. We go from KM 1 (just outside the city) to about KM 20. There are houses all along the road, but at any point you can leave the road and go back a path to lots and lots of houses.

Forrest and I have always tried to support the days for preaching up there, but hadn't yet put forth an organized effort to cultivate the interest. So since getting back in August we decided we're going all day every Saturday for the preaching and to go on studies. There are other brothers conducting studies in KMs 17, 14, and 13, so we're trying to focus our efforts there, because the eventual goal is to get a group started there, to have a meeting close to the studies.

Our first study we've been given is with a man named Jose and his wife and children, on KM 13. They all sit together and listen to the study. When we were leaving they gave us some peas out of their garden, and a rocoto, or hot pepper. And they kept saying, "You're coming back next Saturday, right?"


That day a lot of the people up in the kilometers were harvesting their wheat. Seeing life there helps me understand Bible times so much more. They were first having their horses walk over it and over it to break it up; then, they'd pick it up and turn it over with a pitchfork, so the chaff would blow away and only the wheat grain would be left.


As we walked along a wheat field, a sister showed us how you can pluck off the head, pull the grains out and eat them just like that. I thought about Jesus disciples snacking on wheat grains as they walked through a field, and can't figure how they felt very satisfied doing so.