Part 2: Just Because You Have the Suit Doesn’t Necessarily Mean You’re An Expert

If you didn’t read yesterday’s blog, click HERE to read it first. Otherwise this won’t mean as much to you (not having the full story, that is.).

OK. 7:00am came and went and the bees were still in full force. So much for them “swarming away on their own” even though it sounded great. After mid-morning came and went I sent Matthew to go and tell Rato that they (the bees) were all still there and we needed to know what to do next. After Matthew told him he said, “he wanted to bring over his smoke canister and another suit so that someone could help him.” It was kinda drizzling outside so he wanted to do a daylight extraction this time. Typically bees don’t swarm as much at night or when it’s raining so doing it during the day (while it was raining) seemed like a good idea to him. And again, since he had all the equipment, it seemed like he was the expert in the situation. So we were going with the expert’s recommendation.

When I asked Matthew who was gonna help him (and be brave enough to jump inside the other bee suit) he told me that Eli (one of my nephews) was going to do it. Only problem with that, is that Eli had gone into town with his parents and wasn’t home yet. So then I asked Matthew if he was gonna do it and he didn’t even hesitate... to say, “no,” that is. lol! That left... drumroll please... you got it right. Me!

So Rato shows up and I’m the only one there that can help (or who was willing to), so I suited up. I was trying to act brave, but inside I wasn’t real enthusiastic about going into battle against a bunch of bees with a 17 year old kid. Especially one who had already proven that just because you have the suit doesn’t necessarily mean you’re “an expert bee remover guy” (sorry don’t know the correct term). I wasn’t real optimistic, but I put the suit on nonetheless. And then I had MJ put duct tape around the part where the gloves go over the sleeves (of the bee suit) so that there was no way a single bee could possible get inside my suit. I think I saw that on Discovery Channel or something: )

That's me (reluctantly) suited-up and ready to "battle the bees."

We went upstairs and Matthew locked us out on the porch. As the door locked, I knew  there was no turning back now. Rato got his smoke canister going and after he put smoke near where we were going to be working (and after a quick photo) we started to take the wood off the house. 

Rato getting his smoke canister ready.

Smiling on the outside but crying on the inside.

Rato and Jim, ready for battle.

And, when we did, the bees started hitting our suits and gloves immediately. They were all over the place and they were mad. Although there was a smile on my face it was all I could do not to poop my pants. It was soooo scary and my adrenaline was pumping at an all time high . MJ, Matthew and Maryssa stood with their faces pressed against the glass of Maryssa’s bedroom window laughing at me and all the bees. It was crazy.

Starting to remove the wood unleashed the bees in all their fury. 

The bees starting to attack as we were smoking them out.

Matthew mocking me from the safety of the "inside" of the house. 

After we removed the first outside board we could see a big honeycomb with a bunch of bees on it. The bees were really mad now so I put down my hammer and grabbed the smoke canister and started dispersing the smoke. Nobody told me to do it and I had no idea what the smoke was suppose to do, I was just afraid to move (swinging the hammer) anymore. I was paranoid that the suit was gonna tear or something so holding the smoke thing seemed like a safe thing to do.

The hive was exposed after we removed the first board.

As the bees were attacking I grabbed the smoke (even though I had no idea what I was doing).

Rato started removing more of the boards and as he did I was shocked! There was such a massive bee hive that I was literally in awe. And not only was there such an enormous hive (filled with honey) but we had just unleashed tens of thousands of bees! And the fact that we had just peeled away the only thing (the wood) that was previously separating us from them, gave them no other alternative but to attack us. There were so many bees on my gloves, hood and suit that it was freaky. I grabbed the camera and took a few shots because otherwise nobody would believe this. 

I even shot a quick video so that you could see the scope of what we were dealing with and so that you could hear the sound of the bees too. 

Rato started scraping off all the honeycombs from under the inside of our roofline and putting them into a big empty trashcan (that I had given him, he still didn’t bring a bucket like he said the night before, haha). And, when he had finished, the honey probably weighed about 30 lbs inside of the can. It was pretty amazing. 

Rato removing honeycombs and placing them into a bucket.

At that point the bees were still hitting us but they started to form a big cluster on top of the roof of the house too. We carried (down a ladder) the trashcan full of bees and honeycombs and stood off on the distance for about 20 minutes as the bees started to disperse. There were thousands of dead bees on the ground already, from the night before, but now there were thousands more. My heart was still pounding from being that close to something that could potentially of killed me and I felt exhausted. Who would’ve ever thought that I’d be wrangling bees on the mission field? After a while we went back up and removed the residue that the honeycombs had left on the underside of our roofline. Rato said that the bees would come back for it if we left it there. And we didn’t want them to come back, that’s for sure.

This was something that was so outrageous that I never would’ve imagined I’d ever be doing it. But there’s also a lesson that I saw in it as well:

Just because someone has a bee suit doesn’t make them an expert bee remover. Sure, they may have a little experience, but that doesn’t make them an expert. But, even though they’re not an expert, if someone needs bees removed, they’re gonna call someone who “has the suit.”

It’s the same with us as Christ Followers. When we profess to people that we believe in Jesus (i.e., we’ve got the suit), and then tragedy strikes in their life or when they’re in need, they’re gonna come to us for help. So rather than not being prepared (i.e., forgetting to bring our bucket, not putting on our protective stuff at the right time, etc.) we need to be ready and trained. And our training doesn’t only come through experience. Sure experience is valuable but preparation is too. So how much time are we spending in preparation for someone who needs us (by studying God’s word and applying it to our lives)? Are we gonna be prepared for “a spiritual bee invasion” in someone else’s life when they call on us? Because if we’re just depending on experience it’ll be a lot more difficult than if we spent time in preparation. As a matter of fact if we’re not prepared “we could get stung”: )

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk and not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

                                                                                   Hebrews 5:12-14

Love Ya,

Jim