I've been in Kenya, Africa for just over a week now and I can sum it up perfectly with just one word: delightful. I love praying with the old woman down the road, I love throwing the paper snowflakes I make with the neighbor kids up in the air and hearing them scream in laughter as they watch them fall to the ground. I love dancing in worship at the village churches and I will never forget running home through the red mud with our shoes off as we got caught in an African rain storm. The pace of life is much slower in Africa and I'm starting to think, I love this. One of my favorite days in Kenya so far has been the day we helped plant our host families yearly crops. Someone would dig a small hole, I would drop two small seeds in and cover them back up with the rich soil. We planted row after row of both corn and beans that day. It was such an eye opening experience especially coming from Kansas where I am surrounded by huge machines that do most of the work. In the middle of scattering seed I kept feeling a pull at my heart. I didn't know what it meant but I new God was trying to tell me something. Later that evening as I sat in our dark hut with the lantern beside my bed I flipped open my bible. Slowly as I read it all began making since, perfect since! I was reading from Mark 4:26-29 the parable of growing seed. It says He also said "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain-first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." God was calling me to scatter seed, not to be a farmer but to be like a farmer. In the parable Jesus uses the word seed to represent His Truth, The Gospel. The farmer scatters seed on the ground. When I think of the word scatter I picture someone tossing seed, the seed goes everywhere. It's not contained to one small section but it is randomly tossed covering the land. The rest of the parable goes on to say that once the seed is scattered it will grow, even though the farmer does nothing else. All I am called to do is sow the seed and God will take care of the rest.
I've sown a lot of seed this past year on the World Race but I know this is just one small year out of my life. I feel like God has used this year to prepare me for what is to come afterwards. Before the World Race I was working at a nursing home as a physical therapist assistant, maybe I'll go back to that. Or maybe I'll put together a small group for young girls or continue traveling the world as a missionary. I feel as though the possibilities are endless and I am truly excited for what's next. Whatever God has planned for me I know it will be great for I know I will be farming.
