Autumn for young McCrea meant soccer, school, leaf piles to jump in, and that glorious time of the year when western Washington wasn’t hot and wasn’t yet covered in rain and gloom for the winter; it meant the occasional, perfectly cool, crisp, sunshiney mornings that melted into afternoons spent outside being wrapped in a blanket of the same sunshine that was illuminating the changing leaves. It meant apples from the yard for pie and apples from the yard for cider press parties. It meant that long-awaited day on which each Nirider child got to help Master Gardener Nirider (dad) pick all of the pumpkins and the ornamental corn and the sunflowers and the squash and whatever beautiful life had burst forth from the garden that year.
We carefully chose which pumpkins we would carve and which we would use as decoration. We delicately arranged ornamental corn all over the house. We rejoiced that carved pumpkins meant seeds for cooking, and that seeds for cooking meant seeds for eating.
My dad put in hour after hour of work in the garden, rain or shine, in order for cultivate such beautiful life in that space. We didn’t always get to (or choose to) help, but there wasn’t a year we didn’t get to enjoy the harvest.
The last weeks in Novi Sad (fittingly meaning “new garden”) often felt like one long, extended, beautiful harvest day.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Matthew 9:36-38
The workers are few. Despite many claiming Christianity by tradition or through culture, less than ten percent of the nation know the sweet saving grace that is Jesus Christ, how to have a relationship with him, or the unreasonable truth that he desperately wants to have relationship with us.
The harvest is great. Our heavenly Father has planted a multitude of seeds here. The faithful few have watered those seeds, tended to them with care, and have fully committed to the relentless pursuit of seeing these seeds being brought into their fullest life possible.
The last weeks in Novi Sad, I had the honor of working alongside the faithful few. I had the absolute joy and privilege of joining the workers, of marveling in the fruits of their labor, of saying “your labors are not in vain; the fruit that you and the Lord are producing together is beautiful.”
I was humbled 100 times over to hear the words “you are an answer to our prayers; we are always praying for people like you to come.”
I was reminded daily that all of the garden’s produce has its perfect purpose – even the most bruised apples make the sweetest cider and the quirkiest pumpkins are the best fit for carving to shine light into darkness.
As month one comes to a close and I reflect on all the beauty that it was, I thank God for the workers he has here who are committed to working the land day in and day out. I thank Him for the chance to be used as an encouragement and refreshment to the workers and to be encouraged by them. I thank Him that He could work this harvest on his own if He wanted to, but He graciously invites us in.
The Master Gardener has sowed the seeds. Life is multiplying. The Master Gardener could work the harvest alone if He wanted to, but the work is too important, too beautiful, to joyful to not be shared.
I write this post from Belgrade where my whole squad is staying together, debriefing, processing this last month, and receiving wisdom and encouragement from our incredible coaches and mentors. I have had the absolute honor of helping coordinate that as one of two logistics coordinators for the squad. Oh, what an adventure that is, but what an honor it is to serve my squadmates in that way.
Tuesday we depart for Draganesti-Olt, Romania where we will be partnering with a church and serving in a number of ministries.
Please pray for safe and simple travels (something I also get to help coordinate) and ease as we transition into our second ministries of this race.
Pray also against comparison. This past month was so incredibly beautiful that it’s hard to imagine anything being better. Pray that we would see that whatever the Lord has for us in the next month is good simply because he is unfailingly good.
Thank you endlessly for your continued love and support. It means so much to me and it means so much to the people I get to serve on your behalf.
