Last year I led a college mission trip to Nicaragua. We spent the week driving out to a tiny village in the middle of nowhere to be helping hands for whatever they needed.
We didn’t expect to be spending the week clearing and tilling the land, but we were there to help with whatever they asked.
The coffee business is one of the strongest economies in Nicaragua so we were there to help an older women clear her land to plant coffee plants. We didn’t have the best tools so we were using our hands, sticks as hammers and machetes to make way for new land. We worked on the side of a mountain the whole week and put on our best smiles and attitudes despite the tough physical labor.
By the end of the week We were so proud of this little piece of land helped with. Even if it was for one woman, at least she would be able to sell coffee to make some money for herself since she couldn’t physically handle the labor to take care of her land.
There had been a drought for years in that area so the community was struggling to stay afloat. They all took care of one another because of the lack of money. If someone didn’t have food, they fed each other. Every need was taken care of.
At the end of the week we prayed over the land, asking God for rain and an abundance of coffee to help this village.
We were excited to see the results and hear about the land once the coffee plants had bloomed. So we asked the community, how long will it take for these plants to grow? When will it all be ready?
“ Oh around 7 years.. that is if we get rain…..”
WHAT. 7 years? We couldn’t believe it. The woman wouldn’t have plants for another 7 years??? We wouldn’t know if she ever made money or collected her harvest until we were long out of college.
This story came to my mind today as I prayed for all the seeds that we have planted this year.
Being a short term missionary is hard. We get to spend one month with these people and hopefully help them out in some ways,hopefully speak some truth into their lives, and hopefully bring some sort of hope and lift to their lives. But we just don’t know. We never know the full impact of what we have done in those few weeks.
To be honest I wish I was a long term missionary most of the time I am here. I want to see results. I want to know that I am helping. I don’t want to just come in and go out not knowing if I was helpful in anyway. It is so frustrating.
But God is working on my heart. I am seeing that I want results for my own satisfaction. I think the Lord keeps us humble by not showing us the full picture and this week he is showing me how important it is to be the one planting the seeds. He is showing me how I get to water the seeds that have been planted before me.
This month is really testing me in that area of trust because we travel everyday to a different village to preach. EVERYDAY we meet new people, speak and leave. What are we even doing here? How can we make a difference in one day?
But as we drove a couple hours into this rural village in Peru, our host told us the story of how they found these people.
In the early 90’s a missionary named Larson came to Peru and was preaching in a small city called Cajamarca. One day he accidentally drove over someone and killed them. (I know, not what I was expecting either..). He wanted to honor the body and take it back to wherever the man was from. He found out he was from a small village called Yanacancha hidden away in the mountains. He was working with our current host Pastor Helmer and they decided to drive and hike to the village. Once he returned the body he decided he would bless the village by building a road.
This one missionary Larson fundraised and built a very long road throughout the mountains. He continued visiting the village and going on horse back to preach and share the gospel with people even further out in the countryside of the mountains. Only two years after discovering the village, Pastor Helmer decided to plant a church on the mountain of Yanacancha.
Fast forward and here I am. Some random white girl from America who loves Jesus and I get to be “watering” this village with the love and knowledge I have from God.
Larson, planted a seed years before I was born and just like that, a domino effect. This village gets to hear the gospel and missonaries keep coming to water that seed. Now I get to be apart of this blooming seed and help the church for 4 days.
God is so cool.
All I can hope and pray for is that whatever seeds I have planted in peoples lives, whatever seeds I have watered this year, I have to trust that God will take care of the rest. I can trust in him to keep working in their hearts. To bring more people to the mountain, to keep building up the local church, to bring them a bible, to whisper ideas and truths into their lives when no one else is there.
Jesus spoke of our faith in relation to a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). The smallest known garden seed in that culture. Like every seed, it needs to germinate, and this particular seed can take up to ten days to germinate. Some plants, like some dreams, take a lot longer. Faith is what keeps those dreams alive, even when it seems as though they are dead and buried. But that is the very nature of seeds. They go underground. They disappear. And while it may seem like they are dead, they are not. They’re just germinating beneath the surface!
Although I may never see any of these people again, I can keep watering and planting in their lives through prayer.
Marke Batterson the author of the Circle maker said this:
“Praying is planting. Each prayer is like a seed that gets planted in the ground. It disappears for a season, but it eventually bears fruit that blesses future generations. In fact, our prayers bear fruit forever. Even when we die, our prayers don’t. Each prayer takes on a life, an eternal life, of its own. Because we are surrounded by technologies that make our lives faster and easier, we tend to think about spiritual realities in technological terms. We want to reap the very second we sow. We want God to microwave answers, MapQuest directions, and Twitter instructions. We want things to happen at the speed of light instead of the speed of a seed planted in the ground, but almost all spiritual realities in Scripture are described in agricultural terms. We want our dreams to become reality overnight. We want our prayers answered immediately. But that isn’t the way it works in God’s kingdom. We need the patience of the planter. We need the foresight of the farmer. We need the mind-set of the sower. We worry far too much about outcomes instead of focusing on inputs. We cannot make things grow. Period. All we can do is plant and water. But if we plant and water, God promises to give the increase.”
I know if I sow kindness I will reap kindness. If I choose to sow generosity I will reap generosity. If I sow love I will reap love.
That small village in Nicaragua did not give up hope to keep planting. Even in times of a drought, in a spiritual or financial famine we can get discouraged to keep planting. It seems like the harvest will never come. I feel this way all the time on the race. Never seeing results.
But my advice, to keep sowing. Just one seed. A simple seed. I will keep praying. I will keep obeying. I will keep loving and serving. Because I know if I sow the right seeds the harvest and blessing will come in Gods timing and in Gods way!
“If we do the little things like they are big things, then God will do the big things like they are little things.”
