It’s February, which means my first month of the race is complete. The time leading up to the race, I had no idea what to tell all of the people who asked what I was going to be doing…or all of the people who took it upon themselves to remind me of the murder rate of the countries I was about to spend a year in. There is no way to anticipate what it will look like to be immersed in a completely foreign culture.
Even today, I still cannot stand back and pinpoint exactly what it is that I did except for sowing seeds.
We are only in places for one month at a time. Our meetings with all of these beautiful people are but a vapor. Our time in each country is small- but then again, so is a mustard seed. In his short, vapor of a time on the earth, Jesus illustrated to us how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed- the smallest of the seeds that shoots up to tower over all of the others.
In this first month, I got to dive in and be a chick preacher for a day. This may seem like a leap of faith, but for someone like me who can talk about anything for days, this was not a problem. I knew the talk that I would give would come to me, and I completely wrote in in my mind as I was working in the beautiful garden we lived in.
We lived in Eden; it was paradise, but it took work which I believe is what made it so beautiful. We weeded it and watered it and stepped back to bask in the beauty. As I was working, I remembered the way that the supernatural realm created the natural realm; therefore, what we see and sow in our tangible, natural lives teaches us so much about our Creator. Perhaps, this is why we see so many references to harvesting in the scripture.
My sermon was called: “Sowing for A Harvest” based out of Psalm 126:5:
“He who goes out sowing in tears will surely reap with songs of joy.”
I felt like this verse and this message was such a necessary reminder for our modern culture and myself. Today, with technology and people who want everything to transform at the speed of light, we forget the beauty of the process- sowing and looking around to be thankful for the little remnants of beauty in the midst of dry, hopeless deserts- remnants as small as the mustard seed that can tower over all of the despair if we would only sow and thank and wait and embrace.
I would love for deserts to become oceans of prosperity in the blink of an eye. Surely, David would have loved to be crowned moments after he was anointed king. Surely, Joseph would have loved to see the fruit of his dreams the next morning rather than years later. I would love to look at the orphans I did life with through January and see them wake up the next morning with a loving mother and father and no memories of their abusive pasts, but if there is anything I can remember from gardening and the word, it’s that fruit takes sowing, and breakthrough comes from followthrough.
The girls we worked with ad discipled at the orphanage see a revolving door of teams planting seeds of hope. Each time a team comes, we are only tending to the things that the people before us did, until one day the ground breaks, and the truth of who these girls are light up. I believe we began to see some ground break during our time there.
These young ladies varied from the ages of twelve to eighteen, and what they wanted us to talk about was how to do the right thing and how to not go to hell. This grieved me, because we were not there to give them law. Jesus did not come to give laws:
“For God did not come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
It reminds me of a line from a song by Seryn that we listened to the first month:
“We can write with ink and pen but we will sow with seeds instead, starting with words we said and we will all be changed.”
Jesus isn’t a church lady with a big hat with birds on it condemning people. We wanted to follow his model of ministry. We cold have written out rules for them, but rules only address behavior. It doesn’t get the root of pain. It’s like mowing over weeds instead of pulling out rules. The law highlights inadequacy. Just like the people Jesus spoke to, all of these girl were well aware of their (false) inadequacies.
They did not understand that they were precious daughters. They did not understand that as young women, they are the strong, beautiful crowns of creation and that each of them brings something unique to the world that nobody in history or in the future could bring. They look in the mirror, and all they see are rejected, orphan gentiles.
We could have given them laws. Laws are comfortable for people. It’s an easy how-to book. We could have told them that since they follow Jesus, they need to become the most dull vanilla people who have ever walked the earth and not to ever smile, drink, have fun or dance and if they did dance to leave twelve inches between each other and not to ever let their heartbeats rise about thirty beats per minute and that fusball is from the devil, Bobby Boucher. (The Waterboy)
We took a different approach, and I love a good glass of wine and some salsa dancing, so that wouldn’t work so well with me. We taught them about lies we all believe about ourselves, and God’s truth. When we got the the point of having them speak it to each other, some cried and looked away, because they couldn’t believe and accept that there could possibly be anything good about them after all of the abuse and condemnation they have suffered.
But there was ground that broke and the hint of a mustard seed shot through. The girls began to speak life and truth to each other more and more, and they didn’t want to stop! They smiled and began to open up to accepting it.
Now, I am beginning month two. I’m looking back and hoping the the seeds continue to grow. I am hoping that we did some damage- made a mark. Please be praying for the harvest to spring forward in La Libertad- the city of freedom.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tt_6e73f7hM
