A few weeks ago, it was time to plant corn on the Faith Home campus.  It has been the custom the past few years for the Tios and some of the older boys to take care of this.  This year, however, it became a joint effort of all the youth (boys AND girls) 14 and up.  There were those faithful few boys and curious girls who showed up first, ready to work.  The others started trickling in a short time later, and then of course, some came dragging up at the last minute.  All of them arrived in time to receive instructions from Hector and Mauricio.  Pastor Miguel prayed over the corn that will provide many tortillas in the year to come, and the kids quickly got to work.  They grouped together and twisted the rope to mark off the rows in a straight line, then they split up the duties and were soon planting the seeds.  Many followed the instructions exactly as explained, some got off course and had to redo their planting, and some found creative ways to make it faster and easier to plant the seed.  They were laughing and truly enjoying the work.  We took them some Pepsi when they were finishing up, as a reward fro their hard work.  But to our surprise, when we called them over they didn’t want to quit.  They all said if they would keep going, they could finish the task in about 10 minutes.  They Pepsi could wait.  Really?  Who were these kids and what did they do with our “race to be first, leave everything behind for Pepsi” kids?  It was a moment of growth.

And that’s how it is with the spiritual harvest.  Just as the small corn plant is now popping out of the ground after this past week’s rain, our children are starting to grow up to become what God created them to be.  I am thankful for all those who did the spiritual planting and watering in the past for these precious children, so that we can see God start to cultivate and harvest their souls for His kingdom.  Some workers came early and others came later to continue the ministry in its different stages.  Just as the kids wove the string together to make it stronger for the rows of planting, God has woven each of us together to do our part in keeping the planting efforts on track.  The beauty of God’s grace is that even when it gets a little off, He brings us back, straightens us out, and faithfully brings the harvest.