I was thinking as I looked at our crops that are ready for harvest.  The maize corn and the sorghum plants look identical to me until they reach fruit bearing age.  I can’t tell them apart until they start to mature.  Corn sprouts out of the sides of the Maize plant and thousands of seedlings pop out of the top of the sorghum.  Sometimes we think that we must all look the same to the Lord, all these millions of people He cares for.  Ah but we each have our own fruit to bring and although we start out looking the same as new Christians, maturity shows the real fruit in each of us.  And I still find it amazing that these big, beautiful, ripe plants come from a dead seed buried in the ground.  Hmmmmm.

Time and time again people from the west have asked me about the cost of being a missionary and are very surprised by my answer.  All of my seed is offered as a planting unto the Lord.  Unless a missionary is sent by a denominational church, for the most part, it costs us to come.  Many are surprised that I pay and don’t get paid.  I don’t get a paycheck.  I actually pay to live here at the children’s center.  We call it a base fee.  I totally agree with this.  Why would I want to eat the children’s bread?  Every expense I have is mine, not the base I am with.  Every Saturday I buy an added treat for the children to eat.  I also give funds to people in need many times.  Each week there are situations that present themselves to me and I give where the Lord says to give, whether for individuals or the family or a project I am working on.  I keep a logbook of every pound spent and who received the blessing of the Lord for that day.  I keep a testimony of how Jesus always provides for my every need and those I am sent to bless.  And I am doing all these things as if unto the Lord so of course He will bless it.  He always tells me, “Carolyn, do what is in your heart to do and I will bless it.”  Even the widow’s mite was blessed.  If a mite is all we have to give, it is plenty unto the Lord.

So, even though I don’t tell of all the wonderful things that your giving has accomplished, your seed is being sown in Sudan and many are blessed by those who are faithful in their support of what God is doing here in my little life laid down for Him and those He sends me to each day.  This week I bought huge sack, maybe 150 pounds, of sweet potatoes for our children and a children’s center in Juba whom we partner with.  Whether you help with the funeral expenses of a small child or fill the hungry belly of another or clothe twenty others, or pay the hospital bill of a widow, it is being sown every single week.  I bless your seed and I ask for God to open the floodgates of heaven concerning your needs where you are.  I pray for His abundance to bless you where you need it, that your seed, wherever it is sown in this world for His glory, be multiplied.

I end with this story.  I think it is a Jewish proverb of sorts.  I read it on Facebook so it must be true – haha.  It’s a good story.  A teacher asked his young students, “At what moment can one say that darkness has gone and the light of morning has come?”  One student replied, “When you can look out on your pasture and see the difference between a sheep and a goat.”  Another replied, “When you can see the trees and not just a shape.”  The teacher looked at them and replied, “It is when you can look on the face of another and call him brother.  That is when the light has come.”