A story....

A sower sowed some seeds.

Some of the seeds fell on fertile ground.

A group of us went to Kenya to do what we call the work of Christian mission.

I'll never forget Maria. She grew up in Kenya and worked along side our group building wooden church pews from scratch. We did our work without electricty most days and with wood that had not yet cured.

One day Maria begged us to follow her back to the hospital where we were staying. She told us her way was a short cut. What a sight we were as we paraded past clusters of homes and schools and churches. Mid way the short cut Maria annouced that we would just so happen pass by her house where her family was waiting to meet us.

We stopped and were invited to sit down in the tiny, dusty front room. Pictures of her family hung high up on the wall near the ceiling surrounding us like the communion of Saints we speak about each week when we recite the Apostles' Creed. We shared stories for a bit and then went on our way.

We soon discovered that Maria's shortcut was not short at all.

There something one discovers quite quickly when walking on the back roads of Kenya. There are no restrooms, and several of us found ourselves in great need of relief. Maria kept assuring as if she were our parent, "We will be there in just a few minutes".

Soon we were at the back fence of the hospital where large freshly plowed fields stretched out before us. Those of us who were in a crisis decided to climb over the fence and run through the fields.....thinking it would take less time.

Have you ever tried running through freshly plowed fields? It is like trying to run in a big bowl of rising dough. We arrived at the hospital about the same time as the others!

That day we became the field in which God plowed with grace deeper than we had ever known. I believe God yearns to seep into the crevices of our lives like a newly plowed field and root us deeper and deeper so that we might become the harvest.

That is what happened in Kenya. Our hearts and minds were plowed by God's Holy Spirit and the sowing seed story our Lord and Savior shared became a reality.

We went to Kenya to give. But instead we recieved the life only God can give.

Thanks to one named Maria. We came home by another way.