Seeds

This Lesson taken from today's Daily Office:

John 12: 24
"Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Two weeks back, I went out to the new Lespwa Timoun facility and helped plant some seeds to grow corn and three types of beans. And, if the rains continue the way they have, we will have a healthy harvest just in time for me to depart for the US. It would be really incredible if I could eat some corn I myself planted.

The new garden at Lespwa Timoun

Perhaps the craziest thing to me about the passage above, about seeds in general, is that they have to die before they can become a plant. No, this cant be true, right? In fact, after some brief scientific research, I found that seeds, when dormant, are neither live nor dead. They are simply in a state of being. In order to grow and flourish, they must sacrifice their state of being.
They must sacrifice their state of being.

Sometimes we are presented with realities and situations that inevitably force us to make a sacrifice. And usually these sacrifices go against everything we want.
"I mean, do I really have to walk to class?" asks the lazy student when his school changes parking policies to reduce it carbon footprint.
"You mean I actually have to pay you to live in this awesome apartment?" asks the oblivious trust fund young adult to her landlord.
"You mean 'If [I] wish to be perfect, [I must] go and sell [my] possessions and give the money to the poor and only then will [I] have treasure in heaven?" asks the young man to Jesus in Matthew 19:21.

Yep, sometimes "you know it don't come easy" to quote Ringo Starr (well really George Harrison writing yet another song for Ringo, but anyways).

In Jesus' case, his sacrifice was obviously about as big as it can be, death or martyrdom. But that doesn't mean that the sacrifices we must make in order to "bear much fruit" aren't extremely difficult for us. Sometimes it means giving up the things we care the most about (family, friends, community, wealth). But if this thing of value must be sacrificed for some greater good, than it is indeed "the right thing to do." God would not have planned for us to lose what we love unless he has some bigger plan working.

As other posts have made readily knowledgable, there are a lot of rocks and there aren't a lot of trees down here in Haiti. In fact, 99% of the original forest is gone, removed for unsustainable agricultural practices and for the production of charcoal. What Haiti has been left with is a desert in the tropics.

"Give them according to their doing, and according to the wickedness of their deeds; give them after the work of their hands, render to them their desert" Psalm 28:4

Crochu, my new home away from home away from home away from home away from home (LR, Sewanee, Durham, Croix-Des-Bouquets, Crochu...whew, that's a mouthful), is the perfect example of a town rendered a desert. There are innumerable plots of lands, likely passed down for generations, that  have become little more than a rock field. Upon these rocks, these people survive. If the rains don't come, if the goats eat too much, or if the seed wasn't healthy and didn't "bear its fruit", then these people literally starve to death.
As such, I have been commissioned by the Valdemas to start a reforestation project in Crochu.
And I have plans! Through the generous donation of a few thousand dollars (cough, cough, readers), the relatively simple planting of some biomass and the installation of a new pellet mill, these barren hillsides could be transformed into an agriculturally productive region, giving the people a source of cooking fuel, fodder for their livestock, improved soil for more productive agriculture, and hopefully one day, an industry they can export and expand to other areas in Haiti.
**If you have any interest/ want more details, please e-mail me at dchurch530@gmail.com. I am happy to entertain questions (and donations!) but am reluctant to reveal my great scheme to the entire globe just yet.

So, right now, I'm a seed. I am simply in a state of being (the state today is one still lacking electricity and punctuality, and overridden with heat, nausea and homesickness). But with adequate water and sunlight, hopefully I will bear some fruit in the near future. Hopefully this project will bear some fruit in the near future. Hopefully, we can all sacrifice a little for the betterment of many.

Song of the Day

"Enough To Let Me Go"

Switchfoot

Oh, I'm a wandering soul,

But I'm still walking the line that leads me home

Alone, all I know. 

I've still got mountains to climb on my own

Back from the dead of winter

And all of our leaves are dry

You're so beautiful tonight

Back from the death we went through

Back from the dead and both our tongues are tied

You look beautiful tonight

But every seed dies before it grows.