The Summons

With the pandemic raging world-wide, the eagerly anticipated sea turtle project in El Salvador is on hold. Now we spend much time in our yard, Nancy with her flower beds and my work is in the vegetable garden. The garden has been fruitful: asparagus, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, onions, and my major crop of garlic. I find the package seeds very interesting. They remain dormant until opened, planted and watered. Then very little seeds, like a grain of sand or a very small pebble, produce gigantic plants. Not only having fruit but many seeds to do it all over again. I find it fascinating, wondering how this works. What summons these seeds to life, what generates such abundance? Unlike our garden that has been producing food for life and health, early May was catastrophic in El Salvador. While Central America has dealt with drought for the past three years, the winter rains provided hope that the drought was over. Then Amanda hit and the capital city was flooded and the Eastern zone (Usulután and rural San Miguel) were also flooded, wiping out established fields and fields of newly planted crops. Our project partners wrote advising that the season could be saved with a second planting as normal rains have continued (normal – like in the tropics). Nancy wrote a grant to her Rotary District that was generously approved. We were able to send enough funding to provide replanting of fields, planting of fruit trees for improving their diet and to secure more erosion control. Other donations allowed the purchase of food as the price of red beans is escalating; another project will be determined by our partners after they revisit and assess the needs of the people. We will miss our annual visit with our project partners and the people we serve together. At every visit we are witness to the growth in each of their lives. I think there is a correlation between seeds and people. While created by God, both have boundaries and limitations. To grow, seeds need to be planted and rooted. God summons people to move into new areas of life, to experience different cultures and people to see a more balanced approach to our world’s population. You don’t need to live in another country, maybe just to visit another neighborhood in your city, visit an outdoor food court, listen attentively to learn what others are talking about, talk with them to find out what you have in common. Our culture may hinder us from immediately embracing others as they seem different but that openness is part of personal growth too. The summons that grows those minute seeds is at the door of all our hearts. Unlike seeds, we have choices to grow or stay in the package. But we as individuals who love justice and seek to show mercy, we can be the planter and gardener of those seeds.