We have been collecting seeds from just about every fruit and every vegetable we have eaten over the past several months, are drying them, and saving them to plant.....either here in the states, or in Uganda if the Lord opens those doors for us to move there. Things like bell pepper, tomato, apples, lemons, limes, squash, and more. Uganda has rich soil in a number of areas (Karamoja is far different....very dry and desert-like), and the temperature is mild and fairly consistent year round. The seeds would potentially do very well there.
They would be a great part of our agriculture and livestock program that we plan to develop once we are able to purchase the land. Funny thing, here at home we have planted some of the seeds and had scrawny looking plants produce some amazing vegetables! Through December and into January this little bell pepper plant keeps giving us amazing peppers! Our turnip greens just keep growing! With the economy today, and the cost of food, every little home grown thing we can pick off our plants is a blessing. Gardening, like most everything else we do, is alot like life. When we do something like this, work hard, tend life's garden, we get pretty pleased with ourselves. But then, we have those little plants, those things we work hard on, that never get past the scrawny stage.....they never develop......those are times when we are brought back to the fact that we can plant and water.....but God alone makes things grow. That's true with seeds, and that's true with plans, projects, and all areas of life....even seeds of ministry. Mercy Uganda is a seed that God placed in our hands, led us to plant and water it, be the best and most faithful gardeners we can be, and trust the growing seasons to Him. That is one hard lesson, and is one really hard part of gardening for a girl who is spending her life learning patience! This brought me to a verse in Habakkuk recently, one that I committed to memory because it summarizes where I our focus should be regardless of our circumstances.
The verse is
Habakkuk 3:17-19 and it goes like this:
"Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength, He will make my feet like deer's feet. He will make me stand on my High Places."
This verse is comforting to me in that it reminds me that it is not about me.....it reminds me that God is my Provider, and that I can trust Him even in times of want or need....especially in times of want or need. I must say that, compared to my dear friends in Uganda, I can't fully grasp want and need, but God is teaching me about it, and molding me into a more compassionate, merciful, and loving instrument of mercy than I was before. Thank you Lord for even the times when the storehouses are bare.....for then my eyes see more of You. I think in many ways the Ugandans have a better grasp of that than I do......perhaps, just perhaps they are ministering to me.
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