To Be A Gardener

We are officially entering the summer season now. Schools let out - schedules change. Many vacations will begin.


I just want to tell everybody how well the NN team is doing. We had our third meeting last week. A Nativity parishioner, who is a nurse, spoke to us about how to take preventative measures against contracting illnesses such as HIV, malaria or tuberculosis. In general theses measures are the same that we take here in the U.S. - and it is all about good hygiene. A very good point the nurse made was that we need to realize that we can make others sick when we visit another country. Their systems do not have strong enough immunities to ward off our diseases.


I hope people will keep wanting to read this blog as our team meets and plans for this summer's trip to Nigeria. It is an exciting time for us and I hope you will want to share it with us.


The Church of the Nativity has inspired me. Stories of Sr. Oresoa have inspired me and Dr. Chris's story has inspired me. For me, a picture has been painted by our Church over the past year. Really - so much clarity has come to me ever since I first attended The Church of the Nativity which was @ 3 and 1/2 years ago. For me, the picture is about a mission - the mission of Jesus Christ. In a passage in one of her books, author Laurie Beth Jones states about Jesus, "Everything He did made a statement about what He saw His mission to be. He did not wait until He had the total picture. He did not wait until there was a cloudless sky... He took the canvas of his life and painted a message big enough, bold enough and bright enough for everyone to see."


Summer has always been my favorite season. The cookouts, the pools, the celebrations, the beach and getting to spend the extra time with my children. I know what I want to do this summer. I want to be a gardener this summer. No, not a gardener of flowers ( believe me, you wouldn't want to see my house's garden this summer). I want to sow seeds of another kind. Our team will be thanked so much by the Nigerian people. We will be thanked so much by our church's parishioners. But what I know from my experience of last summer - we will get back so much more than we could ever give. I realize now that what we did give, were tiny seeds that we had sown for love to be shown to the communities of the Anawim Home and Faith Alive. Last summer, our team had hoped the interest in this ministry would thrive in our church. This summer, I want my mission to be to keep planting tiny seeds,while also having the courage to paint a very bold picture - just like our church has done. You never know what will take hold and grow.

Gardener

by Ann North

Some of the seeds of hope

Planted tentatively in the fall

Have not come up

They lie stillborn and unrealized
Somewhere in the spring soil

Decaying

The strongest and best ones

Pushed up through leaves

And layers of cold, hard resistance

Right into clear blue air

And stand there nakedly green

Breathing

It's always that way with growing things

Never knowing at the start

Which will make it and which will fail

But the thing to hold fast to

Never to lose faith in

Is simply

Sowing

Teresa Pompa