Garden Delights

Yesterday I had opportunity to make a chapel talk. We rotate chapel talks through the kids and the Team members. I decided to talk a little about our garden, because we have been so delighted in how well it does. It makes me know that at Kamulu we are able to grow more food than our kids can eat. It's a matter of doing the farming right, and we will learn.

We have a young woman with a small boy whose husband left when trouble came who works as a gardener for us. Her little boy was born without a full urinary tract, so he has needed surgeries and therapy. A doctor whom Larry Conway knew has been wonderful to take care of him. Anyway, Nancy has done wonders with our garden. Only 6 tomato plants are making all the tomatoes we can eat, and about 200 plants will soon produce. We have 7 short rows of pole beans, and every other day we get about 15 pounds of green beans. So we have been feeding green beans to the girls and the boys and the Team members and for lunch at our cafeteria.

Back to the chapel talk. We sometimes have kids who have reasons to give up - school is hard, another student yells, they make mistakes, they have to keep to the schedule. So I talked about "burnout" in business and professions. Then I talked about how beans can give and give and give (we've picked our beans 12 times already) and still, at the end, they produce as many dry beans as they would have if we never picked them. God made the bean, and it turned out really good. I told them that when they produce for God, He will pick and pick from them and use it for good, and they never have to give up. And at the end God will take what they have left and it will be good.

Then we had a short Team meeting. Francis had been to a leadership conference, and one of the things he wants to talk to the team about is the ability to keep on going with joy and dedication without losing desire and quality work. The ability to renew self in spirit so that you can go.

So, here is to a life without burnout, a life that keeps on giving, a life propped up by God's own energy!