Sowing the Seed

Luke 8:5-15
A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown. When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand." This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believed and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who heart, but as they go away on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.


This is of course true with all of those campers here this week. This is also true about ourselves. We need to ask ourselves where we see ourselves in this parable.

We are getting ready to leave for Krakow this morning. We'll be staying in another family's apartment in Krakow. I wanted to post the following before I left though! God blessed me with three students, Kasia, Marysia, Sylvia in my English group this week. Because they are well advanced in their English, it was easy for us to converse outside of class as well. Yesterday, Kasia and Marysia spent time with me teaching me Polish. Basic phrases and pronunciation. Although each letter makes only one sound (all the time) in Polish, their words are very long and have these accent marks that may change a sound. They also have some sounds that we don't have in English that make me feel so incredibly silly trying to practice it! I am of course a huge advocate for any person going into another country to try and learn their language. A) you appreciate the difficulty of other people learning English B) you gain/earn respect by the people C) you WILL learn something! We had fun...but I'm not sure how well I'll retain it!

Following our Polish lesson, I found Sylvia and we ended up talking about her life and her walk with God for long time. She's the most proficient of the three and wants to be a translator when she gets older. She's well on her way! We discovered that she and I were both at our first camp together up in Moshaki (spelling is wrong!) in 1998. She was 7 then! She's come ever since. She's grown up in the Catholic Church and has had a tough life, but has clung to her relationship with God. I look forward to watching her grow in faith and how she'll chose to let God use her. I've discovered that many of the counselors also began their faith's journey at a young age when they attended camp up in Moshaki in 1998. It made me feel really old, but incredibly honored that I was now seeing their lives being used by God. It was like me! I credit much of who I am due to my camp experiences at a small Bible camp in Iowa.... and because it had impacted my life so much, I wanted to give back and work there. It's just like these kids!

Have a great day!