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A QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER FOR OUR FAITHFUL PATRONS · ISSUE NO.3 |
The‘Cow-Patty’ Kid
A Seed Growing Story
| HAITI–When a seed
is planted, the outcome of the harvest may not always be what we expect.
Sometimes, the outcome is far more than what we planted for or even dreamed
of. One such harvest story comes from Cap- Haitian, Haiti. Hope Seeds is
privileged to have Family Life Outreach (FLO) as a strategic partner in
northern Haiti. A garden named "Hope Outreach Garden," has been established
on the FLO property near Cap- Haitian. The master gardener for this garden
is a Haitian man named Isaac. Isaac is a dedicated Christian worker with a
passion for evangelism and gardening. Isaac’s gardening efforts, and small
crew, are very encouraging to all of us not only because of the good produce
he grows or the way he cares for the land, but also for the witness of faith
he shares with everyone who comes in contact with him and the garden.
Living in close proximity to the Hope Outreach Garden is a young Haitian boy whose family is extremely poor. So poor that they cannot afford to send him to school—which happens to be very close to the garden. Most schools are privately run Christian facilities, for there are very few public schools. . |
The schools charge a
minimal amount, but even these low fares are too much for the very poor.
School was in session which made Isaac ask the boy, "why aren’t you in
school?" The young boy told Isaac that his family did not have the money to
send him to school. With a growing concern for the young boy, Isaac asked if
he wanted to be in school. To enrich the garden soil, cow manure is added to
the compost beds. This process is a very important part of growing good
crops, but it is very time consuming because, in Haiti, cows are tethered in
different areas each day by individual farmers. Isaac proposed to the boy
that if he were to collect a bushel full of dried cow manure each day, the
expense for attending school would be paid. The boy readily agreed to
Isaac’s proposal. That is how this young boy has come to be known as the
‘cow-patty’ kid. The seeds planted in the garden at Cap-Haitian are growing
and are leading to a harvest. They are nourished by the efforts of a young
man, encouraged by a Christian worker named Isaac and are made possible by
seeds sent by Hope Seeds.
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The seeds planted in the garden at
Cap-Haitian |
Seeds Sent to Afghanistan
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Twenty-six thousand seed packets were sent from Hope Seeds to Afghanistan via Global Hope Network on June 26, 2002. The seed sent was part of a container of relief materials with a final destination of Kábul, Afghanistan. International Distribution Systems is the organization handling the shipment for Global Hope Network, which is governed and supported by many Christians and businesses around the United States. The entire shipment is guarded and secured the entire way to its final destination in Afghanistan with every effort made to get the relief items hand delivered to those who need it. The seed varieties sent are very popular in the culture of the Afghan people: cabbage, mustard greens, turnip, beets, carrot, pepper, cilantro, okra, tomato and squash. There will be some follow-up in the months ahead to verify the delivery and usefulness of this work. |
Several more opportunities are approaching in the months ahead for Hope Seeds to send further seed shipments to Afghanistan and work with partners. We ask for your prayerful support. |
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"A real friend is
one who takes the hand of his friend in times of distress and helplessness." |
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Seeds Sent to Malawi
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We recently received a call from Jim Locher of Urbana, Illinois, regarding seed for Malawi. Malawi, located in southern Africa, is suffering a very severe drought along with food shortages brought on by political stress. Malawi culture, historically, does not include the gardening of vegetables but there is a newfound interest from church leaders in the area to develop a nutritional food resource which can be sustained by small land holders. We have sent samples of many varieties of tomato, cabbage, greens, sweet pepper and other garden items with Jim–who is on his way to Malawi to set up test garden sites. We look forward to hearing about his trip. |
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Seeds Sent to La Gonâve
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Each year we receive support checks from Mattituck Presbyterian Church in Long Island, New York. These checks are for vegetable seeds suitable for the island of La Gonâve, which is near Haiti’s capital city Port-au-Prince. The seeds we send them are important for the feeding of Christian families who live in desperate circumstances. The economy of Haiti is terrible, and the district of La Gonâve is the poorest of all districts. The seeds sent by Mattituck, and its prayerful support, are very much appreciated. Seeds sent to different areas of the World are examples of how we do the work of Hope Seeds. However, we cannot possibly do this by ourselves. |
We must have partners with willing
feet and hearts, persons and churches who recognize the potential of each
seed that gets planted. We invite you to investigate how you can use the
power of seed in your own mission work. We solicit your support of what we
do to make these seeds available.
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The Teaching Garden
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Each year we receive support checks from Mattituck Presbyterian Church in Long Island, New York. These checks are for vegetable seeds suitable for the island of La Gonâve, which is near Haiti’s capital city Port-au-Prince. The seeds we send them are important for the feeding of Christian families who live in desperate circumstances. The economy of Haiti is terrible, and the district of La Gonâve is the poorest of all districts. The seeds sent by Mattituck, and its prayerful support, are very much appreciated. Seeds sent to different areas of the World are examples of how we do the work of Hope Seeds. However, we cannot possibly do this by ourselves. We must have partners with willing feet and hearts, persons and churches who recognize the potential of each seed that gets planted. We invite you to investigate how you can use the power of seed in your own mission work. We solicit your support of what we do to make these seeds available. |
 Winged Bean (psophocarpus tetragonolbus) |
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The Message of Hope |
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For much of the World, hope is a fleeting thing. As Christians, we have a certain hope resulting from our faith in Jesus Christ as the only source of our eternal salvation. The joy from this hope compels us to do works of faith. The work of Hope Seeds is motivated by this faith. With every shipment, we strive to make this known to our mission partners and the recipients. We also recognize that seeds are the ‘foot-in-the-door’ we possess for mission work. Our Creator, the first Gardener, desires for us to take the message of hope to his entire creation. For these reasons, we have been busy building a tract that is titled "The Message of Hope". Our intentions are to use every opportunity to tell the story of hope with each and every shipment of supplies, with each of our partners and to all recipients. We intend to have "The Message of Hope" translated into Spanish, French, Kreol, and other languages in the future. Now we can more efficiently tell the story of hope with every seed, mission trip and gardening seminar. We ask for your continued financial support that this tract may accomplish the work it is intended to do—to increase the harvest! Please contact us if you desire to have a copy sent to you or a friend. |
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Oh, if Plants could talk, the stories they could tell.
| The words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, specifically chapter 13 verses 24 through 29, tell us a parable about tares (bearded darnel, a weed which resembles wheat). There we read the familiar story about a man who sowed good seed in his field but was later visited by an enemy who came and sowed weed seed, or tares, among the wheat. It is essential to remember that God fashioned a wonderful World. Nevertheless, every generation has seen the terrible deeds of sinful mankind upon this World. Sin, and its consequences, has been with us since the days of Adam and Eve in the beginning. |
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The parable of the tares and the wheat tell us that good seed had been sowed in that man’s field. Plants of wheat and bearded darnel closely resemble each other, thus making it difficult to pull ‘weeds’ without pulling the immature wheat. It is when plants go to ‘ear’, or form grain, that the difference becomes apparent. That is why Jesus stated that both are better left to grow together until the harvest, at which point they can then be separated. Bearded darnel is a disliked weed in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and, even, in England. The seed of the bearded darnel matures about the same time as the wheat grown in those areas, yet has a smaller grain size and a differently shaped grain head. Fortunately, the trained eye of the farmer is capable of telling the difference between them at the time of harvest. If the darnel seed is mixed with the grain of wheat and consumed in products such as flour, severe dizziness and vomiting can result and in some cases even death. This undesirable trait results from a fungus which may reside in the seed coat of the bearded darnel. In sowing the tare seed, the enemy caused more than just mischief. The result would be an economic strain on the farmer. Perhaps, the intent was far more sinister, since eating of this mixed grain could cause serious illness or death. Our Lord spoke in parables because they related so well to the understanding and perspective of an agricultural people, a people who lived for daily bread. Jesus’ words would create discussion and thought amongst the people. Today, His words still cause discussion. The evil surrounding us today is the same evil that was present among those who heard Jesus speak this parable. Our hope is also the same, faith in Jesus for Eternal Life. |
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 Sudanese refuge children Mike Mueller teaches at an in Northern Kenya enjoying agricultural seed seminar in their new T-Top Totebags. Les Cayes, Haiti. |
This month marks the one-year anniversary of the September 11th tragedy.
We have all witnessed the ‘war-on-terror’ and are continuing to see more
violence unfolding in the middle east. We have seen changes in our business
world, and how greed and deceit crumble large corporations. We have seen our
financial security flutter away like many sparrows, as stock values fade. Do
we look for someone to blame? Or, do we depend on the trained eye of Jesus
and the angels he directs? The parable of the tares and the wheat
demonstrates that Jesus will direct the judgment, or the separation of
tares from the wheat. The faith we hold secure enables us to recognize evil
and its consequences, and to view the wonder and excitement of a pending
harvest. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matthew 13:43) |
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Water the Garden |
