During our sweltering and arid summer, I bought some fruit tree seedlings a few months ago to plant in our backyard. The extreme heat and dry, rock-hard soil made digging holes harder than I initially thought it would be, taking around one hour to dig a single, small hole.

By this time, I was a little disappointed and thought the plants would not last long. It took me several weeks to plant the 20 trees, and there were moments when I thought I could not dig all the holes in my land. It was a laborious and challenging task to finish. Some of my tools bent or broke in that hard ground.

Once the trees were planted, I spent time nurturing them each day, watering them twice to prevent them from dying. I could see their struggle to stay alive, trying to absorb every drop of water before the sun evaporated everything. Their struggle continued until the rainy season began, when the heat decreased, and an abundance of rain fell each day, bringing a new worry over an excess of water.

To my surprise, the hard, dry soil, which had looked infertile, became soft and extremely fertile in a matter of days. The trees and the bushes I planted around them started to grow quickly. Some places in our backyard that didn’t have a single plant before were now luxurious pockets of greenery. The trees have more than doubled in size, and some are already bearing fruit, much to the delight of our son, who most enjoys watching their development.

Watching the change in our backyard from hard, dry, barren and lifeless land to an abundant and rich garden has given us much to consider as we spend time among our Asian friends and neighbors. Most people here have never heard about God, and the task does, in fact, resemble the hard, dry land in my yard. It is an area almost impossible to penetrate with the love and truth about God.

Our trees took continual care and daily watering while our land was ready and waiting for the showers to arrive, revealing life and growth and bringing forth fruit. I pray the same results can happen with the people here, that when they hear the gospel, their hearts will open to the Holy Spirit and that He will cultivate the hard, dry soil of their hearts, turning each into a rich source of life, spreading to all around them and bearing much fruit.

Please keep us and the Central Thai people in your prayers.

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