This week I did my chapel talk for my DTS. This is basically like a mini-sermon where I focus on an attribute of God. I chose to talk about God as a gardener...the ultimate gardener. I gave everyone paper and a marker (they could take more then one if they wanted) and told them I was going to read a Bible passage twice: John 15-17. The first time I asked them to just listen and the second time I would read a different version and asked them to draw what God was showing them. I also played some Jon Foreman solo music after that. This is the passage:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Then I started to share how God has been my Gardener. I talked about an experience where I was hurt deeply by a few friends and how through that God showed me that those friendships were not bearing fruit or if they were that it was bitter tasting fruit. Also that He wanted to prune that branch away so that new fruit may grow and be abundant. I also shared how for almost the entire time of me being here, God has given people pictures involving nature and plants related to me: a North American Willow about to bud, a field of flowers being cut away and regrowing so they covered the whole ground after, being the apple of God's eye, and God breaking up hard soil so that a new seedling and break through (to just name a few). As I was speaking God gave me words about how if we are to be God's branches we need to flexible. When a vine is growing it needs to be flexible so that is can be weaved through the lattice. It was really cool. I encouraged everyone to be flexible so that God can totally guide us and so that we can do whatever He calls us to.
The really cool thing about God leading me to share about how we all need to be flexible is that the next day Matty (my leader) asked us all to be flexible. Our first outreach location changed! We will be sending the first 5 1/2 weeks in the Kimberleys in Australia. We will be working in the Indigenous Australian population. I am soooo excited. I might have shed a tear or two when Matty told us. I am praising God for this opportunity. It will be such a blessing. We will no longer be going to East Timor, but will still go to the Philippines. We will also be pairing up with the Sport DTS for our time in the Kimberleys. It is so exciting. Keep us all in your prayers.
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