By Kat Silverglate, Founder [Copyright 2020]

I don’t know how old we were. My older sister and me. Maybe seven and six? Beach girls who went to stay periodically with our grandparents in the foothills of the Georgia mountains, we weren’t too tuned in to country life – not yet.

 Anyway, we came running into the house one summer day, our pockets stuffed and our hands overflowing with what we thought were “beads” mixed with red Georgia clay.

“Look Grandma. Look what we found outside.” Up we held our bounty, gorgeous blue seeds old man Darnell had just spent countless hours planting along carefully plowed rows.  He was our grandparent’s neighbor. 

 “Aren’t these beads so pretty? They were all over the ground.”

To us, they were treasures just waiting to be plucked. To Grandma, they were our next lesson.

 “Girls, those aren’t beads. They’re seeds. Now you two go be farmers and plant those little treasurers back in Mr. Darnell’s garden, you hear me?”

“Yes ma’am,” we yelled as we ran out the door dribbling beautiful seeds every place we stepped.

I’d give just about anything right now to hear the conversation she must have had with farmer Darnell that day. As much fun as we had gathering those seeds, we had more pretending to be farmers, placing each one carefully back in the soil. It was exciting to know that eventually something might grow there. Something that would bear fruit.

As I was putting this month’s mission idea together, a friend of mine called me about a family in our local area.  All the kids go to school. The mom works.  But suddenly they find themselves living out of their car.  All of them.  It’s obvious that that life has taken a very tough turn for this family. 

“Maybe you can make this family the focus of February’s Ridiculous Hour mission?“ she suggested.

 “Well, tell me what’s happened so far with this family,” I asked.

“Let’s see,” she said as she put her right index finger on her left one “First, we got them connected to the food pantry at our church. So, they have access to food. And then, we gave them the name of a local ministry that gives counseling to families.”

“Wow. That’s awesome,” I said.  Then she put that index finger on her next finger, and kept going. 

“And then someone suggested they meet the pastor from….” and then she identified a local church.

On and on she went describing the seeds that fed the needs of this family and how they had been offered. It was amazing. This skilled farmer had picked up all the healthy ‘seeds’ she could find already on the ground around her and she found a way to plant them in the soil of this hurting family. Think about that.   

She and others essentially made what I would now call a seed packet for them by assembling existing resources. Resources that God had planted and watered and grown over time so that they would be ready for the next one in need. And the next one, and then the next one after that. 

 She didn’t reinvent the wheel or start her own ministry or make it more complicated than it needed to be.  She picked up what God had already placed around her.  Strategically placed around her, I would say.  Don’t you love how aware she is of the resources already around her?

So, in your mobile mission pack this month, you’ll find a little vellum envelope. That’s your seed pack to fill.  If you open it up right now, you’ll find a surprise in there.  It’s a business size card with a word of encouragement on it.  It’s your first seed to give away.  To someone who needs encouragement. Maybe you need it. Maybe it’s for you.  Keep it then.

The challenge this month is to spend some time thinking and praying about some of the healthy resources around us for some of the needs that we can probably guess will come up again and again. Gather or make cards that reflect those resources and put them in your seed pack. Keep your pack in your car, purse or wallet so that you’ll be ready to sling a seed when God shows you a need and nudges you to respond. Keep the vellum envelope to fill again and again or find something else that works for you. Make it your own.

Need some examples to get you going?  I’ll bet you dollars to donuts we’ll all meet someone in the next few weeks who is grieving. I’m preparing this mission pack six weeks after my own mom died. Because someone gave me a grief resource many years ago, I’m being blessed by a grief group at a church I don’t attend. That seed, slung my way a loooonnnng time ago, is feeding my need BIG TIME all these years later. Why not begin your ‘seed pack’ with some kind of grief resource. A book, a sermon, an organization. Check it out first. Vet it.  Make sure it is sound.  Go slow.  Then add it to your pack.

What about food insecurity? The scriptures say, there will always be the poor among us.  Matthew 26:11.  Is there a food pantry in your area? Are you passing the same homeless couple week after week on that street corner thinking, how much more can I give them? What difference is this making long term? If God tells us we all need more than daily physical bread, then they need it too! Is the local food pantry pointing toward resources that feed deeper needs? Are they addressing the deeper spiritual need for the Bread of Life that never leaves us hungry again?

What if you get some food pantry cards for your pack and add cards with service times for your local congregation so that the recipient can get physical bread and spiritual bread?  You get the idea. 

Maybe you are a pastor or you’d like to do this with a group.  I did this with a local congregation many years ago.  The sermon was called “Seeds for the Blind Farmer,” and each attendee left with a pre-seeded pack.  Each card in the pack represented a different ministry in the church…  Recovery Groups, Youth Group, Men’s Groups, Women’s Groups, Weekly Service Times, each small group and the topic they were discussing with info on “how to learn more,” etc.  All in attendance received a seed pack with instructions similar to these:

“Keep them in your car. Your purse. Your wallet. When someone starts talking and that little bell goes off – we already have what they say they need -- give them that seed from your seed packet. Give them the seed that feeds the need they are expressing. And remember, your job isn’t to judge the soil by deciding whether it will grow there or when it may grow. Your job is to sling it when God nudges you to seed a need HE has put directly in YOUR path.”

As with all our mission packs, pray over the message.  Set it aside till you’re ready. Let it sit like a seed in your heart. It may hit you a year from now or next week.  These mission packs are seeds.  If this one just isn’t your thing or you know someone who would love this, consider giving it away or asking us to send them one too. We only ask that you don’t toss it and please don’t copy it without our permission.

You may be a cook or a designer or a lawyer, or as my mom would say, a matchstick maker.  You may be a son or daughter or parent or grandparent.  You may be many of these things, but don’t forget,  

in God’s hands,

we are meant to be farmers.

And farmers have seeds. 

Are yours ready to sling?

We can’t wait to see what God does with this mission.  And we never get tired of hearing your stories of how you responded or were moved.  Our story link is open 24/7 at theridiculoushour.com.