Avocado Dreams

My beloved avocado plant!

My fascination with growing an avocado plant from the seed began back in college.  With apartment mates who shared the same love of avocados as me, we attempted to grow our own.  We failed miserably by misreading some very important instructions we found online.  Later when I was teaching 1st grade, our science curriculum happened to teach about plants and so once again, I decided to give it a go.  This time I had better success and alas, out of the seed, sprouted a root and then a tiny stem reaching up to the sky.  It took over a month to see anything but as a class, we enjoyed the small payback of waiting!  At the end of the school year I had already decided I was going back to Ecuador and alas, nobody really wanted my sad looking avocado pit with roots hanging down and one leaf showing at the top.  Which brings us to now.  I have this avocado plant that I started growing from the pit back in September 2013, the last time I was in Ecuador.  I left Ecuador in November and asked my dear aunt to please take care of it for me until I returned.  My aunt tended my little plant and it continued to grow!  Then my aunt and her family were also headed to the states for furlough and my plant once again got passed off to another caretaker.  Upon returning to Ecuador in June, I was finally reunited with my beloved avocado plant.  My, how it had grown since those early stages of just the slightest hint of the pit cracking open to allow a root and stem to come out!  I've read online that in about 5 years it may start to produce fruit.  I don't really know if that's true or not, but I'm still excited about it. 

Ivan had to present the goals for YL Ecuador for the next 5 years at his last big leadership meeting in Colombia.  We have a long way to go in reaching those goals and there is a lot of work to do just like my avocado plant.  The needs in YL Ecuador are great.  It seems every conversation that I have with Ivan leads to a deeper understanding of how much there is to do!  This week, I learned a lot about the scholarship program called Developing Global Leaders (DGL) which helps Young Life leaders attend university and develop their leadership skills in Young Life at the same time.  We have one DGL student and another student in the application process.  I will be taking over as the main contact person for Ecuador with DGL and learning the ins and outs of the program to better assist our students and help it be a successful program in Ecuador. We have the cities of Quito and Guayaquil targeted to begin YL in the next 5 years.  Sometimes I feel like I am looking at that poor little avocado pit, with little sign of life...just waiting.  But what a beautiful reminder I now have on my front porch, that God is always at work.  As I look at my growing avocado plant and dream of the fruit it will one day produce, I also dream of the fruit that will be harvested here in Ecuador, through God´s grace as we respond to His call.

¨Whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.¨ Galatians 6:8-9