Sowing

"A sower went out to sow his seed...


...and that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and RICHES and PLEASURES of this life, and bring forth no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, KEEP it, and bring forth fruit with PATIENCE."

Luke 8:14-15

Here in Korea, older people enjoy having small garden plots where they can grow vegetables, especially cabbage and red pepper for kimchi! The problem is that Korea is so densely populated around Seoul there isn't much space for anything. The solution? Any space available anywhere is turned into a garden. Dad has always wanted to start a garden here, but we have only lived in Korea during the non-growing season. But, now that spring is here, Dad has jumped at the opportunity to start a patch. We staked out our claim down in the garden area beside our apartments and have begun to till the ground up, getting ready to plant all the vegetables Dad is buying. The older women working out there enjoy bossing us all around and telling us exactly how we are supposed to plan our garden.

So far, my funniest mistake in speaking Korean was when an older lady asked me what we were planting in our garden. The Korean word for potato is "gum-ja" and the word for cookie is "gwa-ja." So, I confidently told the lady, "We are growing cookies!" Needless to say, when I saw the look on her face, I knew something had come out wrong. Maybe now she understands why Americans are much larger than Koreans - we even know how to grow cookie trees!



Getting the ground ready. The ground is hard clay here; very different from Florida sand. Notice the high rise apartment buildings that surround the neighborhood gardens.





A neighbor