Fruit

 Dave's tomato plants have begun to produce fruit, and as the sun warms thier green skin they are slowly turning red.  It's nice to see something happen after all the time and diligent care we have given these little plants.  Yesterday I saw fruit in two other areas as well, both in our son and literacy class.  

Every Friday morning we have intercession and worship time, which is a time for all the staff, both those those who live on-base and everyone who lives here to all get together and pray together, then spend time singing worship songs together.  It's one of my favorite parts about being part of this YWAM family.  Yesterday we all took names out of a hat and spent our intercession time praying for that specific person and writing down words of encouragement for them.  Z was sitting with one of the staff girls, Claire, and they were working together to write down some Bible verses for another staff guy.  When they were done they brought it to him, then Claire when to pray for someone else.  I looked over just in time to see Z take the guy's hand and say, "come with me, I have to pray for you."  Then Z prayed for him, all by himself, without no one telling him to.  I started crying, I was so overwhelmed to see my son's confidence in praying for others. 

The second fruit of the day was given to me through a boy named Miguel, who is a 12 year old that attends literacy class.  His mother brought him to is two months ago because he had been kicked out of school by his teacher.  Miguel cried every day at school, and even for the first few classed at our school his mom had to stay with him because he was so anxious and would cry.  His teacher had declared him to have special needs and told his mother he was impossible to teach.  Eloisa and I have enjoyed having him in the class regardless, and he has gained the confidence to attend class alone and joke around with the other students.  Then yesterday, after two months of classes under the care of two patient teachers... 

Miguel read me a book!!!  

It was an easy reader about a bird that flies south for the winter.  He started out slowly, but in the course of just that one book he started to have an easier time recognizing words and was reading quicker.  I praised him when he finished reading the book, and he beamed at me.  I could see his confidence skyrocket trough the ceiling.  He can read!  

I looked up from reading with Miguel and suddenly realized that three of the girls where all reading books for the first time too!  Again, my eyes stung with tears... These kids will have a completely different future now, they can read and pursue  whatever else they want to do with their lives!  

We will be giving these kids Bibles to take home and practice reading.  The gospel is going into homes where it has never been accessible before, and we have been teaching these students about Jesus every class.  I will be leaving on Outreach with the DTS students from the base in a couple weeks, so I won't see this class graduate... But the seed has produced fruit, and that fruit won't stop here!  Praise God!  

We don't always get to see fruit from the work that we do.... But I thank God for those moments of breakthrough.  Watching God change lives never gets old!