Again, the season of fall is coming back. Fall
is supposed to be a harvesting season, and it seems to be especially true in
Iowa.
When I eat my favorite, pork belly or fresh
side pork, the Korean perilla (perilla leaf) is essential with lettuce. The
strong aroma from the leaf goes wonderfully with oily pork meat. But, it’s not
available at any nearby stores. So, I decided to grow it myself four years ago.
I bought the seeds for this plant but they failed to grow. The next year, I put the seeds in a Styrofoam
container and moved them to a small vegetable garden area in our backyard. For
the last three years of summer and fall, Miah and I have enjoyed this leaf
dearly.
This year, though, we rarely enjoyed it. This
was because I didn’t spend that much time pulling out weak plants to make good
ones grow well in the early spring. They were also neglected during our trip to
Germany this summer. I should have asked Grace and Solomon to water and take
care of them while we were gone. I feel sorry for our poor harvest this year,
but I learned a good lesson for next year!
In Korea, people compare farming to growing children. When we don’t pay
attention and take care, the result is that we will see a bad harvest and, in
the case of children, we will encounter lots of difficulties in our lives.
Now, our church year has just started. Like
the same way farming works, we need God’s help, such as rain and the sunshine,
that we cannot control. But there are still things on our side that we must try
to nurture our ministries. I will try my best again to nurture our music
ministries, and I would like to ask for your prayer and help. May God bless our
music ministries abundantly along with our other programs this year again!