A single sedge “nut” or seed somehow finds a favorable enough environment to take root in the not so plant-friendly beach sand. Soon it sends up more shoots, and eventually more sand is blown into the clump and is trapped there. A small dune begins to form around the sedge. It now has its own little micro-environment that is a little less harsh and barren than what is around it. The soil scientist in me suspects that a soil will begin to form within the miniature dune. Eventually a seed or piece of this sedge dropped by a bird may end up nearby, and if conditions are right, this process will start all over again.
Like a military unit, the sedge has set up a beachhead. It will be able to expand out from here, causing the dunelet to grow and eventually be colonized by other plants.
Missionary work is like that. We start out with a small group of believers and as people find a favorable environment within this mini-church, it begins to grow. Eventually, people go out from these churches to begin new ones.
That is the situation in Thailand now. There are not many churches in the country, though some areas or people groups might have many. But people are beginning to go out from these churches to begin new ones. Pray that the lives of these young plants won’t be snuffed out by the sand and surf around them, but rather, that they would find small areas of good soil on the beach from which to begin transforming the landscape.
Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Matthew 13:8 (ESV)
Really great analogy! Good encouragement... I pray God will remind you (and us) of it when needed.
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