{"id":765,"date":"2013-03-07T08:41:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T12:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-ketcham\/?p=765"},"modified":"2013-03-07T08:41:06","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T12:41:06","slug":"the-vine-branches-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/2013\/03\/07\/the-vine-branches-fruit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vine, Branches & Fruit"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have a maracuja (passion fruit) vine growing beside our house.\u00a0 Our family doesn’t always agree on the kinds of juices we like, but the maracuja is one that we all like.\u00a0 And the vine and flowers are actually really pretty.<\/p>\n

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Our growing maracuja vine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week Josiah is learning John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches.\u00a0 He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”\u00a0 And I’ve been thinking about things….<\/p>\n

Sometimes I wish I was the pretty flower…you know, the missionary that is in the tribe that can write home and say ‘today 20 tribal people got saved!’.\u00a0 Everyone sees that as ‘beautiful’ (and rightly so!).<\/p>\n

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Maracuja flower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
But I don’t get to say that.\u00a0 I’m the missionary that works at a boarding school for MKs.\u00a0 And not only that, but most of my work is ‘behind the scenes’ kind of stuff….office work, buying food & supplies, taking care of the dentist that comes out to the school and other random (but needed) things.\u00a0 Not at all glamorous.\u00a0 So sometimes I feel like I’m just one of the very small branches that goes unnoticed.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Small branches on the maracuja vine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
And sometimes it’s tempting to try to make our ministry more glamorous.\u00a0 But that’s not what God has called us to.\u00a0 He just wants us to obey and give Him glory.\u00a0 So I do my best.\u00a0 I make mistakes all the time, but I know I’m forgiven.\u00a0 Then I try again.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 There’s fruit.\u00a0 Fruit in my life and fruit from this ministry that isn’t the ‘flower.’\u00a0 Most of the foreign missionaries that are in Brazil (tribal or otherwise), are MKs that lived and grew up here at PQQ.\u00a0 Not all of them, but a good number.\u00a0 This school, the people who minister here…it has a purpose.\u00a0 And I feel blessed to be even a small part of it.<\/div>\n
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Maracuja fruit<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

P.S. I know a flower is not a fruit and is not mentioned in\u00a0Scripture, but somehow this verse and seeing this plant right outside my house\u00a0had an impact on me.\u00a0I realize that\u00a0the\u00a0‘fruit’ is what would be produced in both cases.\u00a0\u00a0But I wanted to use the flower for the point of sometimes\u00a0some fruits are seen as more important\/beautiful.\u00a0 Anyway,\u00a0I just wanted to share what I was thinking. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Have a lovely day in the Lord!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have a maracuja (passion fruit) vine growing beside our house.\u00a0 Our family doesn’t always agree on the kinds of juices we like, but the maracuja is one that we all like.\u00a0 And the vine and flowers are actually really pretty. This week Josiah is learning John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":464,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/angela-ketcham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}