niwa

::: the japanese word for a house garden is niwa...we've done an exceptional job of making it an unkempt weed haven...for months, we've said no-way to the niwa...what a difference some guidance makes...today, eric, our mentor-colleague, came to the rescue...

...you might not believe this, but today was the first time -- for both of us -- that we did any kind of gardening (does mowing the lawn count?)...whew!...weeding is tough work...

...going fear factor with the fertilizer (is that show still on in the states? that tells you how far behind we are)...

...with the weeds gone, now we've got a harvest of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and peppers on the horizon (or, at least, that's the hope)...as eric and we planted the little cucumber plant...

...we placed a tall cylindrical thingee over it...

...i looked at eric and said, huh?...that little thing is going get this big?...as eric talked about investing presently in a plant's future, it served as a simple object lesson for us: namely, vision...juxtaposing the present (this small, supple cucumber sprout) with the future (a stalk four feet tall bearing lots of green) made us think about the value of vision, specifically as it relates to our vision-based church-planting work in japan...

...it's not gonna show up in a coffeetable book, but nonetheless we're proud of our little work-in-progress...if you visit, we'll try to toss a salad for you...

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