“MISSIONARY EGGPLANT”

By: Reygen Mae Apla-on, 55th Batch of 1000 Missionary Movement, Assigned in South Korea

One thing about living as a missionary in Korea is the high cost of food, particularly my favorite vegetable, eggplant. I was surprised to see five pieces of eggplant for 200 pesos during the winter. So, after the winter, my partner and I decided to plant some vegetables in the church garden. I told her that we were going to plant eggplant. We bought some seedlings, planted the eggplant, and put in some fertilizer.

I used to visit our three eggplant seedlings every day, and I would sometimes talk to them about producing a lot of vegetables so that we could give them to our Filipino neighbors. And that we would be able to build friendships with them. Our eggplants were still small, despite the fact that spring has passed. Some church members would make fun of our tiny eggplants and tell us to uproot them so we could plant something else.

We truly feel sorry for the plant. I began praying for our eggplants, hoping that they would produce vegetables for us to share. Days and weeks have passed, and our three eggplants have not improved. Until, to our great surprise, our eggplants began to bloom and eventually produced a large number of vegetables.

Over the course of several weeks and months, our three eggplants produced more and more vegetables, far more than we could consume. Then I recall my prayer to share it with the Filipino moms. I harvested our eggplants and shared them, as well as English and Korean magazines.

Those Filipino mothers have now become our friends, and we have begun to share each other's blessings. God never left our tables empty; He always provided food and ensured that we were all taken care of. As we pray for food blessings, may we be prepared to share them with others when God grants our requests. And I know this is a very simple thing, but even the eggplant reminds us that God hears and answers our simple prayers.

-Chosen Vessel Korea, Maranatha

Download our free magazines