The lotus flower is a beautiful aquatic perennial grown in many parts of Asia. It is often used for medicinal purposes or used in cooking, baking and adding flavor.

At the annual conference in Creative Access Asia-VN, Superintendent Hien told a story of his fishpond where he now grows lotus plants. He shared this story to encourage, inspire and motivate our pastors in mission.

Small lotus plants or seedlings are purchased and planted in muddy water. As the plants grow, the seeds can be gathered and sold as a source of income, and the process repeats automatically with very little effort. One member of the church, a brother named Phuc, also had a pond. He noticed that Pastor Hien was growing lotus plants, and decided he too wanted to develop a small business growing lotus plants in his pond. Phuc asked Hien if he would give him some seedlings. Hien happily agreed to share and invited Phuc to go to his pond and gather some seedlings to plant.

A year passed, a second year passed, and in the third year Phuc was still talking about growing lotus in his pond, still talking about picking the lotus in Hien’s pond to transfer into his own. Finally Hien told Phuc:

Brother, you’ve been talking about growing lotus in your own pond for three years, but you have not done it. It would only take 30 minutes for you to gather seedlings and another 30 minutes to plant them in your own pond. If you do this, just invest one hour, a few months later you will have a full pond covered in lotus. You have the pond, you have the plan, you have the focus of attention, and you have the free seedlings from me. You just need to invest one hour. Three years of talking but doing nothing. Go today and pick the seedlings and put it in your pond, or will you talk for three more years with no lotus?

Phuc finally responded, and a few months later when Hein visited him, his pond was full, and seeds were already being sold for a small income.

The Father showed Hien that this is a beautiful illustration of the Kingdom. Father has already given us the seed, the field is there, we have good focus of attention, but if we don’t carry out the plan and just keep talking about it, there will be NO harvest. Furthermore, the lotus is a beautiful flower with a fragrant smell — like faith in Christ and the church, it may need to grow in the mud, but as we work together, we spread the beautiful aroma of Jesus all over the world.