Harvest Time

Picture taken on 3 August 2008: It's harvest time.... For the first time, I had seen this Tembusu tree, Fagraea fragrans blossomed, full-bloomed, and now the first time, its FRUITS, berries, ripened, the whole tree FULL of fruits...

The Story of Unemployed Workers
Jesus often reminded people that God's kingdom is for those humble enough to accept God's kindness and love, even though they don't deserve it. No one can bargain with God or hope to earn a place in his kingdom.

There was once a man who went to the market place early one morning, to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them the regular wage of one silver coin for the day's work.

At nine o'clock, at noon, and at three, he went to the market again and hired more workers.

It was nearly five when he went for the last time. There were still some men standing around.

"Why have you done nothing all day?" he asked.

"Because no one has hired us," they said miserably.

"Then come and work in my vineyard," he told them.

When evening came, the owner instructed his foreman to pay all the workers, beginning with those hired last.

To their delight, the latecomers were given the full day's wage of a silver coin.

The men who had worked all day expected to get more, when their turn came. But every worker received the same.

"That's not fair!" the first workers grumbled. "We ought to get extra. We worked through the heat of the day, not like these lazy latecomers!"

"Listen, friends," the owner told them, "I have not cheated you. I have paid you what we agreed. It is for me to decide how I use my money. Are you jealous because I have been generous to the others?"

"In God's reckoning, the first often end up last and the last first," Jesus said at the end of the story.


These are the fruits of Tembusu Tree

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Revelation 21:6-8