Teacher Conference - and thoughts on pruning

Our team at Eileen and Ganga's home at the end of our music teacher conference/retreat!

Hello, CHI family! Jessi (Creative Programs) here. I just got back from Nepal a few weeks ago where we had our annual music teacher conference/retreat. We had a wonderful time at Eileen and Ganga’s home in Kathmandu, our days filled with delicious food, sweet times of fellowship, sharpening times of music teacher training, and many games of Uno! 

In one of our morning times of worship and fellowship, John 15 was a passage we reflected on. We were meditating on abiding in God’s love as the true source of all our fruitfulness. In the course of the discussion, the conversation turned to the following verses - “I [Jesus] am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2, NIV). 

A plant from the National Botanical Garden in Godawari (Lalitpur, Nepal)

During this time together, Eileen, Ganga, and I shared examples of pruning from our lives. Eileen talked about being forced to leave our partner school in Darjeeling due to violence in the area (you can read more about that here). Ganga recalled having to leave the life and career he had built in England to start again in Nepal. I shared about leaving a teaching environment that I loved when it became impossible to stay. These experiences were confusing and painful for us when they occurred. However, it was sweet to reflect on those times with each other at the teachers conference - because if none of those events had happened, we wouldn’t have been in Nepal together now! God wove those confusing times and closed doors into His plan for our lives, using them to bring us deeper into His purposes. 

Eileen, myself, and Prasansha (our partner school mentor) outside at Eileen's cafe!

This past week I did some more research on pruning (not being a gardener myself). I watched a video from the Huntington Gardens here in Southern California in which their head gardener cut back a rose plant with flowers to what looked like a bunch of sticks! When he was done, there were no flowers or leaves remaining - the plant looked rather ugly, and maybe even dead. The gardener mentioned that pruning a plant can be emotional for some people, because all the beauty is being removed and it can even look like you're hurting the plant. However, he was adamant that this was for the health of the plant, and that pruning allowed for energy to revitalize the plant so it could grow to be even more lovely. The leaves and flowers weren’t gone forever - they would actually return in a greater abundance. 

I’ve been reflecting on how a gardener is close to the plant when he prunes it - he studies the plant, cutting it in a way so that air flow can move freely between the branches and the future blooms. The Lord is so close when He prunes our lives, with an intimate knowledge of what should stay and what should not. His pruning is evidence of His kindness and His nearness. In the video from the Huntington Gardens, the head gardener also spoke about “deadheading” roses. In that process, the dying flower is cut off so that energy will stop going to that part of the plant and will instead go toward creating new life in other parts of the plant. It reminds me that God is kind to remove what is draining our energy, directing it instead to where He is growing new life.

The following song by Emmy Rose is encouraging me to surrender to God's processes in my life, and I hope it blesses you, too!

In the landscape of my life

You don’t rush through any season

You always take Your time

A careful hand, a gentle guide

You take what’s dead away

And You prune what’s running wild

So be the gardener of my heart

Tend the soil of my soul

Break up the fallow ground

Cut back the overgrown

And I won’t shy away

I will let the branches fall

So what You want can stay

And what You love can grow