We started The Seed Project last year. This initiative was born out of a desire to share the gospel with every person in our hometown.
In addition to the larger scale evangelism we do, like speaking at conferences or churches and hosting massive, city-wide events and outreaches, we had a burden to make a personal connection with people who are, literally, our neighbors. People we share a city with, an apartment building with, ride on buses with, and shop alongside at the grocery store.
When we moved here, we didn’t know one other person in our town who was an evangelical Christian. So, we asked the Lord how to share the gospel with every single person. He answered us with a brilliant idea: use a flower to preach the gospel.
The Swiss people love flowers, but flowers aren’t cheap here, so it’s a nice gift. And the flower is a great analogy of Jesus—the seed is buried, dies, and then rises and blooms. We hand out flowers, each in a beautiful pot with a card that invites the recipient to visit our website and read the gospel message. Occasionally God sets divine appointments, and we’re able to connect with people in person, but generally we just leave the flower on the front step as a gift. It was the perfect way to reach people who’ve never really heard the good news about Jesus in a kind and non-intrusive way.
Since starting this initiative, we’ve reached all of the homes in our hometown of Seegräben, Switzerland. We’ve seen salvations, prayed for people, made friends, and had people we’ve met to our home for dinner. We still see pots in window sills, in gardens, and on porches. We’re now about 15% of the way through our neighboring town, Wetzikon, Switzerland, with a population of 24,513.
This month, our team of four passed out 100 flowers in Wetzikon. We were able to meet several people in person, pray for healing, share the gospel, and make plans for meetups to fulfill prayer needs. The analytics on The Seed Project website tell an interesting story. Twenty-four hours after handing out flowers this month, we had 280 unique visitors to the website. This is about the norm; we tend to get about three visits per flower handed out. We received one email from a man who accepted Jesus and notes of encouragement and thanks.
We may not see salvations every single time we pass out flowers, but a spiritual seed is planted. Sometimes, we get to water that seed. Other times, we trust God to send others to come along and water it. In eternity, we’ll all celebrate the harvest.
Warmly,
Shawn
