Who pulled the Weeds?
Jewell Parrilla

The deacon Mthombeni was sick as was his wife and five children. And Deacon Mthombeni was worried, "He had taken sick just as the maize was pushing its fresh verdant head above the fertile, dark, sod. The plants had grown luxuriantly in the lush tropical African environment. But if the weeds were not pulled soon the plants would die, and he and his family would starve. To ask the neighbors to help was unthinkable, they had as much as they could handle with their own fields. Deacon Mtombeni dropped his head and poured out his worries to God, "Dear God," he prayed, " My fields need to be weeded, please give me the strength to do it. You have promised to rebuke the devourer, if we pay a faithful tithe, up until now we have faithfully kept our part of that contract. If it is your will please save our farm."
Deacon Mtombeni's neighbors had been looking at his fields and they had also worried. They had watched the weeds grow taller each day, but they could not afford to take time off from their own work to hoe and till the deacons farm. Then, one day, the neighbors looked, and blinked and looked again— the weeds were gone! Maize, once overgrown with weeds, stood tall waving in the air. They looked at each other, bewildered.