Traveling by plane instead of by road can feel like being uprooted and replanted overnight. One moment, you are navigating a swirling snowstorm in an airport parking lot, suitcase filled with summer clothes and a wide-brimmed hat, shivering as you rush to catch the "Park 'n Jet" shuttle. Hours later, you step off the plane into a world of warmth and color, where the air is thick with humidity and the ground pulses with life. The transition is jarring yet exhilarating.
Many winter-weary Canadians plan an annual spring break escape—though "spring" feels like a misnomer when the landscape remains frozen, the trees stand bare, and the promise of life is still buried beneath layers of ice and snow. We leave behind a world devoid of color, wondering if the land will ever awaken and the crocuses will bravely bloom again.
Some, however, travel with a mission beyond leisure, venturing away from the resorts and immersing themselves in the land and the culture. These journeys stretch and reshape perspectives, making home feel at once familiar and foreign upon return. Such was my experience in Sao Paulo state on our recent Imaginal Teacher Training expedition. With 350 eager participants, the land and the people wove together an image of immense growth—one that continues to take root in my mind.
Our host, Jorge Nishimura, explained to me that the soil in Brazil’s southern region is rich in nutrients and suitable for a variety of crops from melons to sugar to soy to coffee, with some crops, like corn, capable of sustaining multiple harvests per year! He told me that this soil is “young” and “newer”, and since my background is in the humanities and not sciences, I took his word for it. Anyway, I liked the analogy as I mulled it over; I may not know about the ages of soil types, but I understand sustenance, sowing seeds and reaping harvests. I understand the process of growth, and that growth isn’t just about the seed - it’s about where it lands.
It became obvious that favourable seed had found its way to Pompeia years before me. As we entered the town, a massive billboard appeared featuring a photo of Tom Rudmik, announcing the March 13-15 “Imaginal Teachers Training” event hosted by the Shunji Nishimura Foundation and Brazil’s Imaginal Transformation Center. Suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about soil anymore; I was thinking about the presentations we’d rehearsed in preparation for the 350 or more teachers who would be attending the sold-out conference. Who would be coming, and from where? Why were they coming? Were we fully prepared, and would we be able to give them what they were looking for?
When we stepped into the conference hall, the energy was palpable. These weren’t just educators attending another professional development session—they were “farmers”, arriving with open hands and expectant hearts, ready to cultivate something new, trusting the process. Day one training challenged them to rethink the culture of their classrooms, and to create environments where students could take risks and flourish. Through visual journals created collaboratively, they mapped out their learning, digging deep to unearth old habits, pulling at the weeds, and planting fresh ideas in their place. They were ready for the kind of transformation we were bringing.
As our training continued through further Profound Learning Elements such as brain-based learning, methods of mastery, and personalized learning, teachers embraced every journal task with increasing energy and enthusiasm, happy to wait for the microphone to make it to their table so that they could share their epiphanies. They developed metaphors and images to reflect the learning they wanted to see in their schools - the transformation they came here to experience. Themes of growth and expansion emerged in the gallery we created to showcase their representations. While I, a thick-blooded Canadian, was nearly melting from the sweltering indoor temperatures, they were unfazed, leaning into the task at hand. It turned out that these South Americans knew what conditions needed to be met in order for ideas to germinate.
We learned that nearly 50 participants had travelled 18 hours by coach from Paraguay, having heard of the tremendous growth in those schools that had adopted Profound Learning strategies years earlier. These Christian educators had a vision for massive transformation in their country, and they rightly knew what Jorge Nishimura had committed to eleven years earlier: that effective education was the key to national transformation at every level. They understood that pedagogical models that incorporated biblical principles and faith in Christ brought about the fastest, highest level growth with the greatest satisfaction not only for teachers and students, but also for society at large. The image of God in man changes everything.
I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 4. Favouring parables, he told a story about the necessity of keeping our hearts receptive and ready for the Gospel so that it can multiply beyond what was sown. In Mark 4:3-8, he says,
“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
The seed, of course, is the Word of God, the good news regarding the way of salvation. Jesus goes on to explain in verses 15 - 20,
“Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
Brazil and Paraguay had already demonstrated that their soil was good soil, receptive to the Word of God, and they were producing bountiful crops in ministry, serving their communities in the most practical ways necessary. God was blessing the seeds sown.
From these established church and parachurch organizations, such as Universidade de Familia in Pompeia and the Mennonite Brethren Association in Asuncion, workers were turning their attention to education, where they were believing for massive transformation - crops that were “thirty, sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” I saw bright eyes, high energy, generous hospitality, exuberant networking, and participants who came an hour early, ahead of the morning training, just to continue to cultivate their work from the day before. These dedicated teachers and leaders were ready, and they would bear fruit, not just in their own classrooms, but in their communities and their countries.
Standing in that conference hall, surrounded by passionate educators from Brazil and Paraguay, I saw the harvest already beginning. Eleven years ago, Tom Rudmik arrived with a bag of seed, casting it in faith, not knowing exactly what would take root. Now, that same field was producing a new generation of leaders, teachers sowing into their students with vision, urgency, and hope. Not only was I privileged to witness it, but I left inspired and refreshed, despite the long days.
The thing about fertile soil is that it doesn’t just sustain life—it multiplies it. Seeds take root, grow, and bear fruit, and from that fruit, more seeds are scattered. This is how transformation happens—not overnight, but season by season, as faithful hands cultivate the ground and as God shines His light.
I left Brazil knowing one thing: the harvest is already here. And it is abundant.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man takes and sows in his land. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows, it becomes the largest of all plants. It becomes a tree, so that only birds come and make nests in its fields.” (from Mark 4)
“Learning at my School”
“To promote learning through significant experiences within the framework of Christian principles in order to achieve competencies for a better quality of life.”