Around this time last year, my grandfather passed away. He was an absolutely incredible man of God. He was not always a man of God though. He struggled with addiction most of his life. When he was 60 years old, things changed. He prayed and asked Jesus to come into his life. He wanted an intimate relationship with God, not a surface level one. He had always gone to church, but was not living as a Christian. Immediately after praying, his addictions stopped. He went back to school so that he could learn to read the Bible. It didn’t take years for him to figure out his call. He knew immediately that he needed to be a missionary. He spent two weeks in Russia after financing his own trip, just him and a translator. He brought over 1,000 Russian soldiers to Christ. Throughout the rest of his life he would go to prisons to do ministry, he would talk about Jesus anywhere he went, he would pull his car over in an unsafe area, hop out of the car, and say “Do ya know Jesus?!” with an arm pump and enthusiastic voice. He certainly helped expand the Kingdom on earth. He was full of joy. Everybody knew him. He made countless friends and loved ones. All of this came after finding Christ and developing an intimate relationship with Him. My grandfather was a servant at its finest and someone I aspire to be like.
When I decided to come on the World Race, my grandfather was entering his final weeks of life on Earth. He was lying in the hospital bed and I said “Papaw, I’m going to be a missionary.” He had barely said anything all day. He was weak, but he turned his head and said “Amazing! Go get the Harvest!” And in traditional fashion, he did his arm pump as well. That’s about all he could get out, but I will never forget those words, and they have come to mean so much to me.
This month we are living in a small town with a Pastor. His church is on the outskirts of town, in the farming area. It takes about thirty minutes to get to and there is not much around. The church is predominately children, and they are trying to expand to more locals in that area. Yesterday, after we taught at one of the schools, we went to the church to pray. The pastor and the man who live there asked us what we think about the location of the church. What our initial impressions were that it is on farmland, and not close to where the majority of the older members live. There are so many people here, but they are all Buddhist. It becomes tiring sometimes for the Pastor in terms of growing the church. He pours out so much into the community, showing love, spreading the word, but people are just not showing up, not giving their lives to Christ. He often doesn’t get help for outreach. Finances are also difficult for him. But he doesn’t stop. He is a warrior, a fighter. As we are all sitting in the church, and look outside at a farmer harvesting his crops in the field, a few scripture versus came to mind:
“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up” Galatians 6:9
“He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields” Matthew 9:37
Through the tough times, he doesn’t give up. He keeps his eyes on Jesus. YWAM sends him teams of missionaries to come and reach out to the schools. He is one man, in this huge field. He sees how plentiful Thailand is, and he is planting seeds, aware of the great harvest that will come. We pray that more hands come to help him, that financial burdens be lifted, that he continues to have strength, enthusiasm and endurance to keep doing God’s work here in an area that definitely needs Light.
I’ve been blessed this race with working with some strong men of God. Ando Sensei, Alex Rocha, Pastor Pairot to name a few. These men have such servant hearts. They have given up much in worldly terms. They have encountered many setbacks and hard times. They press on. They do God’s work. They reach out to their communities and beyond. They reach out to the children. They exude love. They are wonderful family men. It has been absolutely incredible to see and I feel so blessed to be able to witness what God is doing across the nations.
