The Harvest

Our church has a garden. 

"Garden" is probably not the best word for it. It's bigger than the average garden. 

Every Thursday evening, a group of people from our church heads out to the garden. Those people planted. They've watered. They've weeded. And now it's been lots and lots of harvesting.

I haven't been out there much -- only twice. But it's magical. I don't come from a background of green thumbs, so it's neat to see how all of these vegetables and herbs grow. 

It's also a good place for some "quiet think time" while gathering ripe vegetables. 

My first time out there was over a month ago. I had heard about the garden all summer, but I hadn't experienced it. I heard about the tilling, the planting, the weeding. It was hard work, and I showed up for the harvest. I popped in and discovered the harvest was overflowing. Buckets were filled with cucumbers and so much more.

My first night in the garden reminded me of my entire year in Eastern Europe. My life was moment after moment of harvesting where I did not plant. God had done so much work beforehand, and I showed up for the harvest.

In John 4:35-38, Jesus says, "You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, 'One plants and another harvests.' And it's true. I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant; others had already done the work, and now you get to gather the harvest."

Our team showed up in city after city, and saw that God had prepared university students to boldly share the good news of Jesus with their classmates. It was incredible. We saw so much happen in the year, and I can easily say, that I harvested where I didn't plant. The fields are already ripe for harvest. People long to know Jesus. People long to know how to tell others about Jesus. Someone just needs to harvest. 

It's a blessing of a job really, but harvesting can be a challenge. Sometimes it involves more maneuvering and effort than originally anticipated. Last week, we were gathering the ripe tomatoes, and the majority of the cages I approached looked like this one:

All of the ripe tomatoes seemed to be in the middle of the cage near the ground. After dancing around the cages and vines between, the arm had to strategically choose a route to the few ripe tomatoes. It was more difficult than I imagined when I was invited to pick tomatoes, but the boxes and boxes of beautiful tomatoes were worth it. 

They were worth the pesky, distracting mosquitoes.

They were worth the bug bites.

They were worth the mild car sickness.

They were worth that and so much more.

And seeing God work in Eastern Europe was worth it.

It was worth the homesickness.

It was worth the constant confusion in language.

It was also worth the constant confusion in location.

It was worth each moment of sickness and sleep deprivation.

Seeing God work in Eastern Europe was worth every little sacrifice and so much more.

It was a season of harvest. It still is.

In Matthew 9:37-38, "[Jesus] 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."

So that's what I'm going to do. I know God has so much more work to accomplish throughout the world, and I am going to ask him to send people to the world.

What will you do? Will you pray too? Will you pray and consider going?