Fields ripe unto the Harvest

Su Wei, I believe that all fields are ripe for harvesting, but in some the harvest is very small. My grandfather used to say, "You can't win everyone to Christ, but you can always win someone." I have found that to be true even here in Japan, where after 140 years of Protestant missions, less than one per cent claim to be Christian, and only half of those are evangelical. Knowing how hard the Japanese hearts are, my grandfather tried to get me to stay in the States, but God had called me so I came.

I had a very hard time with the scarcity of the Japanese harvest when we moved to Yokohama 23 years ago to start our first church. The gap between my vision and the reality of my ministry was huge. Few made professions of faith, and of those who did few followed on to grow in grace. Then I found this passage, and it was a great help: "And he (Jesus) did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matt. 13:58).

So, there was a place where even Jesus had difficulty, humanly speaking, filled with the Holy Spirit and the Son of God that He was. Likewise, I have found that, contrary to the image people have of them, the Japanese are not very spiritually minded, but are a very practical people. They will say this about themselves, using the phrase shinko ga usui, meaning "Our faith is thin."

It is difficult to work in a field like this, and when we go on furlough it can be hard to listen to the missionaries from more fruitful fields talk about what God has done there, but that is okay. God called me here and this is where I will stay as long as He wants me to. He wants me here for a witness to His glory, and like my grandfather said there is always someone who will trust Christ--and we love the precious but few believers in our church. :love2:

 

Amen Amen Amen!

A faithful brother is an awsome thing.

 

IMNSHO, the ripest field for harvest is amongst the deaf. There are an abundance of opportunities for outreach but not many are going. Right now there is an open door to otherwise closed countries for folks to go and teach American Sign Language and start a ministry to the deaf.