The congregation where I have been worshipping for the past almost two years, recently celebrated its 4th birthday.
This was exciting - looking back and realising that as with everything else, it started small. There are only a handful of the congregation who were founding members - our Senior Pastor and his wife and family being, of course, amongst these.
For some time we have been lightly touching on the subject of outreaches to our local community... but that is where it stopped.
Then week before last at the prayer meeting, God spoke through a question our Pastor put to us : "Why did Jesus make disciples and train them for three years?" Each of us had to reply for himself. Well, even the songs we sang that evening turned out to be about sharing, praying, telling, going.... and then two sisters had the same Word from the Lord about going out to Jerusalem, Judea, Cesarea, and unto the ends of the earth to preach the Word of the Lord and to make disciples... and a brother had a vision whilst we were singing about a land ploughed and ready, with big bags of seed standing opened and ready, a man standing at the water pump ready to open up the streams of water BUT NO ONE TO SOW THE SEEDS.... We believe it was Almighty God who spoke to us directly during that prayer meeting.
It was immediately decided that on Sunday at the morning service, Pastor would announce that we are starting our evangelism strategy from the assembly and having our first meeting on Monday evening. We were 14 in total at the meeting (out of a total of approx. 300) and TO-NIGHT we are flooding our local community surrounding the church with pamphlets, tracts and soaking the area in prayer.
It is a beginning... and I do not see an end to this outreach... I know that it is God's will and we shall go forth and grow and grow and grow..... we cannot harvest if we do not sow.
We are also starting a feeding scheme at a local Government Training Hospital on 7 August - just providing sandwiches to the people waiting in queues for hours at out-patients.... and dealing and praying with them...
We are already involved in a Saturday afternoon prayer meeting in the chapel of this same hospital where we intercede for the patients, doctors, nurses, technical-, catering-, cleaning-, security- staff and where we have services in the said chapel every Sunday morning for patients. Once you get involved and see the suffering in the hospitals, you will not be able to stop reaching out to one and all of them;
and we already are thinking about a prison fellowship outreach as well...
God's timing is always perfect...
Will you not also look around for a field that has been ploughed and it waiting on the sower to sow the seeds? May the Lord lead you to do just that because time really is running out and there are millions out there starving physically and spiritually, just waiting for YOU (and me) to get up in the Name of our Saviour and get going...
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to
Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore[a] and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.[b] Matt. 28: 18-20
Thank You, Lord, that this Word, which You spoke to Your disciples 2000 years ago, still holds good for us today. Thank You that You are also still with us, as You were with them, UNTIL the end of the age, where we are now. Bless your Word and Your work wherever and by whoever it be done, in the Name above all Names, Jesus Christ, the Lord.
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