who are the sunset harvest workers? God is calling

This post continues with the previous two on the urgent and intense call to work on the sunset harvest field. Who are the qualified workers? When I ponder this question I become amazed at the large number of available workers who are qualified and willing. Yes, you will be amazed too. In the following I am using one particular task-related area of ministry as an illustration to show how you may become one of the called workers.

In my list of qualifications you would have read how much you already have. I am talking to an ordinary man and woman who are not totally cut off from modern civilization. A user of mobile phone. An ordinary Christian who has been attending church regularly and receiving Bible teaching as part of their normal lives. A middle age adult who is pondering his or her own retirement life and asking the Lord for direction. A believer of Jesus who is touched by His love and is willing to demonstrate the same to others (either pre-believers/seekers or new believers).

Knowing how to use a mobile phone to access the vast storehouse of Christian resources online is now universal among believers in the developed nations. In the developing nations the Christians are catching up on this but are somewhat hindered by language barrier. The resources need to be first translated into their respective national language to be accessible and understood by the nationals. Many still do not know or use the English language fluently. Many find the accent and the speed of English speaking difficult to follow or grasp.

If you already have the knowledge of how to use a mobile phone to access the internet, and knowledge of the Bible and the love of God has compelled you, and you want to demonstrate God’s love to your neighbor, all you have to do is to learn the foreign language you are led in your spirit to know and minister in. Learn enough to communicate verbally about God and the Bible. Learn mobile phone terminologies. Practice on your own mobile phone, switching to the foreign language and use it for all functions! Have the foreign language Christian audio Bible and multimedia Christian resources installed. When you are comfortable being a user, you are all set.

The next step is to pray and ask the Lord to bring you to such a neighbor, probably an elderly person sitting in a corner near the door in the worship hall, an old person sitting in the park bench, or anywhere in a public area- mobile phone service center, internet provider center, retail outlet, shopping mall, public library, place where the older people are left for daycare- usually an older person who is alone and looks alone. The Lord will let you know. In my most recent case, twice (in separate occasions and separate places) an elderly person (a woman and a man respectively) approached me to help teach them to use the mobile phone for internet. Then they shared about their seeker’s life or new Christian life. They asked questions about the practical aspects of the Bible. They showed their hunger for God and the abundant life Jesus has promised to His flock/sheep. They showed their longing for friendship in fellowship with other Christians. They showed their conviction and faith in this God whom they believed is the true God. They gave their own conversion testimonies eagerly. They voiced what they expected from church.

You would not be mistaken. You can see how their eyes sparkle at the mention of the name of Jesus. You can see hope rising in them. Your reward: right in front of you. You see the love of God rising in you and in that person who receives it too. Just be available and you shall be rewarded in ways beyond you can ever think of or imagine.

Me too. After my sharing with the new Christian man under the hot sun for a few hours I went home. I felt the heat and discomfort. So I drank lots of water, had a shower, and rested. The next day I woke to find that a long standing physical issue I had vanished totally. I was amazed. But our God is the amazing and awesome God. The verse that I gave to that brother from Matthew 6:33 became mine too! I was healed while I shared healing with the brother in need.

1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

how to qualify for the sunset harvest: God is calling

Because God is calling urgently and intensely and has spoken so clearly twice (through a man and woman both hungering for God) as I personally encounter within two months in two different countries for sunset harvest laborers for one specific people group (the elderly: 60-80s) whom He is now saving, nurturing and discipling, I have compiled a list on the qualifications required to be part of this Great Commission. The target remnant group lives in the cities and urban towns, usually alone and separate from relatives and friends. Some live with their family but have difficulty of interacting with the younger generations who have pre-occupation with their own lives. Some are seekers of God. Some are new believers or believers who have not been discipled. Often the willingness to know God deeper and wider is in their heart. They yearn for God and His way for an abundant life.

The List is not exhaustive and may be used as a first draft. You will note that this list is not the usual traditional church list for ministry to the elderly. I pray that we all think out of our boxes and do the great paradigm shift. I pray we become the neighbors who can slow down our pace, pause, and stop for at least one whom God is determined to save, help, give an abundant life and demonstrate His love through a willing heart.

THE QUALIFICATION FOR DEEPER MINISTRY TO THE LOST REMNANT GROUP: THE SUNSET HARVEST

1. Be willing to go to them. Because many cannot come to church due to physical reasons.
2. Be available in terms of time. They need plenty of time during the ministering. because they cannot remember as we normally do. They need lots of repetitions.
3. Be aware that this ministry is a one to one ministry. The target is an elderly woman or an old man.
4. Be filled with the Spirit of God. Because God is love. This ministry is a ministry of love above all.
5. Be savvy in modern technology. Because their current one need is love. They usually live alone and have limited access to transport or other relatives. They sit in the house whole day and want to know God and what God is saying to them. They are tired of the secular TV. They want a different message. A different and genuine love, joy and peace which they have heard that our God can give. They have been exposed through the multimedia to a better and easier way to learn about God and how ti live the Christian abundant lives that Jesus has promised and they want more. They want to learn the new way to access more information and perhaps even join in and participate by watching and listening how others worship and praise God or pray.
6. Because of the difficulty and cost to learn and use a personal computer they prefer learn to use mobile phone to access the internet.
7. You need to be conversant in their native language. Many cannot use English. If you happen to be near a Chinese community you need to use Chinese language, spoken and written, at least enough to read and explain the terminologies of a mobile phone. You need to use their language to explain and demonstrate how to access the various basic internet functions.
8. Because they cannot type, you need to help them to install the Applications they need: audio Bible, Christian channel for audio and video watching, Christian songs. Most of them can read. But typing is a bit difficult as they do not know how to use PinYin which requires using Romanized (English alphabets and sounds) typing. Some do not have steady fingers and cannot use the writing mode as an alternative.
9. You also need to show them how to delete, uninstall, remove cluttering of unwanted stuff from their phones. Teach them the setting. Teach them where to look at their internet usage. And there are many more little useful details which they can learn to maintain their little useful technological window to the Christian world and have the virtual mobility they want and need to learn God’s way.
10. You need to know the Bible and are always ready to answer questions about the Bible on God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Bible verses

Luk 10:37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Goand do likewise.”

Luk 14:21 “So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’

Luk 14:23 “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

Luk 15:4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

Rev 7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

Rev 19:1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!

Rev 19:6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!

the sunset harvest: God is calling for workers

The older we get the sooner we find our time vanishes. Lately I am led to think of one people group who have come to almost the end of their life’s journey, the elderly remnants. In the last two years I have come across quite a number of these new Asian believers in their 60s, 70s and 80s. There is something in common between them. Here is a list: single (widowed/abandoned/separated) and living alone, mostly left aside by children and other close relatives, attending church but still seeking love (and joy). In my latest encounters I met two elderly persons, separately, in two different countries, both hungering for God’s love.

In a woman’s case, her husband left her many years ago and she is now living with her daughter and son in law. She received the audio Bible I gave her with thanks and displays genuine desire to listen and follow by reading the printed Bible as well so she can remember better. She told me. She started to attend a Christian woman’s weekly Bible study fellowship.

In the man’s case, he became a Christian two years ago and has been to a number of churches looking for joy in the Spirit. He hungers for God and watches Christian TV channel to learn about God. He reads the Bible too and prays in the Spirit. he longs for Christians to become friend with him. After sharing, he agreed to go back to his first church where he was baptized and join a cell group near his house.

The amazing thing of these two incidents is that both of them came to me first to ask me how to operate their smartphone to access the internet. The woman is a new acquaintance through her family and the man is a complete stranger whom I met in an internet provider’s retail and customer service store. The woman wanted to know how to share a youtube New Year greeting program with her friends. The man wanted to know how to access a Christian TV online channel and download its Application to his mobile phone.

They have both expressed one reason why they had not learned to use the mobile phone to access the internet: So far they had not met anybody with the unhurried time to teach them as most people are themselves pre-occupied with their own busy schedules in lives. Both have been happy after our sharing of the Bible as well as learning of new technology of communication. In the end the sharing of the new technology became secondary. They learned more about God and how to read His words and pray. I also teach them how to believe in God’s words on healing and pray for their own illness. All these are new to them.

As I have written before, the number of the saved multitudes include people groups not so much based on race or geographical/political country or tribe. But more on social classifications. The sudden appearance of these older persons hungering for God and His love reminds and confirms to me of the often neglected need of some people groups. Ageism and utilitarian mentality in some societies hamper the Gospel being spread among this group. But God is saving them and making sure they are not left behind. I can see that this need has been brought to the forefront and increased in its intensity. The silent outcry is being heard now. God has answered. I pray that God sends more laborers to this field that is ripe for harvest, just as Jesus has said. “The harvest is plenty, and the workers are few.”

Please slow down your steps and stop for this one.

Bible verses:

Psalm 71:9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.

Psalm 92:14 They shall still bear fruit in old age;  They shall be fresh and flourishing,

Isaiah 46:4 Even to your old age, I am He,
And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you.