3 New Workers : Jacques Groenewald
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. Luke 10:1-4
We here in the London International Christian Church have been praying constantly that God would use us as workers to be effective in preaching his word. The Lord has gracefully continued to answer our prayer and this week and on Wednesday 13th two sisters, Megan and Trista, from Toronto flew in to join us and witness on their arrival the baptism of our newest member Kim. And so in one day our loving family was boosted by 3 new members.
We feel so blessed to have with us Megan and Trista. They truly are heroic disciples who were able to survive alone as young disciples in a city far from other churches. Even in a situation like that they never stopped sharing and studying the bible with many people and are great examples to anyone who would be a disciple. One of the things that most inspires me about these 2 sisters is that when it was needed they were ready to move half-way around the world and give up everything to preach the word to the lost.
What was greatly exciting for Megan and Trista was that on the day they arrived we baptized into God’s Kingdom our fired up young sister Kim. Kim showed up to church one day after reading about us on our website www.londonchurch.org.uk. It became obvious to us that she had a great heart and was genuinely seeking God. My wife Jeanette and the sisters were fired up to study the bible with Kim and were very impressed by the character she has shown in making some tough decisions to become a disciple. Kim has recently decided not to move back to her home in the Netherlands and to stay here in London for the foreseeable future.
In the passage above Jesus is sending out his disciples to preach. First he says that the workload of preachers are too much and that the number of lost people far outweighs them. Then we see Jesus’ desire for more people to hear the good news and commands the disciples to pray that God would send out more workers! This was Jesus’ vision for a lost world: That his word would be taught by one person who would then go and do the same and teach others. Interestingly though he gives the men this commission he then gives them a new message: you are the workers that God provided, now go and reap the harvest!
The challenge that was given in those days is exactly the same for us today. We have no time to waste and there is no harvest too little. The challenge is twofold: 1. We have to pray that more and and more people become disciples to reach a lost world but also 2. that we can can go out and be those workers whom God uses!
