Harvest!

Submitted by Kaelly, December 6th

When working for an entire month in Thailand, you have more opportunity to see more progress in one’s faith journey. We were able to have a glimpse into the importance of long term missions. At the Santisuk English School, the short termers come alongside the long termers to create a long term impact. When you come for a month at a time you see people at varying places in their faith journeys. You have people that have never even heard of Jesus. You have others that have heard of Christianity once or twice but do not really know what it is all about. You also have students that are asking many great and challenging questions. Others have showed interest in the Christian life and are attending the worship service and cell group. This was the case for one of my students, T. In fact, she was in Bekka and Jesse’s cell group prior to our arrival. T shared with me that she prays and reads His word every day. One might think she was a believer, but she had not fully devoted her life to Christ yet. She knew so much about the Bible but was not ready to commit. Shortly after arriving in Japan, we got word that she had fully committed her life to Christ. We rejoice because we now have another sister in Christ! As a result of this experience at Santisuk, we have been able to see the stages of planting, watering, and harvesting. Each stage is exciting and beautiful to see!

Through this situation I learned so much. I have witnessed that becoming a Christian in a primarily Buddhist country seems to be a much larger issue to weigh, due to the risks. This is something to be sensitive too when thinking about global missions. When they devote their lives to Christ, they are fully committing—there are no half way decisions or half heartily living for Christ. Personally, I have been reminded that living for Christ should not be taken lightly. I have been challenged to ask myself, “Are you really living fully devoted to Christ?”