The Harvest is Plenty

posted by Navigators on March 1st, 2021 in Community | Evangelism | Missions

By Paul Bailey, Ministry Apprentice, Monash University, Melbourne.

“Paul!” my new friend “C” called to me. “I can’t believe it! For three days, this kid has just been hanging around us. He has played some basketball and table tennis, but he is very cheeky. He won’t give his name or age, nor would he sit to have a proper conversation. He just hangs close enough to see that we are out doing activities, giving people free food, but then disappears for a while. When we try to talk to him, he gives very short answers and runs away. But just then, he came and sat next to me and asked who we are and what we are doing. The boy has never celebrated Christmas and has never heard of Jesus. I was able to share to him about Christmas and who Jesus is and what He did for us. Prayer really does work!”

“C” is a young medical student in his final year at Monash University whom I had the joy of meeting when I joined a short evangelism campaign in Box Hill for four days at the end of 2020. On the first day of meeting him, we shared a bit of our testimony and why we joined this campaign. One statement he said to me which I feel is eerily common among the evangelical community was this: “I’ve grown up in the church, but I have never tried evangelism or been equipped in sharing my faith with others.” (paraphrased). This immediately burdened my heart, but on the same note mightily encouraged me that he stepped out in faith to join this campaign. I said to him that day that, by God’s grace, I will make sure he gets to witness a full gospel conversation, not for my benefit, but for Christ’s sake and for “C” to get the learning experience.

Since then, I have kept in touch with “C” and spent some time with him. He will be spending most of this year on placement and will hardly be on campus. As the year progresses, would you pray that he and I can continue to find time to catch up.

It is students like “C”, who roam the university campus on a weekly basis, students who know Jesus but don’t know how to live for him daily or share him, students who are out there seeking for the truth, and students who may never hear this truth unless their classmate takes that leap of faith and shares the gospel and their faith to them — these are the students we at Monash Navigators are praying to reach during the first few weeks of Semester 1. This is the harvest field.