“And he said unto them, The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth laborers into his harvest.” Luke 10:2 ASV
1989 was a very turbulent year for this lovely planet. ‘People Power’ revolutions erupted all over the world. The Iron Curtain crumbled, and old systems failed. In Beijing, one such eruption drew open force. The Tiananmen Square Massacre is now in our children’s history books, along with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
We were in Hong Kong right after that massacre, as a group of intrepid souls who hand carried scores of Chinese Bibles across borders to multitudes who were waiting there. After months of this arduous work, we headed to Thailand at the Lord’s bidding.
We took a bus bound for upcountry to Chiang Mai. In 1989, Chiang Mai was a quiet little city. People could easily get around on bicycles, and elephants wandered occasionally in the streets, along with buffalos and chickens.
We had little money, so we slept on the floor inside the church building. At the Lord’s bidding, we decided to fast and pray for 3 days, eating only a small meal at night. Our daytimes were filled with prayer walking this small city/town. It was the dry season, so the roads were quite dusty, the pavement often broken. Ancient wats (temples) were all over the city, and in the mountains on the clear day one could see the shining stupas of the monasteries.
Dan and I walked the length and breadth of that city and prayed. We called out to God, the Lord of the Harvest, to send workers. We prayed at the 4 gates of the old city, North, South, East, and West.
“Lord! Send Your workers to this harvest field! Send them, Lord from the 4 corners of the globe. Send them to this country, to this city so that Your kingdom can be established here, and so that the love of God in Jesus Christ can be known here. Send them, Lord! Send them!”
10 years later, we would be the answer to our own prayers. In 1999 we moved as a family to serve the cause of Christ in the city of Chiang Mai. Literally hundreds of families from all over the world had moved to Chiang Mai to serve the Lord. The city was flooded with missionaries of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and denominations!
Beloved. The nations are in turmoil. It is a time to pray. It is time to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that He would send workers into the ripening fields to bring in His harvest. The world is waiting.
~ Debbie Ecker
