“…But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.” John 4:35b NLT

Sometimes I feel as if we are in a race against time. Or perhaps, a race towards time? This has been a season for us of unprecedented opportunities to pour into the lives of the next generation of harvest workers. Young people from many countries, hungry for God and pushing forward to be released into the fields of the world. Harvest fields so ripe for harvest, we must hurry, running forward with our baskets to take it in so that no stalk full of grain should fall to the ground unharvested. I have a vision of workers, running fast as they can to these fields, baskets in arms. Not perfect, not professional. But ready. Oh, so ready. We must not hold them back, either by our fear for them, nor by unbelief.

Go they must, the Master is calling. It is our job, to run as fast as we can beside them for as long as we can, speaking words of encouragement, comfort, and instruction. Holding doors open for them so that they do not have to drop those baskets. Those precious baskets which are their faith and their callings.

We teach them. Pour into them. Pray for them. Release them. And then, God help us. Go with them. Just as our elders went with us so many years ago, running beside us, encouraging us, and holding open as many doors as they could so that not one stalk of grain should fall to the ground.

I see these young people running, their paths crisscrossing all over the globe. Singaporeans to Indonesia. Chinese to Myanmar. Americans to Israel, Thailand and the Middle East. Thais to Laos. Filipinos to Thailand. Crisscrossing borders and barriers, just as the first disciples did. Often not adept at the language of the people they go to, but fully relying on the Holy Spirit Who breaks down every barrier.

This is a time we have longed for many years. Multiplying ourselves into another generation. Downloading all the love, wisdom, passion, and purpose that God has put into us. It is our hearts desire that these young ones will go further, reach more, be stronger, and do far more than we had ever dreamed to do. Spiritual parenting we call it. A parent is not in competition with his children, but does everything in his life’s power to give to and pour into his children, so that they are better off, and more successful than that parent had ever dreamed for himself. This is love. A God kind of love which does not seek to benefit from those whom we raise.

Your prayers and gifts have upheld us through the years and into this season of multiplication. This harvest is YOUR harvest as well. You are being blessed with fruit that will remain. Your love, prayers, and gifts are reaching the farthest corners and changing lives. Your blessing is real.

~ Debbie Ecker