Each year our ministry in Cambodia trains thousands of pastors and church leaders. These church leaders are able to start hundreds of new churches every year. They start these new churches among people who were formerly non-Christian. A few years ago, we started the same kind of ministry in the southern Philippines with similar results. Each year we get questions from pastors and other church leaders requesting to visit the ministry and learn from what we are doing.
So, in March 2010 we planned to invite key leaders which we felt were ripe to see similar results in their ministry to come and see for their self the work in Cambodia. We expect that God will be speaking to them and show them how they can multiply their ministry. In the end, three leaders were not able to attend due to lack of confirmed seats on the flight and passport problems. However, leaders from Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Nepal were able to attend. The leader from rural Nepal was the farthest to attend. Though it is only 2,000 miles from his house to mine (as the crow flies) he had to drive 8 hours through the Himalayas, fly to India, overnight in the airport, fly to Bangkok, sleep in the airport there, and into Cambodia. After 4 days of traveling he was exhausted when he finally arrived.
Jesus said, “35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:35-38).
The harvest is ready!
For many years, we just prayed, as Jesus suggested for more workers. We saw minimal results. However, soon God spoke to the leaders here about his harvest. Many times in the scriptures, there are comparisons of the Kingdom of God to the harvest. Paul said, “6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6). In Cambodia we had a great harvest before us, and still do, but lacked harvesters. The solution: raise up more harvesters. Previously we trained up a few key leaders to be harvesters and we saw significant, yet minimal fruit in terms of souls saved and churches planted. Now, we train hundreds of harvesters each year and we have seen thousands of souls come to Christ and hundreds of churches planted every year. We praise God that he taught us how to sow generously.
It is a privilege to us to host many leaders from around the world, as our guests, to share with them about how they multiply their ministry. Not, for our sake, or even their own groups growth, but for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
