SLAVIC GOSPEL ASSOCIATION

Innercircle Perspective

Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor” (John 4:35-38).

When each month it is my joy to write this column, my heart goes immediately to all of you who serve so faithfully in this Gospel partnership. It is incredibly amazing how the Lord has brought us all together for the sake of the Gospel and for the sake of His Name, the Name of our matchless, wonderful Savior, Lord and King, Jesus Christ.

In this passage He emphasizes that the spiritual harvesting of precious souls for His Kingdom involves partnerships in the Gospel. He tells us that some are sowers and some are reapers. In the complexities of our time, reaching and discipling the people of other nations having different languages and cultures also requires additional partners in the Gospel process. It requires a great network of faithful prayer warriors to undergird and support the training, equipping and deployment of the sowers and reapers. Without all our precious partners who are reading this, we would not be advancing His Kingdom in the lands of Russia. But with your vital help, great things are happening all across the former Soviet Union and even in once totally atheistic Albania.

This past summer, your faithful prayers and support helped make possible a Gospel Expedition of epic proportion. Thirty young Russian men and their leader, a 50-year-old grandfather — himself the father of ten children — teamed up to take the Gospel on bicycles from Verel, Germany, to Vladivostok, Russia, a nine-time-zone journey of 9,120 miles in 113 days. Imagine . . . they pedaled an average of 81 miles per day. Their best day covered 196 miles, their slowest day on Siberian gravel was only 60 miles.

Yet most importantly, they preached the Gospel every day, everywhere they went. Across Germany, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and then vast Russia. They held 130 preaching services, most of them in the open air. In their words, “dozens of thousands” heard the Gospel. More than 100,000 received Bibles and New Testaments that SGA partners had provided. The young evangelists were the sowers that you sponsored.

You prayed for them and God answered gloriously. None of the cycling evangelists were taken ill, none of them were injured, and there were no road incidents. God kept His hand firmly upon His faithful servants day and night no matter the weather or the harshness of the surroundings. Everywhere they went they partnered with local churches who are now doing the follow-up work. They are the reapers.

The faithful church planting missionaries that SGA partners are sponsoring are often both the sowers and the reapers in their communities. The teachers in the seminaries and Bible institutes are preparing the next generation of sowers and reapers in their nations.

Those who are reaching prisoners, drug addicts, orphans and homeless children, as well as the children and youth from unchurched families — they are all sowers and reapers. It is your support that is equipping and encouraging them all for the work of the Gospel. And through the fruit that God is granting to them, your prayers are being answered.

This is your ministry as much as it ours here at SGA. Through God’s marvelous providence He has brought us all together for such a time as this. He has brought us all together, individuals, churches, and foundations . . . for the sake of His name . . . as partners in His glorious Gospel. We are eternally indebted to Him and deeply grateful to you for the blessed ministries that we share.