“Pray to the Lord of the Harvest”
By Chrissy Wojcik
As I considered whether to share the depths of this with all of you or to just keep it between myself, the Lord, and a few others, it became clear to me that this one was to be shared with the masses to give all glory and honor to the Lord.
This is my testimony of Kicking Bear’s Unity Through Community Camp on March 17th, 2024 out at the Omni Center. By: Goose (aka. Chrissy)
One morning, waking in August of 2023, after having a discussion with a few people the day before about the needs of the many, carrying home the heaviness of how hopeless it all seemed… I woke up to the phrase “Pray to the Lord of the harvest.” And I immediately thought to myself… oh…duh… the solution-less problem was already given a solution; Matthew 9:35-38, emphasis on verse 38… “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;” … I’m going to pause right there to simply reflect on the fact that Jesus feels it too; he sees all the heartbreak, confusion, pain, and the deep hunger to fill emptiness, and he has a deep compassion over the plentiful lost; and he knows… when you feel the weight of the world, remember that he feels it just the same as you do, and even more deeply than you—he is the man of sorrows (Isaiah 52-53)… but then he goes on to say, in verse 38 of Matthew 9: “38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The Kicking Bear team has a text thread that we utilize nearly every day–sharing Bible passages, our thoughts on scriptures, devotionals, words of encouragement, prayers, etc., and I felt compelled in my spirit that we were to pray as a team earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send laborers into his harvest field after pondering on what was impressed upon me that morning… now, I’m not sure if I had that fully right; that might have simply been my personal assignment… but this text thread kept me mostly accountable to the “earnest” piece of that; so I filled the team in on what I felt the Lord was calling us into… and proceeded to send a prayer to the Lord of the harvest to the text thread nearly every day for about four months… ha… No one fessed up that this got old, but eventually, I missed a few days here and there and did peter out, and have since been either randomly writing a prayer down in my own notes or just simply praying in my heart to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest field… And the beauty is that in my weakness and short-comings, He was strong, and He is strong, and He remains faithful, even when we give him a weary yes that doesn’t follow through perfectly; he knows we are but dust, and he delights to works with that… it’s how he chose to create us…
Part of this earnesty of prayer was fulfilled in YOU on March 17th (and beyond)… I’m not sure that my assignment is complete in that prayer—I didn’t even realize I had been praying for all of you until Ray waltzed into the office one day in December and said “we’re taking over the Omni Center! All the churches, all the ministries, all the youth programs…”—because the harvest field is great upon the earth and there are many laborers still needing to be sent out all over the world… but the Lord is kind, and he produced over three times the amount of volunteers we had estimated to need for March 17th (we just saw that written on the white board the other day… we wrote down an estimated need of 40, and we received around 130…). Thank you… thank you for answering a call of being sent out into the harvest field in this way; I pray that the Lord increases his love over you and upon you, that he would open your eyes and ears and hearts in even greater measure toward who he is and to the things he is doing; that he would increase wisdom and strength upon the call he has for each of your lives–to himself and for his greater Kingdom work on this earth.
Then… when it came time to gather the harvest and about 2 weeks before Camp, there were only about 60 kids registered… I asked the Lord what his strategy was to gather the harvest to the Omni Center that day; “Lord, you’ve provided the laborers; what is your strategy to bring in the plentiful harvest?” I thought he’d give me some advice on promotional ideas… and all I kept sensing from him was “keep praying,” and that little strategies would come without me striving for them, but “Keep praying to me—the Lord of the harvest—I will bring the masses in, a plentiful harvest beyond imagination.” I specifically sensed that the pre-registration numbers weren’t going to mean anything at all to the actual count of the day… that the Lord was saying, “don’t pay attention to those numbers, I’m going to flood the harvest in.” So I didn’t really, and I just kept praying in faith and joy of what the Lord would do… and the Lord did as he said, once again… I was enamored, but not surprised. He is faithful and he does what he says he is going to do… There are so many little details beyond just these within what the Lord did; miracles that the whole team saw happen—the drawstring backpacks increasing to more than double what Kevin had initially counted; the registration going from around 300 kids to over double that (plus adults… still not sure on official numbers), but not so high to an increase beyond what Pizza Ranch could provide (they literally made all of the pizzas that they had dough for); and my favorite… the baptism water staying hot for 24 hours after Pastor Lynn and I filled it… I was convinced on Saturday that it would still be warm for baptisms on Sunday, and my beloved brother Kevin outright said, it would be a miracle if it did… well, it wasn’t just warm, it was a comfortable hot… God is the greatest dad, simply for doing that.
I share all of this because I really am not anything special in and of myself beyond any of you… I have never worked an office job or been trained in any administration; I had no idea how to operate an Xcel Spreadsheet, relying on my husband, my coworkers, and google to show me all the neat tricks in there, and I am still learning; I’m someone who is shamefully late most of the time (but I’ll always surprise you, once); and I’m easily distracted, so my organization only comes in waves of energy when I get excited about whatever it is that I’m doing… In all reverent truth, I was not the one who brought all of you volunteers together, nor was I the one who brought the massive crowd of people and children into that building… It was truly all the Lord and I simply partnered with what I felt he was calling me into, what I felt was his will; I served him and obeyed him, and prayed earnestly, receiving that which I asked for, knowing that I would receive what I asked because it was in accordance with his will (1 John 5:14-15). And all throughout the two months of preparing for the 17th, in my struggles with discouragement and sin, THE LORD graced me with forgiveness and the ability to simply hand it back to him in faith and say your will be done, whatever it looks like—and with that, he put all the right people in place who said yes to their personal assignments from him. That thing about the puzzle pieces I sent out earlier is true. And that doesn’t mean no one else could do this job at Kicking Bear… it means that no one else can do what you or I have been created and destined specifically by the Lord himself to do in such a time as this in his Kingdom on this earth; he wants you to do it; he wants me to do it; he created us in a way that we would do it exactly as he foresees it all fitting together—in whatever area we happen to be doing it; the little things matter—prayer matters; prayer is relationship; communing with the Lord matters; loving one another in deep brotherly love and communing in unity matters… and no one will get it right all of the time, but your heart posture is what he sees, what he wants—it is what matters. I encourage you all to partner with the Lord in all that you think or feel he’s asking of you; he is faithful to complete every good work he has started in you, and one day he will say “well done, my beloved.”
1 Corinthians 1:25-31 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” All the glory and honor to the Head–who is Jesus, for the humbling and joy-filling beauty of the fullness of his name… for now we see in a mirror dimly; but then, we will see face to face; then, we will know him fully… just as we have been fully known (1 Cor. 13: 12).
I’d like to end this in prayer, if you would partner with me: Thank you, Father for all that you are… thank you that the vastness of your Father heart is beyond our comprehension, but that you give us these small tastes that fill us up to overflowing every time you touch us with your love. Lord thank you that you know us… fully, beyond even our knowing of ourselves—that you see beyond the dust and the shame and you delight in your creation, eagerly stating, “that is good” when you look upon us, stumbling when we attempt to walk, but determining to keep getting up to run our race and one day win life in you, to know you fully, just as we are fully known. Thank you, Lord, that you are the promise keeper and that with our simple yes, you still do all the work so that we couldn’t possibly screw anything up on the whole of your plans and purposes or take any of the credit unto ourselves. Holy Spirit, thank you for working in us the fruits of your love, that we might be able to be the Body to the Body and grow up in love and unity toward Christ, the head, our covering and our Bridegroom; that you might work mysteriously through us, that children and people we meet would miraculously see—truly see—only Jesus when their physical eyes gaze upon the fruits of the Spirit that you clothe us in. Thank you, Lord for all that you did on March 17th in this region to unite the Body of Christ and all that you have continued to do since, and all that you will do beyond today; we are hungry and eager to partner with you in all that you have as One Church. One Christ. One Ministry. And One Thing that we seek and ask to have as an inheritance for eternity. Lord, you are beautiful… Maranatha-come Lord Jesus. Amen.
Check out this video from UTC Camp: https://youtu.be/Ay7rpSbMQv4?si=56mnvjQHlazGgLVI